DOZENS of trees were planted as a new orchard sprung up at a garden centre.

And Codicote could soon be selling its own fruit juice, if the project takes off.

Families flocked to Codicote Garden Centre on Saturday to help the special orchard – which has been designed to look like a tree – take shape.

Don Ellwood, manager of the High Street centre, said: “Families who registered were able to plant a selection of different trees including apple, cherry, pear and plum, many of which are local varieties.

“More than 60 trees have now been planted.

“We are extremely grateful to Cllr John Warwick of the Codicote Environment Partnership, who created the design for the orchard, which looks like a tree if viewed from above, and for all his help with the project.”

Cllr Warwick has recorded the names of all the families who planted a tree, as part of his historical work. This record will be kept at the garden centre.

He said: “I thought it would be a great idea to design an orchard and invite members of the local community to come along and plant a tree.

“I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to the staff at Codicote Garden Centre for donating the trees, as well as a number of local businesses, including Richard Dawes, Robinson Tree Service and R M Moules, which have donated labour materials for planting them and have helped with preparing the orchard, free of charge.”

The orchard will be open to the general public on selected days from now.

Any excess apples will be sold at Codicote’s annual Village Produce and Apple Day in October and will be used to create Codicote Apple Juice.