Restoring Green Farm's beautiful orchard We’ve made brilliant progress this week at Green Farm in Surrey where we’ve started work to restore the beautiful orchard for grassland flora diversity. Thanks to funding from Buglife as part of the Surrey B-Lines project, we’ve been able to carefully cut back years of encroaching bramble scrub. With help from Brimstones Contractors, over a day we revealed the east-facing slope and uncovered stone steps in the process, with the valuable support of our CRT volunteers moving arisings from the site. Helena Darragh, our Head of Conservation and Land Management, said: “In the coming months, the slope and other areas in the orchard will be scarified, which means removing any buildup of dead plant material and exposing the soil between the grass plants. We will then hand broadcast with wildflowers and grasses tolerant of the acidic, sandy soil to encourage a range of plants for pollinators such as the small copper and mining bees. “We are very grateful for the support we've had to date for this meaningful project and we are looking forward to watching this habitat develop in the coming years.” The orchard at Green Farm already provides an important habitat through the mixture of fruit trees, a pond and areas of scrub but the grass is currently relatively species poor. This work will increase the range of plants species in the grassland, which in turn will increase the habitat for pollinators. Traditionally managed orchards incorporate fruit trees within meadow- type grassland for this reason and this is what the CRT is aiming to create at Green Farm. More ways to support us If you want to help us protect local wildlife and habitats in other ways you can join as a CRT Friend, attend our in-person and online events and volunteer on one of our farms. You can also sign-up to our monthly newsletter 'CRT News' for regular updates from our farms, straight to your inbox. Join Events Volunteer News Published: December 2024 Manage Cookie Preferences