Fruit Garden Mission: To provide support to WSU NWREC Fruit Horticulture Program through field demonstrations, educational activities, handouts, signage, website support and providing examples of recommended fruit varieties and their culture.
The Fruit Garden, at 16650 State Route 536, Mount Vernon, WA, is open again after being closed for over a year due to COVID-19 restrictions. It is forbidden to pick fruit without specific authorization.
Members of the Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation have created a six acre Fruit Garden to allow the public to view successful fruit varieties and cultural methods for our Pacific maritime climate.
We have a series of 40 points of interest with signs and website information. Go to Fruit Garden Tour.
The basic plan features a central oval of grass meadow, enclosed by a surrounding pathway bordered on either side by a lane of fruit trees. The inner-oval planting consists of 28 heirloom or “old-time” apples such as Esopus Spitzenberg, Yellow Newtown and others that were well know
n in early settlement orchards. The outer-oval trees consist of various varieties of fruit recommended for our area, starting with apples to the North and peaches to the South, with pears, Asian pears, plums and cherries in between.
Fruit Garden list of specific cultivars
Nut, apple and stone-fruit trees are located along the West and South fences. Twelve individual plots show various varieties of fruit and cultural techniques. There are arbors with grapes and kiwis, and other areas include unusual fruits, rootstock comparisons, pruning methods, and extensive espalier designs.
Mature fruit trees from WSU Research plots have been added as they became available. Pruning, grafting and tree-training techniques are demonstrated at the Winter Field-Day and events in the summer (check our opening page in early June for information on summer events).
The Fruit Garden Tour map below shows the location of various types of fruit and cultural demonstrations to be found in the Fruit Garden.
