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Archive for mapping

The London Orchard Project

By Kyle · Comments (3)
Saturday, November 17th, 2012

This short clip gives a background on one of my favorite urban food forestry initiatives, The London Orchard Project (LOP).  LOP is charitable organization that was founded in 2009 by Carina Millstone and Rowena Ganguli.  Over the past three years, they’ve been busy and have managed to plant 37 community orchards, organize fruit harvests with hundreds of volunteers, rejuvenate neglected orchards to keep heirloom apple varieties alive, and map their projects.  Evidently, the press loves their work — they’ve already had 41 articles written about them in the past 3 years.

Here’s a brief description of their community orchard planting initiative from their website:

“New community orchards in London’s unused spaces help to address the city’s allotment shortfall, promote community production and ownership of fruit, and help us rediscover the pleasures of eating organic fruit grown close to home. Community orchards also green the urban environment and create habitats for wildlife, increasing the city’s biodiversity. In an era of climate change and peak oil, planting trees which will provide a large yield year after year for decades to come is a logical move, helping to build food security and community resilience.

Fruit trees are well suited to the urban environment as they can be trained or grown on dwarfing rootstocks to fit into small spaces. Once the trees settle in, they require very little maintenance compared to annual vegetables, making them perfect for the busy Londoner!

We are partnering with local authorities, residents’ associations, Transition initiatives, park user groups, schools and other community groups to help design, plant and maintain community orchards in London’s parks, housing estates, schools and universities.

We are also providing training to five orchard leaders per orchard, who are responsible for the care and harvest of the trees. The orchard leaders are volunteers, and have all attended our dedicated training day on fruit tree technical skills and leading a community orchard project. These leaders have also developed an orchard management plan for their respective orchard and are responsible for getting others involved in orchard maintenance and activities as  ‘orchard carers’. We keep in regular touch with our orchard leaders to make sure all is going well with the trees and provide a follow-up visit six months after planting.

So far we have planted 37 community orchards of approximately 10 trees each. These have included apples, pears, plums of new and heritage varieties, and the odd experimental mirabelle, apricot, medlar and peach.

Some of our orchards are in public parks, so if you fancy seeing how the trees are getting along – and possibly even helping yourself to an apple – head to Green Gate Common in Haringey, Caledonian Park in Islington, Archbishop’s Park in Lambeth or Nursery Row Park in Southwark, Haggerston Park in Hackney. Don’t tell all your mates though!”

Comments (3)
Categories : Community Orchards, Fruit harvesting, Fruit mapping, School orchards, Urban fruit trees, Urban orchards, Video
Tags : community orchards, harvesting, mapping, planting, school orchards

The Boston Tree Party: Ambassadors of Civic Fruit

By Kyle · Comments (0)
Friday, November 16th, 2012

Above is an awesome and inspiring talk by Lisa Gross, Chairman and Founder of the innovative Boston Tree Party, which was founded in 2011 and is growing rapidly in popularity and influence.  From their website:

“The Boston Tree Party is an urban agriculture project, a performative re-imagining of  American political expression, and a participatory public art project.  At its core, the Party is a diverse coalition of organizations, institutions, and communities from across the Greater Boston Area coming together in support of Civic Fruit. We call for the planting of fruit trees in civic space and promote the fruits of civic engagement. Each community has committed to planting and caring for a pair of heirloom apple trees. Together, these trees form a decentralized public urban orchard that symbolizes a commitment to the environmental health of our city, the vitality and interconnectedness of our communities, and the wellbeing of the next generation.

As an urban agriculture project, the Boston Tree Party creates vital gathering places and opportunities for learning, exchange, and participation.  The project builds community connections, both within and across communities, and improves community and environmental health.  As a conceptual art project, the Boston Tree Party catalyzes a deep and playful engagement with the issues of food access; health; environmental stewardship; biodiversity; public space; and civic engagement. The structure and design of the project playfully reimagine patriotic and political language, imagery, and forms of association.

The apple has a long and deep connection to the history of Boston. The first apple orchard in the American Colonies was planted by William Blackstone on Beacon Hill in 1623.  The oldest variety of apple in the United States, the Roxbury Russet, was developed in Roxbury in the 1630s.   The Boston Tree Party celebrates and recontextualizes this history and envisions Boston as a city of apples once again.

Apple trees must be planted in heterogeneous pairs (two different varieties of apples must be planted together) in order to cross-pollinate and bear fruit.  The Boston Tree Party takes these trees as inspiration.  We too are interdependent and need to work across divisions to effectively address the pressing social and environmental issues we face. We too must cross-pollinate and seek out and value diversity, not just because we need to, but because that’s how you get the sweetest and juiciest fruit.

The planting campaign launched on April 10, 2011 on the Rose Kennedy Greenway with the Boston Tree Party Inauguration–the ceremonial planting of the first pair of apple trees in this city-wide planting campaign. The event also included a celebratory rally featuring Edith Murnane (the Food Tzar of the City of Boston), Michael Phillips and John Bunker (the Official Pomologists), the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center “Let’s Get Moving” Tree Planting Delegation; music by the Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band; a Wassailing of the trees; free apple cider; Central Asian Barbecue (apples originated in Central Asia); and opportunities to learn more about the project.”

(Read more)

Comments (0)
Categories : Community Orchards, Fruit harvesting, Fruit mapping, Urban orchards, Video
Tags : community orchards, harvesting, mapping, urban orchards
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