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For Master Gardeners
Home Orchard
Situated between the Children’s Garden and the Pavilion can be found the Home Orchard area. Started in 2000 by Master Gardeners Roger Sawyer and Stew Avery, the orchard was created to demonstrate the use of various dwarf rootstocks to provide good quality fruit for the homeowner, as well as providing hands-on instruction in proper ways to prune orchard trees for students taking the Master Gardener course each winter. This outdoor classroom demonstrates how to properly plant as well as graft a tree, different pruning styles, the pests and diseases that can affect fruit production, and the control and treatment of these problems.
Dwarf rootstocks are used predominantly as they are easier to maintain, take up less space, and you don’t need a precarious ladder to pick the fruit.
The orchard provides something of interest year-round. However, if you want to sample some of the varieties of fruit grown here, late summer or fall might be best. The visitor will find apple, pear, cherry, peach, prune and fig varieties here which continue to produce year after year.