Category Archives: Orchard Work

Park Tree Painting Party

Children under apricot tree canopy painting trunk

Lou, Janina and Liam painting an apricot tree in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard

Saturday June 9th was tree painting day. A team of energetic volunteers painted all of our lovely fruit trees to protect them from the sun, and prevent insects from climbing up to munch their juicy leaves. Two local children, Liam and Lou, frequent park visitors, but first-time painters, volunteered to help. After making a 1:1 mixture of water and white latex indoor paint (water-based), we started on the apricots. Keeping an eye out for any invasive gypsy moth caterpillars, we painted the trunks, making sure to cover all the cracks. Liam and Lou painted so well that I had to make sure my own painting was up to the same standards. Continue reading →

Mulching Prep, Selfies, and Gypsy Moth!

The stewardship team on June 2, 2018

The volunteers of the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard have been back on the job for over a month now, and until this week, diligently working to get our pollinator garden back into shape. But this week it was time (a bit late actually) to get to our fruit trees! Our job was to weed around all our trees and expand the mulch circles to prepare for mulching next week.  Continue reading →

The Time To Prune is Now…

Lynn preparing to prune fruit trees 2014

Lynn preparing to prune fruit trees in Ben Nobleman Park 2014

This week Lynn, Sherry and Susan brought their tools out to the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard and went to prune the fruit trees. It was cold! But we know that this is the best time to prune young trees. We worked our way around the trees using the skills we have gained after four years of fruit tree pruning workshops. Now Susan is getting ready to launch an online workshop on pruning on her Urban Fruit Tree website  to help those who don’t have access to fruit tree care mentors in their communities. Now, if you happen to live near our orchard which is located near Eglinton West subway in Toronto, you are welcome to come and join us for our upcoming (and first for 2014) stewardship day in the park on April 12th at 10.00 a.m. We will do a thorough tree inspection and will start cleaning up around the trees and the pollinator garden. To come and join us, send an email to growingforgreen (at) gmail.com. See you soon!