Last Thursday I attended a Harvest Festival in my neighbourhood. Members of the community have pooled their time and energy toward planting and nurturing fruit trees in Ben Nobleman park in Toronto, and they hosted a festival with music, a talent show and orchard tours to share their success with the neighbourhood. With the help of the city’s Parks and Forestry department, a grant from a garden tool company and some determination, the group has managed to bring fruit trees, including apricot, plum and pear trees, as well as serviceberry, through hot summers and a cold winter, such that they look healthy and established.
Why bother to grow fruit in parks, when fruit can be bought from local grocers? According to Susan Poizner, one of the group’s organizers, the goals of the project are to teach kids that fruit doesn’t have to come wrapped in plastic, to meet neighbours and to get together to be social. It seemed to be working: Kids were loving the fresh fruit (albeit not from those trees, but from other Ontario sources).
Here are a few fruit-growing tips Susan shared as part of her tour of the park:
- Pear trees are among the hardiest fruit trees
- You need to plant multiple trees of the same type, or there should be more of the same kind of tree in the area, in order to ensure cross pollination. (Trees need to be pollinated with pollen from other trees.)
- When trees are just getting established, remove their fruit in its early growth stages in order to encourage the tree itself to grow
- Avoid dwarf fruit trees: they are more fragile
- Attract bees and other pollinators to your fruit trees with a pollinator garden, comprised of native wildflowers and hardy herbs.
- Mount birdhouses around your fruit trees to encourage birds to nest. Birds can help control pests that may affect your fruit trees.
- Mulch heavily around the base of your trees, leaving the base of the trunk exposed to the air. Mulching helps prevent evaporation and protects the roots in winter.
- Accept that home-grown fruit may have some imperfections. “It may not be perfect, but it teaches us what real food looks like,” say Susan.
The plans for the park didn’t come together without some controversy. Read about it here.
What do you think, can mini-orchards work in community parks?
