Riverside Scattered Orchard
Riverside has a long history of thriving orchards and many of our gardens are hosts to wonderful fruit trees and in celebration of our own Community Orchard we wanted to offer our friends and neighbours a free apple to plant in your gardens.
With thanks to Forth Environment Link, and Net Zero Scotland we are delighted to be running our pilot Scattered Orchard project. This is a pilot scheme inspired by TreeLink's hugely successful Free Trees For Babies project. Please be aware have a limited number of trees to give away so it's first come first served!
Find out everything you need to know below!
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Why a fruit tree?
🍎 Grow your own apples, for pies, stews, or lunchboxes
🐝 Save the bees (home & food for pollinators, birds, and wildlife)
🌈Create flood resilience
🌳 Capture carbon
💙 Improve air quality
🌞Make your garden more beautiful
Riverside Naturally have sourced a beautiful selection of cookers and eaters for trees of different sizes to suit any garden.
If you live in Riverside and have space for a small/medium apple tree you can express your interest and reserve a tree at here.
Urban Trees
Urban trees are vital not only for our planet and the fight against climate change but to our greater health and wellbeing. Trees for Cities report that over 80% of the UK lives in cities and town, many at risk of flooding, breathing dirty air and suffering from the increase in temperature throughout the year. Planting urban trees is vital to combat these effects of global warming and as a result Stirling Council has set a target for 20% tree canopy cover by 2035 detailed in their Alive with Nature Policy.
It may surprise you that even in Riverside, with its beautiful green spaces and gardens, canopy cover is less than 10%, but together with Treelink, we hope to show that it’s possible to increase this significantly by helping to plant and grow many more trees in the coming years.
As trees are beneficial to the urban environment, and fruit trees in particular are extremely valuable for biodiversity, Riverside Naturally aims to support growing more trees in our neighbourhood, by planting and maintaining trees in the spaces we manage, and through engaging with local residents we want to encourage more tree growing in our gardens.
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What you need to know
We have several different kinds of bare root trees ready for planting immediately. Please note that it is possible even with the larger kinds to keep them from growing to full height.
The trees have been grown in Scotland, in an organic tree nursery in Perthshire. By planting a sustainably grown fruit tree in your garden, you will be directly contributing to habitat creation and acting against climate change.
Your tree will be available for collection within the next week and can be picked up from 24 Forth Crescent, Riverside. This will be arranged when your application has been successful.
Your tree will come with everything you need to get you started. The kit will include:
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Small bare root tree
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Small bag of compost
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Stake and tree guard
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Mulch Mat and Bamboo Pins
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Planting advice sheet
Tree kit weighs around 5kg or less.
Planting will require digging a small hole (eg. Size of a football) and depending on ground conditions should be manageable with hand tools such as a trowel or shovel, if this will be difficult for you, we can help.
The Royal Horticultural Society has a great guide to planting trees here and growing apples trees here.