Tree Pruning Workshop at the People’s Orchard

Watch Fort Collins expert horticulturist and nurseryman Tom Throgmorton in action as he demonstrates proper pruning techniques for fruit trees. You’ll learn how pruning can help improve tree health, branch framework, and future fruit yield.

The pruning workshop is scheduled for Tuesday, March 19, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Registration is $10, payable to our partner, the Gardens on Spring Creek. Walk across Centre Ave to register or call 970.416.2486 with your credit card information. The workshop will be held at NRRC’s People’s Orchard, just south of Building A at 2150 Centre Avenue, in Fort Collins. Everyone is welcome to participate: campus employees and their family members as well as the general public.

Tom Throgmorton is owner and operator of Throgmorton Plant Management, LLC., a landscape installation and maintenance company and horticultural consulting firm. His name may sound familiar — Tom has been offering timely, local gardening advice on KUNC for decades.

If trees still at the orchard still need pruning when the workshop is done, student volunteers can finish the job. If you’re interested in volunteering and honing your new pruning skills, bring work gloves and a pruner from home (if you have one). Bypass (scissor) pruners work best. We will have a few extra pruners that volunteers can borrow.

See you at the workshop!

Orchard Volunteers Needed!

Folks, we need your help winterizing the People’s Orchard so it comes out of dormancy strong and healthy next spring. Our goals with this small fruit orchard on the south side of our building are to:

• Support USDA’s People’s Garden Initiative
• Promote employee wellness
• Demonstrate sustainable gardening practices
• Provide education (employees, general public, CSU and FRCC students, and children)
• Maximize useable produce for the Larimer County Food Bank

There are two ways to volunteer:

1. You (or better yet, your office group) can “adopt” a portion of the orchard. Your primary responsibility would be weeding in the summer, but you could also help prune branches, wrap tree trunks, spread wood mulch, etc. There are still a few unclaimed blocks remaining.
2. Volunteer to help with the orchard winterizing by referring to our spreadsheet (see below) for instructions and checking out tools from Building A’s mailroom.

Information on adopting an orchard block as well as tasks and instructions for the orchard winterizing can be found in an online spreadsheet that will shortly be emailed to employees on the NRRC campus.

Email the NRRC-A Green Team if you  have any questions or would like a link to the spreadsheet.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Cupcakes, Plants and Bikes, Oh My!

For the past year, NRRC Building A’s Green Team has been partnering with a small cupcakery in Loveland, “B” Sweet Cupcakes , to provide cupcakes for their bake sales.  From these fundraisers, the Green Team has been able to buy supplies for the People’s Orchard and the snacks for the two bike-to-work days in December and June (this year’s winter day is 12/12/12).  In the past, the green team members were able to get some of the refreshments donated (thanks to Great Harvest Breads) but they had paid for other expenses out of their pockets.

In addition to cupcakes, Drew McMahan from FHTET, has also donated plants to help raise funds and in September, other building residents donated plants that they had excess, or was moving and needed to find homes for them.  In May 2013, we will again host a green thumb day and will have outdoor plants available.

In the past month, “B” Sweet Cupcakes has been expanding her business; the cupcakery is making steps to go green.  She recycles cans, plastic and cardboard and she is replacing the lights in her café with CFL bulbs. The baker is excited to see if her utility bills can be lowered ensuring her affordable prices and continued work with our group as well as other charitable organizations that she supports. Instead of delivering her cupcakes to events in boxes that will be disposed of right away, she uses reusable plastic containers.  The boxes that she has in her shop are recyclable.  She doesn’t have much to compost as some days there are only crumbs to sweep up.

There will be one more bake sale this year, the first week of December, with yummy Egg Nog, Gingerbread and Chocolate Peppermint cupcakes.  If there is another flavor you would like to see on the table, let your green team member know.  Thank-you for all your support in our Go Green Activities!

Tree Pruning Workshop at the People’s Orchard

Watch Fort Collins nurseryman and fruit tree expert, Scott Skogerboe, in action as he demonstrates proper pruning techniques for fruit trees. You’ll learn how pruning can help improve tree health, branch framework and future fruit yield.

The pruning workshop is Tuesday, March 27 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Registration is $10, payable to our partner, the Gardens on Spring Creek. Either walk across Centre Ave to register or call 970.416.2486 with your credit card information. The workshop will be held at NRRC’s new People’s Orchard, just south of Building A at 2150 Centre Avenue in Fort Collins.

Scott Skogerboe, Chief Plant Propagator at Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery is one of Colorado’s premier fruit tree experts not to mention a very interesting guy and a great teacher.

Here are a few articles about/by Scott:
http://tinyurl.com/historic-plants
http://tinyurl.com/j-appleseed
http://tinyurl.com/cheyenne-high-plains

If some trees still need to be pruned after the workshop is over, student volunteers will finish the job. If you’re interested in volunteering and honing your new pruning skills, bring work gloves and a pruner from home if you have one. Bypass (scissor) pruners work best. We will have a few extra pruners that volunteers can borrow.

See you at the workshop!

Orchard Tucked In for Winter – Just in Time

Melissa and Mark wrap a fruit tree

Gene and Eric wrap a fruit tree

December 2nd, 2011

In late November, volunteers spent their lunch hour preparing the People’s Orchard trees for winter. Their tasks  included wrapping tree trunks to help prevent sunscald, adding support stakes and adjusting the tension of support wires. Normally, staking isn’t needed with newly planted trees and can even be harmful. However, because this orchard is in a high wind “corridor” between two buildings, we chose to stake and support these trees.  The volunteers adjusted the support wires to hold the trees upright, yet left them loose enough so that trees can sway a little in the wind, encouraging strong trunk development.

Paul from Forest Inventory and Analysis donated two large rolls of commercial tree wrap and the lunchtime volunteers included: Eric from the Forest Health and Technology Enterprise Team, Mark, contractor for Business Administrative Support Services, Gene, contractor for Natural Resource Manager, Melissa from the Agricultural Research Service (NRRC, Building D) and Matt from the Forest Management Service Center. Thanks everyone!

Additional maintenance will be needed in the spring. If you’d like to volunteer, stay tuned!

Mulch more than we thought!

Paul spreads wood mulch on a crisp November day

One of the final tasks for the People’s Orchard this year was to acquire and spread wood mulch on the whole orchard area. Many thanks to our new partner, the City Forestry Department, who donated and delivered many truckloads of wood mulch to the orchard. Thanks also to the stalwart volunteers who braved the cold and spread the mulch, including Paul from Forest Inventory and Analysis,  Chris from the Forest Management Service Center, Judy from the Rocky Mountain Research Station and Bruce from Ecosystem Management Coordination. Also, Melissa, from the Agricultural Research Service (NRRC, Building D), tagged all the trees and shrubs with permanent ID tags listing the variety names.

What’s next for the orchard? This week or next, we need a few volunteers to wrap tree trunks and make final adjustments to the tension of tree ties. Contact the Green Team if you’d like to help!

Many Hands Make Light Work

Drew demonstrating proper planting techniques. Notice the audience’s rapt attention.

Lift with your back, not your legs … oh, wait!

Two father and son teams hard at work

Two Forest Health Technology Team members thinking “We’re planting currants? Currants are an alternate host for White Pine Blister Rust!”

Clan Cormier hard at work. Sturdy work gloves? Check!

The Marston Clan preparing to plant an apricot tree

Most (but not all) of the motley crew

Well, maybe not “light” work, but nevertheless, about 30 volunteers gathered together and made quick work of planting our People’s Orchard on Saturday, September 17th.  Feds, contractors and family members from the U.S. Forest Service, NRCS, OCIO and ARS plus Boy Scouts from Troops 81 and 90 and Cub Scout Pack 11 met, ate breakfast, tolerated some tree planting and safety instructions then proceeded to quickly and professionally plant 34 fruit trees and shrubs in just under two hours! We planted:

• 2 Red Delicious Apples
• 2 Golden Delicious Apples
• 5 Honeycrisp Apples
• 3 Pioneer Apricots
• 3 North Star Cherries
• 4 Stanley Plums
• 6 Crandall Clove Currants
• 8 Red Lake Currants
• and 1 Black Lace Elderberry

As I discussed in January, this orchard is the first phase of our overall People’s Garden project. The Green Team’s goals are to:

• Support USDA’s People’s Garden Initiative
• Promote employee wellness
• Demonstrate sustainable gardening practices
• Provide education (employees, general public, CSU and FRCC students, and children)
• Maximize usable produce for the Larimer County Food Bank

If you feel as though you missed out, we still need volunteers! We will need help wrapping the trees for winter, staking the five large apple trees and spreading wood mulch on the orchard area. This is tentatively planned for 8:30 a.m Saturday morning, October 1st. Later, periodic maintenance will include deep watering a few times this winter and light pruning next spring.

Take a look at all of the great photos taken by Barbara Menzel and Sally Eliasen on planting day. If you were there, I guarantee you are in at least a few of these photos.

May all of our labors bear fruit!

People’s Orchard Planting

Orchard plan courtesy of Gardens on Spring Creek (Click to enlarge)   This is the plot just south of NRRC Building A.

We’ve made the jump from Planning to Planting! Your Green Team is inviting volunteers to see our People’s Orchard become a reality on Saturday, September 17^th, from 8:35 a.m. until all the trees are planted and watered. The more hands we have, the faster the work will go. The Green Team will be serving breakfast to volunteers from 8:00 a.m. until 8:30 a.m.

If you plan to attend, please email us. On the 17^th, bring sturdy work gloves and a shovel from home if you can.

The People’s Orchard will be home to apples, cherries, plums, currants, elderberries, and an apricot tree, all waiting for someone to give them a proper start. And there’s no extra charge for gittin’ yer hands dirty.

Our People’s Orchard is a collaborative effort with the City of Fort Collins, Colorado State University and USDA agencies throughout the NRRC campus:

• Building A’s Green Team provided the vision and leadership to coordinate this project and make it happen.
• The Gardens on Spring Creek helped us choose fruit tree and shrub varieties and designed the layout of the orchard. The Orchard will compliment the nearby Gardens by serving as an informal extension of their facilities.
• CSU’s University Landscape Architecture office provided design guidance and will install and maintain the orchard’s water-wise irrigation system.
• Other USDA buildings/agencies in Fort Collins are excited about the project and may have volunteers help us plant the trees on September 17th. They include ARS, APHIS and the Rocky Mountain Research Station.

In addition to being a nice alternative to the current weedy plot of ground, the orchard will save irrigation water, demonstrate sustainable growing practices, provide educational opportunities, and, in a few years, provide fresh fruit to the Larimer County Food Bank.

It’s important for volunteers to arrive on time Saturday morning at the south side of Building A. We will start with a “proper tree planting” briefing followed by a safety briefing—these are mandatory and won’t be repeated.  The Green Team will provide drinking water and a canopy on site with chairs so that people can get out of the sun and cool off if necessary and a first-aid kit to treat blisters—we told you to bring gloves!

And stay tuned … our People’s Garden is the next phase of the project!