Stacey and Lindsay weed around the cherry trees in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard…but the spring has come and gone…where is the nutrient rich mulch?

Fruit Tree Mulching – Now or Never!

For some it feels like July is just the beginning of the gardening season, but for the volunteers at the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard, we are months into our gardening year.

In March we pruned our fruit trees and since then we have been watering and weeding the trees and caring for the pollinator garden.

The problem is that the time to mulch your trees starts in the early spring and ends in mid July. That’s because if you feed your trees in late summer, it will spur growth into the winter and that tender new growth will likely die during the first frost. Not a good thing.

So, we know you need to feed fruit trees by mid-July…but this year we had a big problem. No money for nutrient-rich mulch! Continue reading →