Crabapples around tree in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard (photo credit: www.orchardpeople.com)
There is so much fruit in the city that goes to waste like apples, pears and crabapples. So many people have fruit trees that they don’t know how to care for and they either forget to harvest the tree or they just can’t reach most of the fruit because they allow their trees to get too large.
That is never the problem in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard. Usually, we have the opposite problem! Park visitors often harvest the fruit on our trees too early, before it has been allowed to ripen.
That was not the case this year. Amazingly, both park visitors and the volunteers of the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard managed to miss the harvest time for our beautiful Dolgo crabapple tree! The fruit ripened and lots of it fell to the ground while we weren’t looking!
So this weekend at stewardship one of our jobs was to clean up the fruit on the ground so that it wouldn’t attract pests to our park. We will keep a closer eye on the tree next year! It’s sad to think of all that crabapple jelly that could have been…
Lynn and Marilyn clean up around the crabapple tree in Ben Nobleman park Community Orchard
It was a wonderful day in the park though and we had a great turnout of volunteers including our wonderful new volunteer Lily, who weeded in the pollinator garden.
New Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard volunteer Lily weeds in the pollinator garden.
And Susan and Paawan finally tackled weeding the green roof on our orchard shed with Paawan climbing onto the green roof to pluck out the goldenrod and dandelions that planted themselves amongst the sedums.
Susan and Paawan weeding the green roof in the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard
It was another great day in the park and while it was hot, it was great to be out in the fresh air and making our park more beautiful. If you’re interested in learning how to garden, do come and join us by emailing Lynn at growingforgreen (at) gmail.com.
If you’re not the gardening type, you can still support us by donating to our campaign to raise funds for plants, tools, and events in the park. Click here to learn more how to donate and get your charitable receipt.
Susan Poizner is the coordinator of the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard. She is also the author of the award-winning fruit tree care book “Growing Urban Orchards” and the creator of the award-winning online fruit tree care training course at www.orchardpeople.com.