Sonning Common Trees & Community Orchards

Have you noticed all the wonderful new trees around the village? 24 on our village verges and many more in our 5 new community orchards! We were thrilled to work with the Oxfordshire County Council tree team to make this a reality for the village and we hope the trees will improve life for nature and people alike, for many years to come!

The community orchards will offer a fantastic source of complimentary fruit for our community and significantly enhance biodiversity in our natural surroundings. We made sure that a number of old Oxfordshire heritage varieties were in the tree selection, as well as a variety of fruit from apples to plums to damsons. In addition at the Abbeycrest and Chiltern Bank orchards, we have planted a mix of pollinator supporting bulbs and flowers, comprising Wild Daffodils, Crocus, Ox Eye Daisies, Primroses and Hellebores. The grass amongst the trees will be left long in order to further support invertebrates. We are very grateful to the staff at Abbeycrest and SOHA for supporting a change in their mowing regime to support biodiversity.

Meanwhile, the Eco SoCo team are maintaining the orchards by watering the trees over the summer months, undertaking pruning, weeding and mulching around the base of the trees. Please get in touch if you would like to join in this vital and rewarding work, we'd love to hear from you! 

Many villagers have kindly came forward to help water verge trees near their home during the summer months. Extra help would be really appreciated this summer. Do you have one of the new trees near your home? If you can help us during the summer months, even once a week would be great! Please email us at ecosoco24@gmail.com