News from RHSI Russbourough

Apples at RHSI Russbourough

In the walled garden we have mature apple trees planted in the time of the Beits and identified by DNA testing as Scottish varieties. While these are beginning to show their age and have dropped branches in recent years, they still produce a good crop.

We were pleased to have Falling Fruit volunteers in the garden on 10 September with ladders and long pickers to harvest some of the apples. Each year hundreds of fruit trees go unpicked. Falling Fruit Ireland organises teams of volunteers to pick the surplus fruit weekly and distribute it to local charities or other good causes. With the help of RHSI volunteers they filled 26 crates with apples. https://www.fallingfruit.ie/falling-fruit-2025/

Volunteers brough the apples to Food Cloud in Tallaght and they will be processed into juice for charity. https://food.cloud/
There are still lots of apples which we will be harvesting, selling and sending to the Russborough café. We are keeping a crate of windfalls at the garden gate for anyone passing who would like some free fruit.

As well as the mature trees there are espaliered apples backing the herbaceous borders. These are of different varieties, some already ripe and some that will ripen up to October.

Isn’t it ironic that, when so much fruit goes unpicked, it is difficult to find Irish grown apples in the shops?