Orchard Hill
Orchard Hill |
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Believe it or not, there is actually a hill. NYC Community gardens are not known for having hills, but when a ditch was created with a backhoe many years ago, the scooped up soil was deposited as our little hill. Maybe at it's highest, it is five feet up, but it is big enough to make it an effort to push up a wheel barrow, and it gives the garden enough topographic relief to keep things interesting.
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On this high ground, we have various
types of fruit trees. As of 2002, we have five Peach trees, two Macintosh
Apple trees, two Cherry trees, two Apricot trees, one Pear tree, and one
Plum tree. To be honest, not all of these trees are up on the hilltop,
but most of them are. Most of them were planted the year our garden was
created, and in the span of seven years, they have grown quickly, and
have flourished. |
As we have found, taking care of fruit
trees is not easy. You can't just plant them, and forget about them. They
have many needs, and most significant is that of pest control. As we have
made an effort to raise our foods using organic methods, it is quite difficult
to combat pests and not apply some kind of spray that eliminates pests.
Our most troublesome trees to date have been our apple trees. Sure, they
have produced some apples, but they are often not worth eating. They are
small, misshapen, and worst of all, often full of worms. It was suggested
by Cornell Cooperative
Extension to apply bordeaux spray and horticutural oil, the least
noxious sprays for pest control. We did make several applications throughout
the growing season as directed, and sure enough, we had better apples.
We haven't followed suit recently, not so much that we are opposed to
doing so, but more because we have let other pressing obligations get
in the way. The good news is that with minimal attention, our peach trees
are cranking. Each year, we get a better harvest, and in the dry, hot
summer of 2002, with our trees getting very little water, we had a bumper
crop of large, pest free, juicy peaches. |
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a place to rest on the hill |
Other thoughts regarding the growing
of fruit in a community garden based at a school: not many people are
around when the fruit is ready to be eaten, so much of the fruit ripens
uneaten. We also have found the fruit to pose safety issues, as unsupervised
students are tempted to use the fruit as they would a snowball in the
wintertime. Nonetheless, our fruit trees are worth the effort,as they
are objects of curiousity to those of us living in New York City. They
are absolutely beautiful when in bloom, and when fruiting, and a delight
to our tastebuds, should we be lucky enough to eat some of the fruit! |
the lawn under the trees is inviting to this class
