Growing an orchard at home

FOR more than 30 years Lomas Orchards in Wallington has hosted workshops teaching the basic skills needed to grow fruit and help a garden thrive.

This winter, workshops will focus on teaching horticultural skills such as pruning and grafting.

Alan Lomas, a third generation farmer at Lomas Orchards, said he started the workshops with his father because they were so often asked for advice and help with basic horticultural tasks.

Nowadays, with food readily available at supermarkets all year round, Mr Lomas said teaching the community to understand and grow fruit is more important than ever.

“We’ve got people now, this is our winter season, pruning and grafting, coming in wanting to pick fruit,” Mr Lomas said.
“People don’t understand because they have fruit available at the supermarket all year round.

“Even now we have people coming in still looking for strawberries, even though the strawberry season has finished. So we said ‘we’re finished, come and see us in summer’.”

Mr Lomas runs the workshops with his sister and said they are both particularly passionate about passing on their knowledge to the next generation and are hoping more young people begin to take an interest in the workshops.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a backyard or a house, you can grow fruit trees in pots and take them when you leave.

“Mainly you need to know how to grow them.”

Winter workshops are for all ages and skill levels and include a two-hour workshop where are taught how to prune and graft while also learning to identify where fruit comes from, different bud types, shaping, equipment and maintenance.

Upcoming winter workshops will run on:
Saturday, June 4 – Stone Fruits Pruning & Grafting
Saturday, June 11 – Espalier Pruning/Grafting Stone Fruits
Saturday, June 25 – Pruning/Intro to pest/disease Stone Fruits
Saturday, July 2 – Stone Fruit Pruning & Grafting
Saturday, July 9– Apples/pears Pruning & Grafting
Saturday, July 16 – Espalier Apple/Pear Pruning/grafting
Saturday, July 23 – Pruning/Intro to pests/diseases Apples/Pears
Saturday, July 30 – Pruning and Grafting Apples/Pears

To book your place in one of the above workshops, message Lomas Orchards on Facebook, or call 0438 503 993.