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(Wallyhood welcomes Wallingford resident Barb Burrill, a lady with a lopper and a ladder. Barb is an urban orchard steward in Wallingford for City Fruit and also oversees the recycling/composting program at John Stanford International School. She’ll be sharing some tips from time to time on caring for fruit trees and on keeping Wallingford green.)

Did you know that Wallingford has its own group of stewards that take care of public apple trees along the Burke-Gilman Trail? A group of Wallingford neighbors (coincidentally, all women, AKA “Ladies with Loppers and Ladders”) have been working with six apple trees as part of the pilot urban orchard steward program.

In 2010-11, they mapped 23 fruit trees on the Burke-Gilman Trail between Gasworks Park and I-5 and developed a 5 year plan for these trees. They held work parties to clear blackberries, laurel, and weeds from six trees, picked up fallen fruit to prevent disease, pruned, mulched, and watered.  And now they’re ready to harvest and share some fresh pressed cider from Seattle public trees!

So this Sunday, September 25, from noon to 3 pm, join the urban orchard stewards at the largest apple tree they care for. You’ll find it on the Burke-Gilman Trail, just west of I-5, close to the intersection of NE Pacific Street and lower NE 40th Street.

Several fruit tree stewards will be on hand to talk about the public fruit trees, or answer questions you may have about your fruit trees at home. You can learn more about City Fruit and become a member while you sip cider. Or sign up to join our work parties for the upcoming year.

Urban Orchard Stewards are a project of City Fruit, a non-profit that harvests public and private trees to donate fresh fruit to food banks, senior centers, and homeless shelters: www.cityfruit.org

For more info about City Fruit Urban Orchard Steward program, see: http://cityfruit.org/projects/parks.htm

For more info about the Burke-Gilman Urban Orchard Stewards, contact Barb Burrill at [email protected]