The Commonwealth Orchard helps people plant the finest Scottish fruit trees and to grow, pick and use delicious Scottish apples, pears and plums. Please get involved: we need schools, teachers, volunteers, businesses, funders, landowners, artists, planters, pruners, jam makers and fruit pickers and just about everyone else. The idea is creating a fruitful Scotland where everyone enjoys planting, picking and eating fruit.
John Hancox, on 0778 606 3918 or applejohn@icloud.com
“The best time to plant an apple tree? ”
twenty years ago (the next best time is now...)
Ordering New Trees - including Special Offers for schools and community groups
special orchard offers for schools and community groups
We provide finest fruit trees, helpful training and on-going support. We do a wide range of community and school events, supporting healthy eating, improving the local environment and bringing people together. We help children, communities, businesses, and landowners to plant fruit trees across Scotland for our Fruitful future. Part of the vision is also to support a self reliant and confident people who can do this themselves.
It takes spades and dirty hands and good will. Since we began encouraging schools and community groups to plant orchards, fruit trees and gardens, this idea has become really popular. By working with a large range of people of all sorts, children, families, landowners, businesses, church groups, local authorities, housing associations we have made remarkable progress. The key is working with the whole community.
As time has moved on, we have launched a couple of specific and focussed services:
Fruitful Schools, supporting school orchards. www.fruitfulschools.com
Scottish Fruit Trees www.scottishfruittrees.com - which supplies fruit trees, training and advice to a range of people, from schools and community groups
The Commonwealth Orchard has extensive experience of working with individual and company volunteers - and we are always delighted to discuss a range of volunteering opportunities. We have considerable experience of managing volunteering opportunities for companies.
John Hancox, Director of Commonwealth Orchard is also a founder and Chair of Scottish Orchards, www.scottishorchards.com which is a developing network of schools, groups and experts on fruit growing in Scotland. Scottish Orchards can give an independent voice to people interested in preserving and developing our fruit growing culture, for the future.
To attain our dream of the Commonwealth Orchard - people of all sorts, all ages - children, parents, teachers, developers, fruit eaters, gardeners, councillors, diplomats, business people and volunteers, landowners, architects and designers, cooks and bees, grandparents and greengrocers, all have a part to play. We value the contribution people have made so far, and part of the joy of the Commonwealth Orchard has been the unintended benefits - the friendships, the links between people coming together to plant together. Not planting their own fruit tree - but planting a little bit of a much bigger orchard - linked to neighbours and linking up so all Scotland as one big orchard shared by everyone.
The word “Commonwealth” is an interesting one. Its roots are to do with Common Good and Commonweal - an old Scots word to do with the well being of the whole community. It’s a very democratic and self reliant concept and is about resilient communities working to improve the lives of their own people.
It’s all about people!
John Hancox
Director
The Commonwealth Orchard
75 Clouston St
Glasgow
0778 606 3918
