A fruitful endeavour

A Fruitful Endeavour

Transforming a vacant plot of land into a bountiful orchard has been a labour of love for a group of residents at Crestwood Village.

Two years ago, the section consisted only of grass, with a cabbage tree and a grapefruit tree. Now, it is home to around 50 trees including feijoa, apple, pear, orange, mandarin, lemon, and even a fig, plus grapevines, rapidly growing passionfruit vines and even some blueberry bushes.

The project was initiated by a group of tree-loving residents and one of them, Bet Mitchell, created a landscape plan on her iPad and presented it to the Residents’ Committee. Village Manager Helena loved it!

“The Garden Club has some raised garden beds at the bottom of the site so we thought an orchard would tie in really nicely. The idea is that when all the trees have matured a bit and start fruiting, residents will be encouraged to come and pick some for themselves,” says Bet, whose home directly overlooks the orchard.

“And for those less mobile, we can pick baskets of fruit and place them up in the common area for everybody to access. It’s an orchard for all residents to enjoy.”

Residents were invited to sponsor a tree of their choosing. Many helped plant them under the watchful eye of village gardener Jack, and others have contributed by helping water the orchard during the long hot summer. The recent addition of two lovely seats in the middle of the garden has added to the serenity, and plans are in the pipeline to create a meandering path through the orchard so that residents with walking frames are more easily able to access and enjoy it.

The finishing touch?

“Crestwood has just opened The Shed and some of the men have handmade little copper signs to go underneath the trees with each sponsors’ name inscribed on them. It looks absolutely lovely!”