With our Autumn Fayre on the horizon, it’s worth reflecting on the importance of fruit trees to the ecological landscape here in Barnes. There is a long history of food production in the locality, since its rural days through to the commercial market gardens of the 19th century, followed by the allotments inspired by the wartime ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign. Many of these farms and gardens have completely disappeared, but the legacy of food production remains strong thanks to the surviving fruit trees and allotments still to be found dotted around the area, not to mention our Community Growing project, and the young orchard on Barnes Common. If you’ve never been, our orchard is in an area known as the Former Goods Yard, next to platform 4 of Barnes railway station.

What might not be initially clear though is what food production has to do with biodiversity conservation? Many would have you believe that these two exercises are at odds with each other, with land either being dedicated to one or the other. However, this isn’t the full picture – in fact, traditional orchards are priority habitats under the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plan. These are biodiversity rich habitats, as well as sites of food production, and are seriously at risk across England and Wales with 90% of their land area being lost since the 1950’s (Source – People’s Trust for Endangered Species).

Why then are these culturally created spaces so beneficial for wildlife? There are a few key reasons:

• Orchards are mosaic habitats – permanent meadow grassland floor in between trees is a key feature of traditional orchards, and they often include scrub and hedgerow features
• Fruit trees are early ‘senescent’ – They age quickly, developing veteran features at younger ages than many other species. These include hollow trunks, rot holes, dead wood, and sap runs. This is hugely beneficial to saproxylic invertebrates which rely on deadwood for part of their life cycle. E.g. stag beetles, rose chafer, click beetles etc.
• Fruit trees are a key source of sugars, with an abundance of blossom in spring and fruit in the autumn
• Traditional orchards are usually less dense than woodland – they are structurally similar to wood pasture, providing light and space for a variety of other species. On September 22nd in a quick survey I recorded multiple species of wildflower still flowering in our orchard, including Spear Thistle, Common Mallow, Sainfoin, Chamomile/Mayweed, Black Nightshade, Wild Carrot, Common Knapweed, Dandelion, Yarrow, and Bristly Oxtongue.

The young orchard on the Common has had a wonderful year with many of the pear, apple, plum and cobnut trees producing plenty of fruit. This biodiversity rich food-producing land is an important part of our city and is a model of what we can achieve working with nature and not against it. A liveable, sustainable urban landscape should allow people to see directly the dependence we have on the land that feeds us – our hope is that our growing spaces and orchard can do just that for many years to come. Come along to our Autumn Fayre on October 18th to give the orchard the celebration it deserves!