August in the Orchard: Garden Angels and Harvest Table Care

Shelly, Annie and Gail (and Zeny, not int the photo) are the garden angels, spending hours weeding and deadheading to keep the garden beautiful and attractive to both passers-by and beneficial insects.

It’s been hot. It’s been dry. But the team in the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard have been busy taking care of our plants and fruit trees. Here is what we’ve been keeping busy with!

Irrigation: We’ve been watering the pollinator garden and our fruit trees regularly to keep them healthy. Fun fact: Did you know that plants take in nutrients in liquid form only? So if our plants are dehydrated, they are also starving! And that wouldn’t be a good thing!

Weeding and Deadheading: Our pollinator garden team (let’s call them our Garden Angels!) have been working hard to weed and deadhead in the garden. Our goal is to create a garden that is attractive both for passers-by and also for the many beneficial insects it attracts. Beneficial insects help protect our fruit trees by preying on the types of insect pests that attack fruit trees.

Sara, Eli, Rebecca and Annie scrubbing the harvest table

Harvest Table Washing, Sanding and Oiling: Over a decade ago we raised money to build the big harvest table in the park and it’s made of centuries old, heirloom wood that was once part of Toronto’s first docklands. Each year we scrub the table to remove dirt and pollution. This year Sara led us in a new activity. We used a planer and sander to smooth out the wood (and remove graffiti) and then oiled the table to keep the table lubricated.

Eli sanding the harvest table. Thanks to local real estate agent Ben Kafetz for allowing us to use electricity from his nearby home!

Harvesting: Sadly, a small number of park visitors have found our park and they are coming with bags and harvesting all of our fruit trees, taking home the bounty rather than enjoying it as part of a community harvest day. To make matters worse, they harvest the fruit (including plums, apricots and apples) before it becomes ripe! But there are a couple of the trees that the fruit raiders haven’t found and so the volunteers have been able to have a taste of some of the bounty.

Annie, Gail and Leah enjoy the apples from our crabapple tree.
Dan and his bucket of crabapples, well earned after weeding the dogwood shade garden!

Our park harvest policy is “If you see something ripe, pick one or two. Leave the rest for someone else”. And we do organize community harvest days when there is bounty to share. So let’s all work to educate park visitors that the trees are there for all of us to enjoy. Hopefully they we can all learn to harvest responsibly.

Dolgo crabapples are tart, but they can be eaten raw. They are also great to use to make crabapple jelly.

Come and join us in the park! If you want to be a volunteer, write us an email at growingforgreen@gmail.com.