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
Lakeside Community Garden 