Planting Orchards for Community benefit in Market Rasen
In 2024, as part of the coronation plans for King Charles III, a fund was created by the UK government to support local communities to plant commemorative orchards. The Rasen Area Environment Group (RAEG) submitted an application to the King’s Orchard initiative and after a visit to determine the sites suitability, 84 trees have been awarded. These are to be planted in two locations in the town and have been provided with the stakes and tree guards required to protect the saplings.
Creation of the orchard(s)
Initial steps
A mixture of mainly local varieties of apple, pear, plum, gage and medlar saplings are due to be delivered in February 2025. In preparation for this, RAEG members contacted a number of the local schools and other groups, with very positive feedback that they would very much like to be involved in the tree planting. Additional community engagement then followed to identify more planting volunteers.
The community had the opportunity to submit name suggestions for the main orchard and to either have their name or to nominate the name of another member of the community, to have the name recorded on a tree label.
Planting took place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday 6th – 8th February 2025. Children from Market Rasen Pre-school, Town & Country Pre-school and Market Rasen Primary school, plus clients of the Old Station adult education centre planted on the Thursday and Friday. Saturday was an open session for the local community planting heroes.
Locations
The main orchard is in a section of Market Rasen Mill Park. This area was historically identified by the Town Council to be planted as a Community orchard, however, until now funding had not been forthcoming. The second smaller site will be on De Aston Field.
Planting plans were drawn up, with trees allocated to the volunteers, both for on the day logistics and to make it easier to record details for future information sharing.
An open glade has been created in the main orchard and wildflower seeds have been kindly provided by Mark Schofield from Plantlife, which will be sown throughout the orchard. The glade will create a space amongst the fruit trees for community events, picnics, or just a quiet place to sit within nature and relax.
The Benefits
In years to come, as the orchard establishes and matures it will begin to provide a number of opportunities and benefits, including:
- Free food for the community
- Addressing biodiversity loss through the provision of nectar, other food sources and shelter for wildlife
- Social space with a focal point for community get togethers, picnics, sitting in nature, wildlife watching
- Nature based solution to combat Climate Change, through carbon storage within the trees and creating a cooling space within the urban heat island
- Flood mitigation and the converse of protection against drought and heatwaves
- Improved local air quality
- Physical exercise (planting, maintenance, fruit picking) and an opportunity for volunteers
- Opportunity to dedicate a tree to a community member, providing a point for celebration and remembrance
- Job creation (funding permitting) for the maintenance of the orchards and fruit collection and distribution
- Enriching the neighbourhood along with the various wildflower spaces which have also been planted throughout the town
List of the trees planted
The following file contains the details of the trees including their pollination group, the harvest time and whether they are eaters, cookers or dual purpose.
Tree details
The following file is a map of the tree planting layout of the Blossom Field Orchard in Mill Lane Park.
Orchard planting map
The following is a map of the trees planted at the De Aston field smaller orchard:
For more details
If you’d like to know more about the Community Orchard, the Community Garden, the Wildflower spaces or the Market Place planters, contact RAEG through our FACEBOOK page or email rasenarea.eg@gmail.com
