Team Wilder community space Corston Community Orchard in Bath

Name: Corston Community Orchard
Category: Community space in the wildlife gardening competition 2023
Area: Bath, BA2

What makes your garden wildlife friendly?

We've created many different habitats, including long grass, wildflower meadow, log piles, orchard, nuttery, copses and hedgerows. We've also built a large bug hotel and put up an owl box and bird boxes. We have left dead trees in situ. We don't use any pesticides and we've adopted a mowing regime that enhances biodiversity. 

Tell us what you love about your garden 

Corston Community Orchard is a beautiful wild space on the edge of Corston village. We are proud that over the course of just two years we have transformed an overgrazed horse paddock into a space brimming with life that lots of different people enjoy. We feel happy to be bringing our community together for the benefit of people and wildlife.

We have created a variety of habitats: orchard, nuttery, hedgerows, copses, long grass, wildflower meadow. Each season brings its highlights and there's always something new to see on the orchard, whether that's the amazing ghost moth and bat display in mid-summer, a barn owl quartering over the long grass, swallows swooping low over the mown paths, soaring buzzards or red kites, or the bobbing tails of deer retreating into the billowing hedges.

What wildlife have you seen in your garden?

We've seen bats, barn owls, kestrels, voles, moths, butterflies, bees and other insects, muntjac, roe deer, foxes, rabbits and grass snakes. Bath Natural History Society carried out a botanical survey in which they identified 67 different flowering plants and the Avon Bat Group used a static bat detector to identify at least 6 species; and Adam Dare, a moth expert, trapped and identified 54 species - he gave a talk on the orchard and people were able to release the moths into the evening skies. Last year Corston Orchard hosted one of the Bathscape bat walks and everyone who attended was provided with a bat detector and had a lot of fun walking around the orchard at dusk.  

Corston Community Orchard were a finalist!

See all competition entries as case studies

Corston Community Orchard do amazing things for local people and wildlife. Here are a few actions to try at home or in your local neighbourhood:

• Plant your own tree or orchard. there are a lot of community orchards which brings people together. It's important to plant to right tree in the right place though. 
  How to plant a tree

• Hedges are important habitats, that not only provide shelter for wildlife, but also food if berries are present. Create space in gardens, near roads, community spaces, in schools and on land for hedgeways and you will attract birds, mammals such as hedgehogs and many insects. They're also practical to section off areas whist still allowing wildlife through. 
  Team Wilder Natural barriers and native hedges
• Corston Community Orchard set up the project and have a lot of knowledge and experience to share, call in to one of their volunteer sessions and ask questions. Here are a few resources which might also help you
  Team Wilder Setting up a community group - local advice, councils explained, insurance, policy templates, bank accounts for groups and more.
  Team Wilder Find a Funder - local funding opportunities

The Team Wilder Community Ecologist visited Corston Community Orchard and gave the following advice...

• Managing the orchard floor There are a number of ways that you could choose to manage the orchard/different areas of it People's Trust for Endangered Species Orchard Floor advice

You may choose to leave some areas uncut for 2-3 years (e.g. the margins) then cut the middle part of the field and remove the arisings. Could you persuade the community group to help with this as a day activity?

Corston Community Orchard received a £1,400 grant from the West of England Combined Authority Community Pollinator Fund. Working together, the orchard's Duke of Edinburgh group and a team of Bathscape volunteers extended an existing pollinator wildflower patch, increasing the habitat space to 200m2. Seeds were sown and plug plants added to the area. Taking inspiration from traditional orchards, native daffodils were planted amongst the fruit trees and bluebells and snowdrops were planted in the copses to support early rising pollinators. 

The funding will also be used to create an interpretation trail throughout the orchard, with a focus on the role of pollinators, to help educate visitors. By using the facilities at the Somerdale Shed in Keynsham, we are learning to make our own signs and are therefore able to stretch the funding to create a full trail rather than the original anticipated two signs. 

Lastly, seed bombs and bug hotels will be handed out as prizes at local community summer events to reach and inspire even more local people.