Summer Activities in Ben Nobleman Park

Jihane, Giselle and Gail weed in the shade garden in the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard

Where has the time gone? It seems that just a heartbeat ago we were waiting for the spring, and now autumn is just around the corner. August is a busy time in our orchard park, with lots of weeding to do and pruning and cleanup around the trees.

And the insects are hard at work too, gathering nutrition from the native plants that we have added to our gardens over the years. These insects are precious. Many of them pollinate our fruit trees and other plants that we humans rely on for food. Others serve us by feasting on insect pests that might otherwise be attacking our fruit trees!

Beneficial insects flock to the native blanketflower in our two pollinator gardens.

I love it when passers-by say hello to the team and thank us for our work in the park. For us, making the park look beautiful and keeping the fruit trees healthy and productive is very rewarding. But the best part is the opportunity for us to interact with others in our community. And we have members of all ages and backgrounds….

For instance, there’s Sara who brings along her hard-working teenage daughters Kali and Rebecca. Sara is popular in our orchard because of her sparkling personality, but it also helps that she gets her husband Terry to bring us a post stewardship picnic from time to time of delicious bagels or baguettes!

Sara and Rebecca on Stewardship Day.

One of our new members is Jihane, who after a summer of work in the park was recently rewarded with her very own Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard T-shirt! This week she worked with longtime members Giselle and Gail in the shade garden.

From left to right: Giselle, Jihane, Gail.

On the other side of the park, Zeny and Annie worked in the pollinator garden! And while Annie lives just a few steps away, Zeny takes public transportation from the other side of the city to join us on stewardship days.

Annie (L) and Zeny (R) put lots of love into the pollinator garden!

It was a great team this week. We have our next stewardship day in the park on September 10th and one of our jobs will be sharpening our garden tools – and we offer that as a free service to the community as well.

From left to right: Gail, Zeny, Giselle, Jihane, Susan, and Annie.

See you all next time!

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.