Come help out in the Fruit Garden!
By Tom Wake
We have a very large fruit set so we Fruit Garden volunteers will continue thinning this Thursday from 9 am to noon. The honey berries are turning blue so it is time to net them. We can also pick some after noon. We are still on the lookout for damaged trees, insects, and disease.
Bob Glanzman, also known as Kiwibob, will be demonstrating the summer pruning of hardy kiwis, and also talking about growing figs here in the PNW in the Fruit Garden on Saturday, July 16th, beginning at 10:30 am.
Following Bob’s workshop we will be sampling some fruit in the Garden, and then Bill Davis will demonstrate summer pruning of apple trees, followed by a demonstration of bud grafting.
Cost $15Â Â Free to WWFRF members
Schedule
10:15Â Â Â Â Â Â Registration
10:30-11:30 Â Â Â Â Â Kiwi and fig workshop
11:30-12:15 Â Â Â Â Â Fruit Sampling
12:15-1:15 Â Â Â Â Â Summer pruning of apple trees and bud grafting demonstration
On May 5th from 9 am to noon we will finish thinning the pears and we will start thinning the apples. There are a number of trees in the nursery that will be planted. We will continue to look for disease and tent caterpillars.
The Fruit Garden volunteers enjoying a snack during break.
On April 20th from 9-noon come out to the Fruit Garden and help with pruning, looking for tent caterpillars and transplanting young trees.
The Fruit Garden volunteers have recently finished putting a layer of biodegradable mulch covered with several inches of sawdust on the blueberry beds. This should not only help suppress weeds, but it should help suppress the mummyberry apotheca (mushrooms) and reduce mummyberry infection.
The 1:30 – 2:20 pm demonstration of Pruning Freestanding Cherry Trees, which takes place in the Fruit Garden and which was originally to be done by Dr. Bob Norton, will now be done by Bob Baines.
Â
Join us at our annual Winter Field Day on Saturday, March 5, 2016! We’ll have rootstock and scion wood sales, workshops on pruning and grafting, and Fruit Garden demonstration on pruning UFU cherries and slender spindle apples by Tom Thornton of Cloud Mountain farm! We hope to see you there!
All members are welcome to attend the board meeting. We will meet on November 21 from 9 am to 3 pm in Seattle at Sue Williams’ home. Potluck lunch. For directions email info@wwfrf.org.
Due to the unusually warm weather this year the fruit is ripening early and we are moving the Apple and Pear Day up by 2 weeks.
Apple and Pear Day
Saturday, September 26th
11:00am – 2:00 pm
Sample apples and pears!
Sample ciders!
Jacky King teaches about cider
Registration begins at 10:30 am
11:00am                      Opening speeches, Fruit Garden information
11:00am – 1:00pm      Cider Tasting
11:15am                      Pruning Demo
11:15am                      Fruit Garden Tours (green vested volunteers)
12:00am – 2:00pm      Sampling Apple & Pear Varieties
Saturday, June 13th, 2015
This will be a chance to learn and get some hands on experience with thinning and putting footies on the developing apple fruit to deter apple maggot and coddling moth damage. The Board Meeting will take place at the same time and then we will have a combined potluck lunch with the workshop participants and then we will all help thin in the Fruit Garden.
10:30-12:30 WWFRF Board Meeting in Master Gardener’s Pavillion
10:00-10:30 Educational introduction to benefits of Thinning and applying Footies
10:30-12:30 Thinning & Footies in Fruit Garden
12:30-1:30 Combined potluck Participants & Board in Fruit Garden
1:30-3:30 Thinning & Footies in Fruit Garden
Don’t forget to bring something for the potluck lunch!
