Fruit for Folks

[Becca]

Well, there comes a time in any project where you’ve got to take
stock, see where you are, determine your next course of action, and
take a deep breath before you dive in. For the Urban Orchard Project
in Aylesford Place, that moment is now.

While we’ve gotten a wonderful response from most of the privately
owned orchard plots, whether church related or individual businesses,
we’ve hit some pretty serious stumbling blocks from the city owned
properties. It seems that due to “infestation concerns” and
“objectionable fruit” issues, the city will not permit edible fruit or
nut trees to be grown on their properties, despite the fact that our
neighborhood has agreed to maintain the trees ourselves. This current
problem is a bit disheartening considering the funding for this
project is to come from the city’s Neighborhood Sustainability Grant
award, where our application was reviewed by folks within city
government who might have know more about these current limitations.
However, it is also a blessing, because it will provide us with a
great opportunity to lead the city to more creative thinkers and doers
by following the example of private citizens.

The real silver lining of this hurdle is that we now have an
opportunity to plant our fruit trees in private yards, which will
truly bring the impact of this project back down to the community
level.

Ideally, we would like to have 3 or 4 houses go together to plant one
or two trees in each of their yards to create mini-plots along the
streets. But of course, if individual households are also interested,
those would be possible too.

So what should you do?

Go and talk to your neighbors about creating such a plot.

If you don’t know your neighbors, this is a great chance to meet them!
(Honestly, nothing beats an introduction of “Hey, I live next door…
wanna plant some fruit trees together?”)

If you don’t have a front yard that could fit a small fruit tree, talk
to your neighbors that do and encourage them to. (Again if you don’t
know them, see the note above.)

If you rent your home, talk to your landlord, whom you’ve hopefully
already met.

Know that you’ll have a say in what type of fruit and/or nut tree goes
into the space, as long as its relatively low maintenance and of a
manageable size.

Oh, and of course you’d need to be willing to let the neighborhood
partake of the harvest in return for our care of the trees.

After you’ve done all this, or if you have questions please email me.

Let’s show the city we can success despite this recent roadblock!