Porch Garden 2013, Fruit Tree Trials

Below this post are posted some of the pictures fro Porch Garden 101, which was mostly culinary and tea herbs and a tomato pruning trial.

I am finally going to try my hand at  container fruit trees. As the founder of Rescue Tree Program® which is like the rescue animal program, except trees live longer with proper care. One time I rescued a tiny 8 inch spruce from the sidewalk out front of a Walgreens Drug store  It was dry as a bone and shedding needles. That was 9 years ago and it has been my Solstice Tree ever since. 

These little beauties were dying on the warehouse floor of a Costco. Hopefully they will appreciate their new digs and take off.

Everything is ready to begin. Porch gets kind of crowded..

Both the apple and the cherry have more than one variety of fruit grafted onto the root stock. Many fruit trees need this variation in order to pollinate. This grafting technique, if successful, will work well in a small space where you can only have a few trees.

The Cherry Tree, bare roots soaking in water as I prepare her new home.

Pruning some of the longer roots.

Cherry Tree settling into her new home. If it lives I will give it a name, but I don't want to name this tree after someone until I see some vigor.

 

The Apple and the Cherry in place to get maximum light.  I really need to take down my Solstice lights.

Those root looking growths are actually Clematis vine starts. If they survive, maybe they will add a decorative touch.

 Some of the perennial herbs show signs of coming back this year. I placed them on top of the soil. The beauty of this is, as I water the herbs the runoff waters the trees. They look ragged right now, but just wait! 

Update 2015:

Here is the little apple tree during the summer of 2014. Because the porch it started in was enclosed, I hand-pollinated many of the blossoms. The tree set a lot of fruit but because it was so young I pruned most of the off. I know I probably should have pruned ALL of them off but I coud not resist letting 5 or 6 apples grow. They were delcious. The cherry tree did well in 2014 also, but never blossomed. I await spring of 2015 to see what it will do.

 Last years successful tomato pruning self-tutorial. What a great plant that was.

My living Solstice Tree

  Here it is decorated this last December. It has gone through a bad mite infestation where it was completely defoliated in 2007, and last summer someone stole it from its temporary spot at the community garden (but then anonymously returned it when I sent out a pleading email).

    

A Community Garden within a Community Garden: 

S.O.A.P. a GO! for 2014!

In addition to the 65+ pea-patch style garden plots, the Evergreen Community Gardens also features a large team plot, gardened by a dedicated group of people A community garden within a community garden.

 

A Part of the Evergreen Community Garden Club, 

a Registered Student Organization

tesccommunitygardens@gmailcom

https://www.facebook.com/ecogardens

Team gardener and Masters student Ashley on a hot summer day in 2012

 We have a HUGE plot in Evergreen Community Gardens dedicated to people who do not want an individual plot, but still want to get their hands dirty at Evergreen’s garden. It works great for anyone who thinks they might be gone for part of the summer, isn’t sure they want their own plot, can commit some time, but aren’t sure how much, and people who just like the idea of working on a team in a larger plot, with more crop options.

Originally proposed by graduate student and gardener, Matthew, the project is loosely modeled after the Wendell Berry Community Garden in east Olympia

Our beautiful sunflowers

Every year is a lot of fun. Last year we started with around 20 gardeners. A few moved out of the area and we ended up with way more of some food than we could use. Some things do really well, and some things kind of flop, so we learn as we go. Every season is different and there are no “experts”.

Team gardener and Masters of Environmental Studies student, Kim J. in our bean trellis

The basic plan behind the project:

• 10 to 20 gardeners 
• Regularly scheduled meetings especially during the planning and work party stages, but come and go as you please.
• Everyone who participates shares in the harvest

Most beloved of all farm managers, Rose, holding one of many harvest baskets

As of today the soil is still too wet to work but there are several things we can start on.

Here is a general list of gardeny things we can do:

• Get together and create our crop plan
• Go through seed catalogs
• Decide what we want to plant (so we can get seeds) and where we want to plant them (crop rotation from last year)
• Draw a plan on garden map
• Make a “To Do” check list to help guide gardeners who come at different times
• Tool familiarization

S.O.A.P. team starting seeds in the beautifully expanded greenhouse, 2013 season

• Start seeds in the greenhouse (can start now, on-going through the season)
• Some good things to start now are hearty greens (kale, collards etc), onions, etc. 
• Working the soil – creating seed beds
•  Clear out old beds
• Dig and/or double dig
• Add soil amendments (compost, etc.)
• Let rest for a week or so, then
• Plant our starts
• Garden Feng Shui

2012 team clowning at first work party of the season

• Creative use of space
• Thinning
• Vertical gardening
• Shape of the beds
• Ornamental/Insectary borders (flowers and herbs)
• Culinary herb patch 
•   What herbs do we want to grow
• Tending and maintenance
• Watering
• Weeding
• Pruning   
• Snacking
• Harvesting 
• Garden 
• Potlucks
• Helping with Community Garden upkeep
• Doing our part for the larger garden
• Pitching ideas/helping out with Harvest Festival

 

The S.O.A.P. garden group is forming now. There is still time to sign up. The first step is to
put together an Interest List.

All interested people should contact garden coordinators at tesccommunitygardens@gmail.com and they will compile a list of people interested in the Community Plot, or contact Matthew at nascentgrasshopper@gmail.com . We will be having on-going planning meetings and hope to have a work party in mid-February in preparation for April and May plantings.