Snuggly tucked behind a hedge, live 20 young apple trees. This Chelmsford City Parks project, led by our head ranger, aims to create a welcoming community area where locals can sit and maybe read a book and/or get involved and connect through conservation volunteering, and even have the chance to take some apples home!

The hope is that local schools can make also use of the area for educational visits by getting outdoors, seeing seasonal changes, and learning how to support nature.

Not only will the orchard be great for schools and local people, but the Community Orchard will also be a fantastic habitat to enable nature to find a Space to Thrive. Read on to find out how the project has been developing, what’s in the orchard and what’s happening next…

How the project started

Saltcoats Park, located just off a salt marsh estuary, has a micro-climate which tends to be windier than the rest of Chelmsford. This means establishing some species of tree in more open areas can be challenging. The location of the orchard is protected from most of the wind by a few buildings, and an established hedge. The hedge in itself is a great support to wildlife: providing shelter, a home to insects and possibly even some ground nesting birds.

Through the autumn and winter of 2024/25 parks conservation volunteers helped to prepare the ground for the start of the tree planting season. The volunteers had to contend with harder than expected soil conditions and removal of some older buried and broken hard surfaces. Holes were dug and the already growing trees were planted. Support stands and water bags were attached to the trees during the summer season while these tender young trees become more established. The conservation volunteers returned several times during the year and will continue to return to check and maintain the area.

The Trees

Twenty traditional apple trees were planted, consisting of four apple varieties which were chosen for their different fruiting times.

  • Bramley is a cooking apple, typically producing fruit November to February
  • Elstar are a dessert apple, fruiting from late September to October, they are good for sauces and cooking.
  • Jonagold can be a cooking apple, but is better known as a cider apple, fruiting from mid-October to early February.
  • Discovery is a dessert apple that is sweet with hints of strawberry flavour. It produces fruits from August to September.

Once the trees bear fruit, visitors might want to take a few fresh apples home with them!. The BBC’s ‘GoodFood’ has some great apple recipes you might want to try: Apple recipes | Good Food

The Meadow

To complement the orchard habitat, both ornamental and native species rich wildflowers and longer grass areas have been seeded. These were planted by volunteers. Including volunteers from local primary school Trinity St Marys who have also kindly visited on a school workshop to add more wildflower plugs to this mix and will be returning next year to continue their great work.

The wildflower seed mix consisted of:

Lobularia maritima (sweet alyssum), Convolvulus tricolour (dwarf morning glory), Centaurea cyanus (cornflower), Eschscholzia californica (california poppy), Clarkia amoena (farewell to spring), Malcolmia maritima (virgina stocks), Linum usitatissimum (flax), Nigella damascena (love-in-a-mist), Tagetes lemmonii (mexican marigol), Iberis semperviren (candy tuft), Lobelia mix, Nemophhila menziesii (baby blue eyes) and Phlox drummondii.

The wildflower plugs consisted of:

Veronic chamaedrys (Birdseye speedwell), Primula veris (cowslip), Cardamine pratensis (cuckooflower), Knautia arvensis (field scabious), Clinopodium vulgare (wild basil), Lathyrus nissolia (grass vetchling), Dacus carota (wild carrot), Silene vulgaris, Galium verum (ladys bedstraw), Hieracium pilosella (mouseear hawkweed), Thymus polytrichus (wild thyme), Trifolium pratense (wild red clover), Fragaria vesca (wild strawberry).

Next steps

A bug hotel was installed in November 2025. Parks Conservation Volunteers and local Schools will continue to develop the meadow, pick apples, and carry out habitat surveys. Plus, there is potential for the addition of a small pond.

 

How you can join in!

If all this caught your interest and you want to find out more on how you might join this or any of our conservation projects. You can contact us via our volunteering pages here

If you’re a local school or youth group who wants to join us for a free workshop, see our school volunteer page here

Find more information and directions to Saltcoats park here