AGM and The Wild Orchard
We held our 10th AGM in January with 28 attending – not many organisations get such a good turnout. However we still need practical help from people who might be able to contribute the odd hour here and there. So if part of your New Year's resolution is to get fitter and healthier and help to Save the Planet, do get in touch. Absolutely no experience necessary.
Much of our work in January was concentrated on the Wild Orchard – so where and what is it? This orchard runs along the 
edge of a field at the eastern edge of St Lythans. It is a public footpath that runs from the road between Twyn yr Odyn and St Lythans (metal kissing gate by metal gate and ST 1115/7324 if you have a GPS) and eventually reaches another footpath which connects Wenvoe Woods and St Lythans Church. From the road, walk through one field, over a stile and the orchard starts just beyond this point. It is a linear orchard running along the edge of the field and currently has around 60 trees planted, marked with bamboo canes. There is a bench and noticeboard.
The orchard is called 'Wild' because all the trees are of native fruit, including Crab-apple, Wild Pear, Wild Plum, Wild Cherry, Bird Cherry, Bullace, Cherry Plum, Chequers Tree and Hazel. We are gradually introducing a labelling code where each bamboo cane will have a colour tape corresponding to the type of tree and the code is on a notice on the noticeboard. The canes are there so that we can find the trees throughout the year – there are some vigorous nettles growing here and in the past we have lost some of the shorter trees in the vegetation. Hopeful-ly we now have it under control. The public footpath is becoming more and more popular with walkers and it is nice to see the bench being used regularly
