Blue Mountains Community Organic Farm and Apple Walk

Established in 1995 The Blue Mountains Community Gardens in Katoomba, west of Sydney is an amazing community nexus with a lot of different things going on.

Specialising in preserving rare and endangered heritage species The Community Garden is organic and runs using permaculture principles, with a highlight being the apple walk through the orchard that mainly contains around 40 varieties of heritage apple trees, and crab apple trees.  

Other fruit trees dotted around the garden include, pears, quinces, plums, and old-fashioned cherry bushes. With over 60 apple trees in total.

Rather than just being all about growing food, it has developed a big focus on art, music, performance and celebration. It has become a real social hub, hosting all manner of gatherings and festivals.

It is a garden that is used by many groups in many great ways. It’s a very multi-layered place.

The Gardens have a very open policy and everyone is very welcome.

Tips

Apple Walk
Gardens are all about spaces, how spaces connect, and the way in which different sizes and shapes affect us, both from a distance and up close as we move through them or spend time in them. They are also a bit about mystery and movement, how we move, what we see, and more so what we don’t see.

An arbour or apple walk, is a classic example of how a space can create connection, mystery and enclosure at the same time. While you can t buy trees pre-shaped into an archway, you can create a simple structure that not only forms the template around which your trees can grow, but also gives you the desired effect almost immediately.
Just by having the bare bones skeleton in place creates the feeling of enclosure that will establish further over time.

While you can buy simple garden arches for a rose or wisteria feature plant, a simple detail for a larger arch can be achieved using a few pieces of hardware. Star pickets and some 40mm high density pressure pipe used for irrigation purposes on farms and properties is an easy way to create a garden archway for an apple walk. All you need to do is set out the length and width of your archway and then set out two star pickets every 4-5m depending on the length of the archway. Establish the height of your walkway (approx 3-4m) and then cut your high density pipe accordingly to account for the central height of your archway at the top: ie if the posts are set 3m apart and are 1.8m above the ground. Next, cut a minimum length of 4.2m of pressure pipe in order to make your archway peak between 3-3.5m high. Attach the pipe to your star pickets in one of two ways;

a. Using tie wire or  
b. Using a grinder to bevel the top of the star picket and forcing it into the pipe.

As the trees grow, your have your ready built pruning template in place.

More Information

For more information on The Blue Mountains Community Garden go to:
http://www.bluemountainscommunitygardens.org/

For information on the Blue Mountains & how to get there, go to:
http://www.bluemts.com.au/tourist
http://www.visitbluemountains.com.au