Sherborne's Fat and Juicy Plums

Readers will remember that the Sherborne Brook Support Group have an allotment at the East end of the village. Primarily this was taken on to grow our oak saplings as part of the Ancestor Oak project. Back in February we lifted most of the oaks, trimmed the tap roots and replanted with a view to final planting out this coming winter (or the winter after for the laggards). I’m pleased to say that most have got through the drought with some care from the angels who occasionally watered them (and the choice of a good position meaning they weren't cooked by the sun). In the end we are fortunate we didn’t plant them out in final positions earlier this year and I think it reinforces the view that we will need to have easy access to them to care for them going forward , as well as enjoy them from a distance. I’ll be nagging more residents to consider finding appropriate space to plant out 19 of these oaks, at least, in final positions this winter, in memory of each of the names on the village War Memorial. Lest we forget.

Anyways that aside, one or two of the Group members have used patches of the allotment to grow their own veg etc. It is VERY fertile soil. So there’s space for more if you fancy it.

The other thing we have in this allotment is some ancient, but very productive plum trees. It is a “mast” year this year and there is a vast amount of fruit and nuts on various trees in the locale. The plum trees in the allotment are pretty tall, but we have a special mobile ladder platform on loan this weekend, on Sunday between 10 and 12 am. There’s plenty of fruit so please come along pick plums and admire the oak saplings for what they will be in years to come. A lot of effort has gone in to getting them this far. See you there!