GOOD TO GROW

How do you get a shy teenager to abandon his computer and spend time outdoors with other people? The answer for community worker Christine Robinson-Perkins was to take her son Cameron on a day planting up beds in their Leeds estate’s community orchard.

Two years ago, Cameron, now 18, was in his first year doing media studies at college. Spare time was spent at his screen or caring for his ten-year-old autistic sister. But he enjoyed the gardening so much that he started volunteering every week. Then came the day when Cameron told his astonished mother that he wanted to study horticulture. He has just completed his first year and intends to work as a gardener.

The Cottingley Hall estate community orchard has brought about a big change in Cameron’s life. ‘Being in the orchard is a good way of making new friends, as well as being therapeutic,’ he told me. For Christine, it’s like having a different son. ‘Now he loves being outside and he’s much more confident.’ Cottingley Hall estate is an unlikely site for an orchard, lying between a motorway and a railway line. The residents applied to Helping Britain Blossom (helpingbritainblossom.org.uk), the UK’s largest community orchard project, for support to plant fruit and nut trees – including apple, plum, pear, mulberry, olive, walnut, almond and sweet chestnut, many of them heritage varieties – to border a half-mile avenue on a former dumping ground near the estate. ‘It’s magical seeing the trees in such an unexpected place,’ says Christine. ‘People on the estate join designated working days. There were lots of pictures of our first apple crop on Facebook.’ The Apple Day festival falls on 21 October this year, when community orchards nationwide, including Cottingley, will celebrate with special events. Helping Britain Blossom has now supported 150 community orchards nationwide and helps groups to restore neglected existing orchards.