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Move-A-Tree, Plant-A-Tree in Wallingford

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In 2014, City Fruit harvested over 28,000 pounds of fresh, organic fruit from residential and public trees in Seattle. Of that total, nearly 5,000 pounds came from Wallingford fruit trees. This was the first year City Fruit has harvested in Wallingford. The fruit was donated to food banks, meal programs, and homeless shelters, including FamilyWorks Food Bank, the University District Food Bank, and the Wallingford Community Senior Center.

CITY_FRUIT_FB-Shareable_Plant_1-1-300x300From March through October 2014, over 250 volunteers with City Fruit’s orchard steward program spent 530 hours taking care of fruit trees at Meridian Playground and the Burke-Gilman Trail.

The harvest season may be finished, but now it’s prime time to plant fruit trees. On Saturday, December 6, starting at 10 AM, Wallingford will host City Fruit’s first “Move-A-Tree, Plant-A-Tree” event. City Fruit staff and volunteers will plant four or more fruit trees (pear, plum, apple) that are being moved from their current less than ideal locations.

The destination? A sunny greenspace in lower Wallingford, between the Burke-Gilman Trail and N. Northlake Way, near Sunnyside Avenue North. A new public orchard has been established there by City Fruit volunteer orchard stewards.

For the event December 6 we’re looking for folks who like to dig! You will dig up two trees in Wallingford and the destination holes. We alsoCal watering quince need a volunteer with a pickup truck of any size to haul the trees a few blocks to haul them to the planting site.

If you want to join the fun, sign up using the links below. Light duty jobs are also available, such as spreading wood chip mulch, digging weeds, and moving small amounts of gravel. Or – maybe you want to be everyone’s favorite volunteer and bring cookies!

Work gloves, tools, hot drinks and snacks will be provided. Look for the blue canopy on N. Northlake Way.

As a bonus for joining us in the colder weather and for our first Plant-a-Thon, the first 10 people to sign up will receive a long-sleeved City Fruit t-shirt. 

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barbbsea

Barb has lived in south Wallingford since 1992. She's a lady with a lopper as volunteer lead of the Burke-Gilman Trail Urban Orchard Stewards, a group that cares for public fruit trees along the Burke-Gilman Trail between Eastern and where Pacific becomes N 34th. In February 2020 Barb founded the current Friends of Meridian Playground which cares for the fruit trees and grounds of the park and holds weekly volunteer work parties on Wednesday noonish. Friday mornings she joins the Tilth Alliance volunteers to manage the care of the fruit trees at the Good Shepherd learning garden. Barb worked for nonprofit City Fruit for 9 years and still partners with them to teach neighbors to grow good fruit locally. Barb is also accumulating records and photos about the Good Shepherd property for eventual publication online.