Month: May 2020

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Adopting a fruit tree guild

I gave a short presentation on food forests and designing fruit and nut tree guilds during last week’s Virtual Ask a Virtual #YGK Master Gardener. You can register for the series on Eventbrite. Learn more about how to design, plant and care for a food forest fruit tree guild here.

How to design a nut or fruit tree guild. Includes planting palettes for:

  • black walnut guild (we’re planting endangered butternuts in the SW Welcome garden and each corner of the garden & will guild them using species from this palette)
  • native plant guild (we just planted a hybrid mulberry (Illinois Everbearing) in the SW Welcome garden. It’s up for adoption if you’re interested! We’ll be planting native red mulberries in the fall or next year
  • Asian inspired guild
  • medicinal guild (we’re planting a medicinal guild in the NW entrance Welcome garden )
  • medieval guild (we’ll plant a Medlar next year so we can experiment with this guild)
  • ornamental guild
  • apple tree guild (lots of these up for adoption)
  • pear tree guild (all of these have been adopted)

Planting a fruit tree

600Dan & Krista planting hazelnuts, mulberry and persimmons in the SW Welcome Garden

Curious about why you’re seen people who’ve adopted fruit trees digging moats around their trees? It’s to store water!

Read more about moats (mulch basins), planting mounds (to elevate the fruit tree above the heavy clay soil) and woodchips (to shift the soil to fungal dominance) in our article designing a fruit tree guild.

Mulch basins capture and store rainwater or greywater in the soil, reducing Create an Oasis with Greywater, Art Ludwig

Interested in adopting a fruit tree?

600Nate planting the Plumcot he’s adopted

Adopting a fruit tree means being the human caring helping the infant fruit tree establish itself and becoming wonderfully healthy with your love and support, with the help of companion planting and with lots of mulch and water.

  • Mulch heavily with woodchips, keeping them 6″ (15 cm) away from the trunk so rodents don’t nibble on the tasty bark
  • Water 1″ (2.5 cm) per week this summer (around a one gallon bucket of water). If we don’t get any rain and it’s hot, water twice a week. If it rains regularly, you may not need to water.
  • Make a personalized sign that identifies the fruit tree, it’s variety and it’s companions (including you)
  • Plant some guild companions (ideas on species in the presentation above)
  • Ensure the trunk is protected from rodents with a cage, milk carton or white plastic spiral

We still have a few trees up for adoption. Email Joyce or Dan at lakesidegarden70@gmail.com if you’re interested or want to help out with the food forest!

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KASSI Seed Saving Plot Management – Volunteers Needed!

Hello Lakeside gardeners!

I’m sure many of you are familiar with Kingston Area Seed System Initiative (KASSI) http://seedsgrowfood.org/. They manage a collection of local heirloom seeds. They have a partnership with Lakeside Community Garden to grow out and save their seeds. They are also looking for donations because their main fund raising event (Seedy Saturday) was cancelled this year!

KASSI is looking for volunteers who will manage one or two or more of their eight plots at Lakeside. Anyone interested please email lakesidegarden70@gmail.com

Cathy is holding two orientations and planting sessions this weekend: 10am on Saturday May 23rd and 4pm on Sunday May 24th. If these times don’t work for you, we can arrange another time.

This task has been added to the Membership Task List 2020 as item 15, and please add your name to the Task List Sign up Sheet too!

Check out these details from Cathy:

  • The Kingston Area Seed System (KASSI) has eight beds at Lakeside that we grow out for seeds. We plan to grow out one crop in each bed so that we have enough plants to ensure genetic preservation. One variety of tomatoes will take two beds.
  • Attached please find the instruction sheet that Cathy made to help anyone who is growing seed in the KASSI beds at Community Gardens and the varieties that we hope volunteers will grow out this year.
  • It might be easiest if people volunteered to take care of a bed or two or three or more 🙂
  • With the exception of the tomatoes, we grow all of the other crops out for seeds so there wouldn’t be any food to share. But we are always willing to share KASSI seeds with KASSI volunteers without asking for the usual sliding scale donation as long as they are willing to grow them out for seeds and food. And we can coach them about that too!
  • Volunteers tending the tomatoes can harvest them for food and seed. I’m hoping that we can share the tomatoes with everyone in the garden as long as they are willing to collect seeds to give back to us! Or to keep and share with others!
  • Of course KASSI is willing to provide support and coaching to anyone who needs it!
  • And it would be good to get other gardeners at Lakeside growing open-pollinated seeds that they can save. I would be happy to do a workshop to help people learn how easy it is to save seeds. KASSI could provide seeds for those gardeners without requiring a donation for anyone who is helping out with the KASSI seed gardens.
  • For anyone else- KASSI really needs donations this year because Seedy Saturday -our major fundraiser- was cancelled as you know!

-Dan

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adopt a fruit tree guild | planting | virtual workshop | COVID-19 requirements

As you all probably already know, the community garden is now officially open & it’s time to start tending our food forest!!!


COVID-19 requirements Given the current state of emergency, we aren’t allowed to operate as we normally do and must comply with restrictions and preventative measures developed in consultation with the Kingston Community Gardens Network, local garden representatives and KFL&A Public Health. BEFORE entering the garden, you MUST read and ANSWER THE QUESTIONS in the Lakeside COVID-19 Safe Operating Guidelines & Agreement. 

What do you think about adopting a fruit tree to care for this summer? 
Reply to this email if you’re interested in adopting a fruit tree. We have 11 apples, 3 plums, 3 pears, 3 sour cherries we need to care for, along with berry bushes. Adopting the tree would mean:

  • Ensuring it gets 1″ of water every week. We’ll have buckets by each fruit tree, you’d need to fill the bucket a couple of times (you can use a hose) so it slowly drains to water the tree. We’d keep an eye on the weather, if it rains enough during the week the tree won’t need water.
  • Make sure the tree has enough woodchip mulch to help retain moisture. You can top it up from the large woodchip piles. 
  • Weed the tree. There are some aggressive weeds like pasture grass that need to be eliminated. Once the weeds are eliminated, we can plant perennial vegetables & flowers. 
  • Planning for the flowers & the perennial vegetables you’d like to grow with the tree. I’ll do a workshop to introduce some of the possibilities. You could source & donate the plants yourself or you could make a list and send a request for us to purchase the plants from the budget. To learn more about planting a fruit tree guild, join the the virtual workshop (see the next item). 

Fruit tree guild virtual workshopLearn more about permaculture fruit tree guilds. On Thursday May 28th at 1:00 pm I’ll be giving an introduction to fruit tree guilds during the weekly Virtual Ask a Master Garden Q&A. Register on Eventbrite. 


Planting the welcome garden We have 3 persimmons, two hazelnuts, two mulberries arriving from Whiffletree. They are going to be delivered right after the long weekend. We are going to plant them along with a few donated endangered butternuts near the SW entrance. If you’d like to help, let us know. With social distancing, we could probably have 5 people preparing & planting at the same time. Reply to this email if you’re interested in planting.

Volunteer sign up If you’re super keen, in addition to adopting a fruit tree, there are a lot of other jobs you can help out with. Dan has put together a wonderful list of volunteer tasks. Please READ the task list and SIGN UP here for tasks you’re interested in helping out with. If you have any problems with the sign up sheet, just reply to this email.

Hand washing station: Tom built a hands-free hand washing station for you to use when you enter and before you leave the garden. You can find the station next to the shed.

Bathroom facilities: With COVID-19 restrictions, Sharing Centre is closed and so we have no bathroom facilities this year. 
Joyce

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COVID Requirements | Garden Opening | Plot Assignments

Hi gardeners!
Welcome to the 2020 gardening season!


We are officially opening the garden Saturday May 9th. However, given the current state of emergency in the province, we won’t be allowed to operate as we normally do and must comply with restrictions and preventative measures developed in consultation with the Kingston Community Gardens Network, local garden representatives and KFL&A Public Health. 


BEFORE entering the garden, you MUST read and ANSWER THE QUESTIONS in the Lakeside COVID-19 Safe Operating Guidelines & Agreement. 

New Members: Welcome to the garden! A board member would be happy to meet you on site to give you a tour, show you your plot and show you where everything is. Just email lakesidegarden70@gmail.com we’ll set up a time to meet.

Plot Assignments: Here is a map of the garden with plot assignments. If you have any questions about your plot assignment just email lakesidegarden70@gmail.com.

Volunteer sign up: We won’t be able to hold work bees this year due to COVID-19, but Dan has put together a wonderful list of volunteer tasks. Please READ the task list and SIGN UP here for tasks you’re interested in helping out with. If you have any problems with the sign up sheet, just email lakesidegarden70@gmail.com.

Hand washing station: Tom built a hands-free hand washing station for you to use when you enter and before you leave the garden. You can find the station next to the shed. 

Bathroom facilities: With COVID-19 restrictions, Sharing Centre is closed and so we have no bathroom facilities this year. 

A few reminders

  • Compost is available at the North end of the garden. Please limit compost use to 4 wheelbarrows/plot/season. A new load is being delivered Monday.
  • NO personal vehicle access or deliveries are allowed. Occasionally delivery vehicles access the site. If there are any vehicles on site, please ensure you & your children stay safely away.
  • Lots of woodchips available at the North end of the garden. You can use these on the pathways or to mulch your plot.
  • If there are any broken or missing tools/hoses/nozzles, please email the board. 
  • All motorized devices (ie lawn mower, rototiller) requires a waiver. Email the board for more information.

Happy gardening!
LCG Board