What a fabulous stewardship day at Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard!
Each year, we prune every one of our fruit trees. It’s an important job that helps keep the trees healthy and productive.
Our goal is to create open canopies where every branch has access to sunlight. Better air circulation allows the trees to dry more quickly after rain, reducing the risk of fungal diseases and helping the trees focus their energy on producing beautiful fruit.
We had a great turnout, and as always, there was lots of laughter and good conversation along with the hard work.
Leading the charge were Carolyn and Eleanor, our dynamic pruning duo. This year they tackled our mature sweet cherry trees for the first time. These trees were planted back in 2009 and they are among the oldest and largest in the orchard.
Fortunately, Carolyn and Eleanor had some extra muscle this year. Ian joined the team and quickly learned how to use our pole pruners, hand saws, and loppers. Under the watchful eyes of his two pruning mentors, he passed his first day’s training with flying colours and has now been officially promoted to Apprentice Fruit Tree Pruner at Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard.
Giselle took on our apple tree that struggles with fire blight and did a beautiful job opening up the canopy.
Susan worked on one of the plum trees on the south side of the park, while Sarah focused on our young sour cherry tree. Although it was planted quite a few years ago, it has never grown much. But this year this little tree finally seems ready to take off.
Sara also tackled another ongoing challenge: our community bulletin board! Keeping posters attached has been difficult. Tape peels off. Tacks don’t work. So Sara brought a heavy-duty stapler, and so far it seems to be doing the trick. Her next mystery to solve is why the plexiglass cover always looks cloudy. It may still have an old protective plastic film clinging to it.
While the trees were getting a lot of love and attention, Zenny made sure our second pollinator garden didn’t feel neglected! A couple of rainy stewardship days had left both pollinator gardens a little overgrown, but thanks to her efforts, the smaller garden is in much better share and we can now see the pollinator-friendly plants.
Next time, we’ll be pruning the remaining apple and plum trees and giving both pollinator gardens some more attention.
We hope to see you there! If you want to volunteer send us an email at growingforgreen@gmail.com.
Susan Poizner is one of the volunteers for The Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard in Toronto. She is the creator of the fruit tree care education website OrchardPeople.com. Susan is the author of four fruit tree care books including Grow Fruit Trees Fast: A Beginner’s Guide to a Healthy Harvest in Record Time. She is also the host of the Orchard People podcast and an ISA Certified Arborist.