New Mural on Ben Nobleman Park’s Orchard Notice Board

Jane, a high school student and orchard volunteer, poses in front of the bulletin board in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard. The board was built with the help of a grant from The Canadian Tree Fund.

A few years ago we raised money to build a new notice board in Ben Nobleman Park to tell park visitors about our project and give notice of upcoming events. The funding came from The Canadian Tree Fund and we were so happy with the results.

But in 2021, two volunteers took our bulletin board to another level. Volunteers Jane and her uncle Jeff are currently painting a mural on the board that celebrates the nature and wildlife that we in Ben Nobleman Park are working to preserve and protect.

“Gail (Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard’s treasurer) saw the sign was being tagged and thought if the bulletin board was painted, it would both prevent tagging and beautify the sign,” says Jane, who is in a specialized art program at Central Tech.  

“My mom shared my Instagram art with Gail and she asked if I’d be willing to paint the sign.”

The educational mural includes images of the types of birds that you can find in Ontario and in our neighbourhood, including red cardinals, bluejays, red winged blackbirds and sparrows.

Jane’s uncle, Jeff, enjoys painting and was also happy to get involved.

“I took a few pictures of the sign and did a few rough sketches of ideas,” he explains. 

“The one I liked the best was turning the sign post legs into tree trunks and then having branches meet in the middle to draw the viewers attention to the notice board.” 

Blue jays are amongst the birds depicted on the mural.

“I decided on birch because it is easily recognizable and provides a lot of benefits to wildlife.  I wanted to add the birds so there would be some colour which would stand out against the black, white and brown of the birch,” Jeff added.

Before painting the details, each bird on the notice board is painted as an outline. Then Jane or Jeff fill in the details.

This Saturday, during our stewardship session, the duo will continue working on the mural. While the tree branches and trunks are done, their job now is to continue painting the details on the various types of birds.

A huge thank you to both Jane and Jeff for spending so many hours creating the mural. It brings even more beauty to our lovely park and has wonderful educational value as well. We can’t wait to see the final result!

Jane and her uncle Jeff in front of the notice board mural in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard.

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.