Boston Flora

Tag: Fruit Trees

  • Sunday, April 3, 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm – More Fruit Please! Expanding Your Home Harvest

    With proper planning and plant selection, fruiting trees and shrubs can be an attractive and low-maintenance option for growing food in the home landscape.  Former City Fruit program director for Earthworks Ben Crouch will provide basic tips and outline resources for planning, planting, tending and harvesting a home orchard at this Sunday, April 3 workshop at the Hunnewell Building at the Arnold Arboretum. Learn the particulars of growing blueberries, apples, pears, plums and other less common fruit. There’s nothing fresher than home grown.$30 for Arboretum members, $35 for nonmembers.  Register at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=1#April.  Photo of plum tree by Joshua James Evans.

  • Saturday, April 3, 9 am – noon – Pruning Basics

    Learn the why’s and how’s of pruning – why to prune, if you even need to prune, when to prune, and what cuts to make.  Wellesley College Botanic Gardens Senior Horticulturist Tricia Diggins teaches you to make cutting edge decisions about nearly every pruning job from house plants to large tres.  She explores with you how these general principles relate to specific plants like flowering shrubs, evergreens, older trees, young plants and fruit trees.  Approximately half the class time will be indoors and the remaiinder will be outside in the Hunnewell Arboretum and Alexandra Botanic Gardens, looking at the pruning needs of a variety of trees and shrubs.  The Wellesley College Hunnewell Arboretum can be damp under foot in early spring.  Please dress appropriately for the weather.  Class number HOR 10 080, WCFH members $20, non members $25.  To register, or for directions, log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or email horticulture@wellesley.edu.

    Pruning Tools

  • Friday, March 12, 12:00 noon – 3:00 pm – Managing Fruit Trees in the Edible Landscape

    Join tour guide Nick Novick on Friday, March 12, from noon – 3, to visit a small orchard and learn the ecological care of fruit trees using a holistic approach. Until fairly recently, producing a reliable fruit crop required the use of a number of synthetic chemicals with troubling health and environmental profiles. By changing the way we think about “pest control” and utilizing innovative approaches along with improved materials, good results are now possible without the use of environmentally damaging chemicals.

    You’ll visit a home orchard at 393 Estabrook Road in Concord where you’ll discuss care throughout the year, including pruning, spray materials and timing, and discuss other, practical considerations. The focus will be on apples, but some other fruits will be discussed.

    Nick Novick owns and operates Small Planet Landscaping, which, since 1997, has provided environmentally sensitive landscaping services including lawn fertility and weed management, low-impact orchard care, and installations emphasizing native plant communities. He has a B.S. in Environmental Conservation, attended UMass Extension’s Green School, and has served on the Board and edited the newsletter for the Ecological Landscaping Association. His company currently cares for almost 80 trees on six different properties.

    Fee is $20 for ELA members, $25 for non-members, and walk-ins are welcome. For more information email ela.info@comcast.net, or call 617-436-5838.

    Directions: From the center of Concord, take Lowell Road (heading northwest toward Carlisle) for just over a mile. At the four-way stop/intersection, take right onto Barnes Hill Road. Go 1/2 mile, and take left onto Estabrook Road. Number 393 is the last property on the left. Following the parking signs, proceed through the two, stone pillars, go a few hundred feet, and take a left just past the small, brick house. Someone will point out where to park. Call Nick directly if you have difficulty finding the site: 508-308-4960.

    http://www.treehugger.com/the-apple-orchard-photo.jpg