Core volunteers plant apple trees in Monku

VOLUNTEERS from the Ogier group have been in Herm helping to plant apple trees.

Employees of the legal and fiduciary company were taking part in our Community Social Responsibility programme, where companies from Guernsey help out with the gardeners' bigger projects. It also goes towards our Britain in Bloom entry.

There were already several trees among the daffodils in Monku field, but they helped add to the orchard by planting a further 15.

Head gardener Brett Moore gave a demonstration of how to plant and stake the trees, apparently making it look quite easy, but actually digging in the long grass was harder than the volunteers expected it to be.

What could have taken the gardening team quite a long time was achieved very quickly with the extra assistance.

'With their help we got the job done a lot quicker,' said assistant gardener Roseanne Wheeler. 'It was also quite a nice day, so they enjoyed themselves.'

The Ogier group said they were looking forward to coming back to Herm to see how their trees have grown and to see if there are any apples for them to taste.

'There are a mix of varieties of apple trees,' said Roseanne. 'The apples are available to anyone and hopefully we'll get a nice crop this summer for people to scrump while out on their walks.'

There will be several other projects of this type coming up over the next few months, as the gardeners are always open to input from others.

It is all part of working with the wider community to keep moving ahead with planting and renewing and to keep the island looking beautiful.

The added bonus of having apples to collect in autumn along with blackberries is something to look forward to.