Last Stewardship Weekend 2020

It’s fall mulching day in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard and one of our team members finds that the wheelbarrow is also a good way to move his little sister around the park. Photo credit: Susan Poizner.

It is the second weekend in October, 2020 and the time has come to put our fruit trees and our pollinator garden to bed for the winter. And one of our jobs is to spread some fall mulch around the base of our fruit trees to protect the roots from freezing during the winter.

And so this Sunday, our tree group gathered in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard to spread 2 cubic yards of mulch around all of our fruit trees. The team included Susan, Giselle, Janina, Reenie, Dani, Sean and our sister-brother team. We bought the mulch using they money raised in our socially-distanced musical fundraiser last month.

We ordered the cedar mulch from Speelman’s Garden Centre and when they dropped off the two cubic yards, we wondered if it would be enough to use on our trees. Our goal was to spread a modest two inches of mulch around each tree and this pile sure looked small.

Two cubic yards of cedar mulch didn’t look like mulch. We wondered if it would be enough to circle around our trees’ roots. Photo credit: Susan Poizner

Speelman’s delivered the mulch on Saturday morning and we covered it with a tarp and weighed it down with bricks and a sign to ensure the community wouldn’t think it was for public use. By Sunday morning the tarp was gone. It’s a mystery who walked off with the tarp. But our mulch hadn’t been plundered so we got to work.

We used a wheelbarrow and buckets to move the mulch around the park. Photo credit: Susan Poizner.

We used our donated wheelbarrow and buckets to move the mulch around the park and to perfectly circle each tree with a layer of mulch. We made sure that the mulch didn’t touch the trunk of the tree to avoid wood rot or creating an entry point for borers and other insect pests.

Giselle spreads cedar mulch under one of the apricot trees in the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard. Photo credit: Susan Poizner.
Three cherry trees after being mulched with cedar mulch. Photo credit: Susan Poizner

While most of the team was running around mulching, our pruning team included Janina, Reenie and Dani, who inspired us all with her amazing T-shirt that said: “Help more bees. Plant more trees. Clean the seas.”

Dani, who helped prune some shubs during our stewardship day, inspired us all with her T-shirt that said: “Help more bees. Plant more trees. Clean the seas! Photo credit: Lynn Nicholas.

Two hours later, the job was done and the mulch was almost gone. And we decided that the 2 cubic yards, which didn’t look like a lot at first, was perfect for mulching all of our fruit trees all around the park. Our mission was accomplished! Now it was time to pose for a socially distanced group picture!

Ben Nobleman Park volunteers pose beside the almost finished mulch pile. Photo credit: Susan Poizner

We put the fruit trees to bed on Sunday. But Saturday was the day for our pollinator garden team to meet up including Gail, Lynn, Sherry, Marilyn and Annie. They weeded and deadheaded and got the garden ready for the winter.

Gail gives the thumbs up for a wonderful year in the garden Photo credit: Lynn Nicholas.
Sherry takes a moment to relax while Annie works in the background. Photo credit: Lynn Nicholas.

Even though we are well into the fall, some plants in the garden still bloomed cheerfully.

Vernonia is a fall bloomer. Photo credit: Lynn Nicholas.
Sedum Autumn Joy is a fall bloomer as well. Photo credit: Lynn Nicholas.

Despite COVID-19, this has still been a wonderful year in the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard. Each year we keep track of how many volunteer hours we spend caring for our plants and trees. This year, we have worked more than ever before. Lynn, our volunteer coordinator, tallied up the numbers below:

  • Volunteer hours for 2020:  277
  • Volunteer hours for 2019:  205
  • Volunteer hours for 2018:  174
  • Volunteer hours for 2017:  177

So, it’s time for the team to say goodbye for this year. We will all meet in the park again next spring to enjoy the great outdoors, build community, work hard and to enjoy the harvest. Thank you so much to everyone who spent time in the park with us this year. We look forward to another successful and joyful season in 2021!

Susan Poizner is the coordinator of The Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard in Toronto and the author of the award-winning fruit tree care book Growing Urban Orchards. Susan teaches fruit tree care skills online at he fruit tree care training website OrchardPeople.com. Susan is also the host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast, a show that explores topics relating to fruit trees, food forests, permaculture and arboriculture. She is also an ISA Certified arborist.