Llandrindod Pomarium is the community orchard for the town. The orchard was established for the enjoyment of everyone in the community, and was made possible thanks to the generosity of local businesses, organisations (including Llandrindod Town Council) and individuals who have donated money, plants and effort. All of the produce of the orchard is freely available for anyone to pick, share and enjoy.
The name “Pomarium” is the Latin word for orchard, and was chosen because of the presence of Roman remains near the site. The orchard is situated on Alexandra Playing Fields, which are immediately to the south of the Rock Park and next to the railway line.
Planting of the orchard began in 2015, and the site now contains more than 50 fruit and nut trees and numerous soft fruit bushes, including apples, pears, plums, damsons, quinces, cherries, medlars, filberts, a walnut, currants, loganberries, gooseberries, blackberries and raspberries. The Pomarium organising team have installed benches (kindly donated by Llandrindod Town Council) and picnic benches (funded by a Tesco Bags of Help grant) to make it easy for people to enjoy the site.
The orchard site is also used for training people in various orchard-associated skills, such as pruning and scything, and for a variety of community events, including the annual wassail. The orchard provides an important habitat for many species of wild plants, insects and other animals.
Recently the orchard project has been extended to include planting of a forest garden next to the original site. A forest garden is a way of producing food that mimics a natural ecosystem, with trees, shrubs, ground cover and climbers that all have edible parts. So far the forest garden includes a variety of familiar plants, such as currant and gooseberry bushes and a variety of herbs, and more unusual things such as a Szechuan peppercorn.
The orchard and forest garden have been planted and are looked after by volunteers. The organising team always welcome more volunteers to help at our regular orchard maintenance sessions – we have jobs to suit all abilities, from digging holes to a bit of gentle weeding! Contact us via email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Facebook (llandrindod pomarium) or come along to one of the sessions – see posters in the orchard for details!
