Gardening Hints and Tips for June By Brogdale’s Sirplantalot! Apples will naturally thin their crop in early June – the ’June Drop’. After this they should be thinned by hand to one or two fruits per cluster. This helps to get even sized healthy fruit and can avoid biennial bearing with a heavy crop one […]
Birds and butterflies of Brogdale By Mike Roser, Guide at Brogdale Collections – Butterfly below is a A Painted Lady – a migrant from the Mediterranean region and North Africa. With most of our spring migrant birds now in, and with prime territories already secured by our resident birds, there is an early dawn […]
FAVERSHAM FRUIT CHARITY FEATURED ON NATIONAL TV Brogdale Collections, appeared on nationwide television in early May, featuring on BBC’s Gardeners World. Presenter Carol Klein presented an item about cherry trees and blossoms filmed at Brogdale’s orchards located just outside Faversham. She looked at many aspects of growing and enjoying cherry trees; studied some of the […]
BROGDALE WELCOMES TWO NEW BEE COLONIES View both videos here: Video 1 Video 2 With of acres of orchards, Brogdale Collections heavily relies on pollinators such as bees. To help ensure the trees have as much help with this as possible, we recently welcomed two new colonies of bees. Unbelievably, the buzzy, busy parcels arrived […]
COOKERY MASTERCLASSES – LOCK DOWN STYLE! Great British Bake Off finalist, Jane Beedle, was due to be holding a series of Cookery Masterclasses at Brogdale Collections. Each one focusing on topical or seasonal fruit and produce. She is a great baker, wonderful cook and also a rather lovely person – so we’re over the moon […]
SHARE YOUR BLOSSOM PHOTOS We were very sad to cancel our Hanami Blossom Festival as Brogdale’s orchards look glorious this time of year when the trees are all in bloom. So, we’ve decided to hold an ‘ONLINE HANAMI FESTIVAL’!If you have a blossom tree looking beautiful right now – why not send us a photo […]
We are proud to be one of the recipients of one of eight young trees from the pips of Isaac Newton ’s apple tree that were blasted into space with British ESA Astronaut Tim Peake.
In 2015 apple pips from the iconic Newton tree were taken on the Principia mission by British astronaut Tim Peake to the International Space Station. The pips then spent six months floating in micro gravity as part of the ‘Pips in Space’ project before returning to Earth in 2016.
On their return from space in 2016, the well-travelled pips went to Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden in Sussex and home to the Millennium Seed Bank, where they spent 90 days at 5°C to simulate the winter cold needed to break dormancy. In May 2017, they were warmed to 15°C and the young seedlings started to emerge.
The UK Space Agency, the National Trust and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, worked together on the project.
Brogdale was selected to share the story of space travel, Isaac Newton, horticulture and the wonders of science as part of our ongoing commitment to education, as well as our previous involvement in the Apollo 10 mission with Buzz Aldrin in 1969.
Newton’s Space Sapling lands at Brogdale, the home of the National Fruit Collection We are proud to be one of the recipients of one of eight young trees from the pips of Isaac Newton ’s apple tree that were blasted into space with British ESA Astronaut Tim Peake. In 2015 apple pips from the iconic […]
The Brogdale Cider Festival is approaching fast, with only three weeks to go until the much-loved annual event, showcasing the best ciders Kent has to offer.
With over 50 different ciders to try from producers all over Kent, you are completely spoilt for choice- from traditional dry and sweet ciders made from Kentish apples, to the more unusual tastes – think salted caramel blends, or fruity fusions featuring lemon and raspberry. Last year’s winners of the cider trail, Kent Cider Company, will be returning with their award winning range – the cider trail champion Yowler among them.
The five hives at Brogdale are doing extraordinarily well and we have made 20lbs of Brogdale Honey, now available from our shop in the Brogdale marketplace!
Having arrived as nuclei (small bee colonies) in early April, all of the colonies have built rapidly – despite the variable weather – and we have even extracted our first honey. Although the harvest was not huge, it was important to extract what we could, as the bees had been foraging on oil seed rape, the honey from which crystallizes in the combs very fast.
