Freely Fruity

01/09/2026

Come join team Fruity & Friends to help create a new community garden in Whitley.

It is located behind the community centre in Whitley Wood - no tools or experience necessary - just the desire to help out. A variety of tasks will be available to suit any physical ability.

There are two days to chose from (or come to both) Saturday 12th September anytime between 9am and 5pm & Saturday 10th October anytime between 9am and 5pm.

25/08/2026

Update on the first Community Garden our charity built at Emmanuel Church, Woodley…

This is Zosha, the granddaughter of Ray, who was the lead volunteer after the garden. Sadly, Ray recently passed; but along with her grandmother, Zosha is continuing the great work.

Today she helped to harvest the crops in the garden - as a reward she got to take home the biggest carrot and potato for her dinner.

Generational involvement is inspirational ❤️

25/08/2026

Congratulations to our young ambassador Harry on completing his 5th End to End journey!

Cycling the entire length of UK is an incredible achievement 🚴‍♂️

This years journey was completed in just 19 days, raising another £1,000 for Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital. 🦔

15/08/2026

A chance to get involved with a brilliant local project we’re working on together with Wokingham in Need

We've EXTENDED the closing date for you to support our NATURE GARDEN PROJECT at Windmill Primary School and Nursery!

Help us create a safe, inclusive, & multi-sensory nature garden to provide a therapeutic sanctuary allowing children, including those with SEN, to:
🌼 engage with nature and biodiversity
🌼 regulate their emotions
🌼 learn in a supportive, hands-on environment

To pledge a minimum of £5 and, optionally, have your name on the commemorative plaque in the garden please go to our website or use the URL/QR code below - closing date is 30 September 2026.

Supported by Dell Technologies, Freely Fruity, Cala Homes, Iconic Project Management Ltd and Friends of Windmill Primary School Wokingham.

13/08/2026

Exciting new opportunity for local Shinfield residents to have a fruit tree planted in honour of one of your family members. We are working together with University of Reading and Shinfield Parish Council to provide 35 families this amazing opportunity. Check out the details here:

Apply for a University of Reading Tree for Life Garden tree in Shinfield to celebrate a child's birth or adoption, and support local wildlife and biodiversity.

04/08/2026

Very humbling to have been nominated for Pride of Reading Awards

Thank you to all of our volunteers and supporters- without you, none of this would be possible ❤️

Nominated for the Climate and Sustainability Impact Award, sponsored by the University of Reading, is Freely Fruity 💜

“Freely Fruity has transformed how people engage with nature, sustainability and food growing,” said the nominator.

“Through volunteer-powered orchards, school programmes and community planting events, they have brought together thousands of residents to take practical, positive environmental action.”

Read more 👉 https://www.porawards.co.uk/2026-nominees/freely-fruity-ekll6-trrxt-tr86e-nxl8d-39kd2-w82ct-m7fpk-wkp7m

Good luck, team! 🏆

03/08/2026

We’re now one step closer to completing our solar powered, rain collection irrigation system. Our The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award student, Harrison, was shown how to connect up the pump to the IBC’s yesterday.

Here he is testing the flow to make sure the solar array can handle the pump. Great news - it certainly can!

Huge thanks go out to Wokingham Borough for providing us with the land, Spirit Energy for the amazing solar install, Hall Hunter Partnership for providing the irrigation pump, Matt Thatcher for helping connect up the external sockets, and Farmer Paul Thomas for helping install the IBCs.

We couldn’t have done this without your help ❤️

If you’re interested in what we do, would like more information, or would like to get involved; send us a message - we’d love to hear from you.

We currently support 8 DoE students; if you’d like to join our program - let us know.

29/07/2026

Another day… another watering session. This time with my youngest son Max.

Yesterday, we visited our community orchard in South Whitley Recreation ground. Robert from Reading Council helped us gain access to the field, so that we could properly water the trees.

This was no small undertaking; there are 90 trees in this site! I had to return to base to refill our IBC from our rain water store (which is sadly almost depleted now). Each tree received 25l of water to help them in this unprecedented heatwave we find ourselves in.

Hopefully, rain will come soon.

If you live in the South Whitley Community Discussions area. Please consider taking a 2 litre bottle of water with you, when you next visit the recreation ground. The 🌳 will thank you for it by providing you plentiful free fruit once they are established ❤️

26/07/2026

With the recent hot weather and no sign of rain, Harry and I took matters into our own hands. Freely Fruity along with Earley Environmental Group have taken on the maintenance of the orchard.

Took two hours to pump stored rain water into the IBC on the truck and then a further 90 minutes to water each tree in the Laurel Park Orchard with 50 litres of water.

This should hopefully keep them going until rain finally arrives.

The pruned Laurel trees have allowed plenty more light into the orchard and the brambles have taken full advantage. Thousands of blackberries to forage for free ❤️

22/07/2026

Calling all Freely Fruity supporters. If you shop in Wokingham Waitrose, please consider voting for us 🙏🏽