Maintaining the Orchard

Work around the palace never ends, especially for our resident gardeners who are always kept busy none more so than in the Orchard. Our apple trees require a lot of maintenance throughout the year to keep them nice and in order. It’s necessary to ‘train’ the trees by applying ropes to the branches so that they grow to our gardener’s desires.

                  A fledgling’s growth being ‘trained’

The fruit that we harvest from our orchard is used in our annual Autumn fruit pressing events. We work to produce our own apple juice and invite local school children along to learn about this exciting process. It’s delightful work with a tasty and fresh drink at the end.

Collecting apples for our pressing workshop

All of this hard work goes towards maintaining our Orchard in its beautiful state to be enjoyed by our visitors every year especially during the Summer time when our flowers come in to full bloom.

                         The Orchard basking in the Summer sun

Morgan Sports Car Club 10th anniversary

Today 24 classic Morgan cars from the Morgan Sports Car Club parked up at Falkland Palace to celebrate the club’s 10th anniversary.

 

These magnificent cars in this ancient setting was very evocative and a welcome addition to the visitors experience, as well as giving the staff an excuse to get out the office and visit the lovely gardens!

After much debating no one could decide which was their favourite, they were all stunning though this blue beauty caught the attention of our Learning Officer, who said it was ‘pure braw’.

 

Swallows Saved!

As you may know we have a healthy population of Swallows that nest at Falkland Palace and Gardens every year.
Three Swallow chicks were saved at the weekend after their nest fell off the Gatehouse. Our Learning Officer was able to use a stand and two plastic boxes to make a temp home for the family of birds. Parents have been seen happily feeding the chicks since, fantastic!