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Establishing and maintaining an orchard on a nature-friendly farm

Scotland
Farm Practices
fruit and vegetables
biodiversity
Integrated Pest Management
Diversification

At Guardswell Farm in central Scotland Anna Lamotte and her husband, Digby, have established an orchard as part of their mixed farming enterprise. They share their reasons for growing fruit trees and explain why this approach could benefit other nature-friendly farmers.

Guardswell Farm in Perthshire is a 180-acre mixed farming enterprise run by Anna Lamotte and her husband, Digby. Part of the farm is home to an orchard, carefully nurtured to supply fruit for Digby’s artisan cider business. The orchard is managed in line with Guardswell’s nature-friendly farming principles.

Anna and Digby share their journey in establishing and developing the orchard, highlighting how their approach could be adapted by other nature-friendly farms looking to incorporate fruit growing into their operations.

The basics - How was the orchard established?

Anna and Digby’s interest in establishing an orchard at Guardswell began with historical research, which revealed that apple growing was once far more common across central Scotland than it is today.

The only remaining trace of this at Guardswell was three old apple trees still standing near the farmhouse. Inspired by this legacy, they decided in 2019 to start their own orchard from scratch and have since planted around 2,700 trees.

Ground cover material created a vole highway where they could hide from buzzards, dig down and eat the roots. The nibbling rodents killed off around 30 trees. Today, sheep provide the only form of weed suppression.

They started out with a trial batch of 600 trees, adding another 700 in 2020. The remaining trees were planted in two batches. Around 2,000 trees are at Guardswell, with the remaining 700 at Digby’s parents’ smallholding, a short drive away.

The challenges faced

Anna and Digby admit that their early days of tree planting and orchard establishment were a steep learning curve. 

“Firstly, you have to make sure that the holes you dig won’t just fill with rainwater,” Digby says. “As you do the planting in winter, any water left in the hole can freeze around the roots and kill the trees. We spent a lot of time bailing water out of holes.”

They then had to find ways to protect the trees as they grew. Mypex membrane, a weed control fabric, is commonly used in horticulture, but Digby says this “created a vole highway where they could hide from buzzards, dig down and eat the roots”. The nibbling rodents killed off around 30 trees, while others were so badly damaged that you could simply lift them out of the ground. 

Natural methods of suppressing weeds, such as using woodchip, were also ruled out in the early stages of the orchard. This is because young fruit trees are highly susceptible to diseases and using woodchip or mulch made from pruning can spread problems.

Another challenge Anna and Digby faced was roe deer. Not only do they sometimes browse on young fruit trees, but the bucks also mark their territories by rubbing vigorously against them. This can weaken trees’ growth, or, in some cases, kill them.

How does nature-friendly orchard management work?

Anna and Digby use a small flock of Shropshire sheep to keep the grass down, rotating half a dozen animals in a strip-grazing system. This helps the trees thrive, while also promoting biodiversity, with the sheep providing the only form of weed suppression.

The grass is usually cut once a year in May or June, though the sheep should reduce the need for this. They are removed from the orchard from late August to late September to avoid faeces contamination during the apple harvest, when the fruit is shaken to the ground. 

After the harvest, the sheep return to the orchard for winter grazing as part of their rotational system, which helps minimise cutting, soil compaction, and fuel costs.

The orchard is run according to organic principles, meaning the only use of chemical or artificial inputs is if the sheep require worming, which is done in a separate area. Digby has seen nature-friendly vineyards in France using fungicides made from natural ingredients, but for now, he is relying on Guardswell’s exposed and windy position on a Perthshire hillside to keep issues such as mildew at bay.

Anna and Digby have also introduced elements of integrated pest management (IPM), encouraging predatory insects to control pests which may harm the trees. Digby hopes to further attract these beneficial animals by planting rows of wildflowers that bloom in early spring before the fruit trees blossom. They also grow crab apples throughout the orchards, as their long blossom period also supports insects.

Orchards can also play a key role in boosting biodiversity. Digby suggests this could be because apple trees, with a short lifespan of 50 to 70 years, create more dead and rotting wood compared to longer-lived species - providing a valuable habitat for many insects.

How does an orchard fit in on a nature-friendly farm?

Anna and Digby believe their approach to growing fruit could work well for nature-friendly farms looking to diversify.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re growing fruit for eating or juicing, it’s the same process to set up and maintain a nature-friendly orchard,” Anna says. “The same principles also hold for growing other fruits.

“We certainly haven’t considered doing this any other way. We would never want to use sprays or anything like that. We decided not to use any form of weed suppression after looking at membranes because having acres of plastic doesn’t fit in with our nature-friendly farming perspective.”

The Guardswell orchards are home to around 120 different varieties of apple. About 60% are cider apples, while the remaining 40% are a mixture of Scottish heritage varieties and cooking apples. In 2024, the orchards produced around a tonne and a half of fruit, and Digby is hopeful the harvest will continue to grow.

They also cultivate pears (some of which are used in small batches of perry), along with plums and other fruits. This not only allows for future diversification into a wider range of fruit products, but also helps minimise the risk of a poor yield of a single crop.

Orchards can also play a key role in boosting biodiversity. Digby suggests this could be because apple trees, with a short lifespan of 50 to 70 years, create more dead and rotting wood compared to longer-lived species - providing a valuable habitat for many insects. Digby and Anna are already seeing the impact their orchard is having on local wildlife.

“When you shake the trees down at harvest time, you get absolutely covered in bugs,” Digby says. “And when we’ve been cutting the grass in June, we’ve been mobbed by swallows and swifts because there’s so much insect life in there.”

With their orchard still young and growing, Anna says the future of fruit at Guardswell is bright. “It’s just so exciting to think how it will develop over time.”