Communal fruit

Community orchards are bearing fruit. The National Urban Forestry Unit (NUFU) is encouraging the planting of fruit trees in towns, on housing estates, school grounds and wasteland. It has now produced a case study, with the charity Common Ground, of the successful establishment of a community orchard on part of a former allotment site in the London Borough of Ealing. The first crop of fruit from the Blondin Orchard was harvested in 1999. The 46 apple trees had been planted in February 1997 on the centenary of the death of Charles Blondin, the famous French tightrope walker, who had settled in the area when he retired.

NUFU, 01902 828600; www.nufu.org.uk

18 October 2001