Gail, Janina and Alex plant our two new hazelnut shrubs in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard

This weekend, the volunteers of Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard planted two new shrubs.  Adam Koziok of Earthgen Tree Nursery in Ontario generously donated these hazelnut shrubs to our orchard park when he came to the studio to chat with me about growing hazelnuts on my monthly radio show and podcast.

The shrubs came to us at the perfect time. They’re replacing two trees that we had to remove due to disease problems. They are Theta and Yamhill cultivars. Yamhill is known for producing high quality nuts. Theta produces smaller nuts but its main purpose is to act as a pollination partner for Yamhill.

This weekend, six of us went out to the orchard for planting day. Gail, Janina and Alex did the digging. Susan wheeled in the compost and Ruth and Marilyn worked weed patrol in the pollinator garden.

We made sure to dig really large holes and to mix in some compost because the soil in much of our orchard is pretty heavy clay. After a lot of work and some cleanup, the two shrubs were watered in and comfortably settled in their new home.

The Ben Nobleman Park Volunteers pose after planting our new filbert shrubs. You can see one of the plants in the foreground of the picture.

One thing you may not know about the volunteers of the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard: We like to dress for success. And Ruth outshone us all in wearing her lucky planting day gardening boots as you can see from the photo below.

Ruth wins “Best Boots” Competition in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard

It was a fantastic morning. And we’re happy to have these beautiful shrubs as new additions to our orchard. We’re also looking for some new humans to join us in the park on our stewardship days! Come and join us for fresh air, a fresh harvest, and some healthy gardening time in the great outdoors.

We have one more stewardship day left this year. It will take place on Saturday, October 20th at 9.30 am EST and we will be doing some fall fruit tree mulching. We are located in midtown Toronto near Eglinton and The Allen Road. To join our team, send an email to Lynn at growingforgreen (at) gmail.com.

Hopefully we’ll see you there!

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 creator of the online fruit tree care training program at www.orchardpeople.com. Susan is also the host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast which explores fruit trees, food forests, permaculture and arboriculture.