Where have all the orchards gone?

To Kent, apparently.

We know that Kent is known as the Garden of England and we know that it’s a big fruit-growing county, but we were somewhat surprised - pleasantly so, or course - by the sight of orchards on every road and around every corner, at least in the part of Kent (near Paddock Wood) we were in last week. We’ve lamented in the past (please read our blog about Winchcombe’s “e” and its lost orchards, 11th April, 2019) about the demise of orchards, and it may be that Kent has lost a fair few as well, but this seemed to be a stark reminder of the scale of decline that Gloucestershire has suffered in the past 30 to 40 years.

Some might think it a bit sad or strange, but we like apple trees and orchards. The sight of a healthy, well-maintained orchard puts a smile on our face and a spring in our step, for all sorts of reasons; planting a fruit tree is a commitment to the land, it’s a commitment to biodiversity, there is usually a bit of tradition and some history involved, the motivation is generally benevolent and not only about making money.

There is a lot to admire about these Kentish orchards. They’re well looked after for a start: how pleasing to see people at work in orchards, caring for and pruning the carefully sculptured trees. We loved the variety; some very large, with hundreds, even thousands, of trees, but many others much smaller and intimate, almost back gardens put to productive use; some with free-standing trees, some espaliered low to the ground, others espaliered tall, as though keeping alive that other Kentish tradition of hop-growing, but all designed for fruit to be picked by hand for eating. Commercial orchards, clearly, but still creating the impression of a verdant, vibrant landscape (but not without some problems, judging by the amount of fruit lying on the ground in one or two places). Overall, lovely.

And very different - not better, not worse, just different - to the orchards we are familiar with in the West Country; commercial orchards with larger cider-apple trees, generally mechanically harvested for cider (and there’s nothing wrong with that), or smaller traditional orchards with gnarly, big, old trees, a legacy of bygone agricultural habits. And that’s the sort of orchard we’ve planted in Kent - fruit trees planted in low densities on vigorous rootstocks within permanent grassland, which will be managed in a low intensity way (which is pretty much the definition of a traditional orchard). It may be just another orchard in Kent but it adds something a little bit different in style as well as content, as we made sure by introducing some good, proper, traditional West Country varieties into the heart of Kent.

We're not quite sure why Kent has managed to keep its orchards whilst they've disappeared in Gloucestershire, but we'll doubly redouble our efforts to conserve what's left and resurrect what's missing. In practical terms, that work continues with the planting of a new orchard of 250 trees near Stow-on-the-Wold in early January. Is there a better way to begin a new year?

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