Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop

March
With fruit trees still in winter dormancy, now is the time to prune. Come and learn the techniques to successfully prune your fruit trees, improve their overall health, and increase fruit quality.

Whether you are new to pruning or have been pruning for multiple years, there is always something new to learn. Many consider the task of pruning daunting, but in this workshop, you will learn a simple series of steps that will make the process easy. Gain both knowledge and confidence, so you can prune with conviction and enjoy the annual process of caring for your trees.

The program is a combination of lecture and demonstration. In addition, participants will be provided take home material for future reference, so there will be no need to worry about taking notes.

By caring for your trees in winter, they will reward you with a bounty of delicious fruit in the fall.

Speaker, Chris Wayne runs Bee Forage Farm, a small scale fruit orchard and pollinator plant nursery. When not on the farm, you’ll find him leading talks and serving the public at community events throughout Western Massachusetts.

This program will be held outdoors. Please dress appropriately for the weather.

In case of inclement weather, a rain date will be announced.

Apple Grafting Workshop

April

During this fun and educational workshop, you will learn all about apple grafting! Whether you’re a beginner or have some experience, this workshop is perfect for anyone interested in learning the techniques used to propagate fruit trees and you can graft your own tree!

Top-working Fruit Trees

April

We will be top-working some of our fruit trees on Saturday.  If you are interested in finding out what this form of grafting is all about, feel free to stop by to see what we are up to. 

Sometimes trees are damaged due to winter storms or as is the case with our event picture, a bear. Top-working is a useful way to fix problems like this. It can also be utilized to increase cross pollination potential by adding multiple cultivars of a particular fruit onto a single healthy tree.

Summer Fruit Tree Pruning

July

Fruit tree pruning is a task that improves the health of your trees and their ability to produce high quality fruit. There are two main times of year that pruning is typically done. Those are winter and summer.

In this workshop you will learn all about the task of summer pruning. Find out when to do it, why to do it, and most importantly, how to do it.

Whether you are looking to control excessive growth and tame the size of your tree, improve the overall structure of your tree, or just guide your tree towards its most productive form and increase fruit bud development, this program is for you.

Monarch Butterfly Workshop

August

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has listed monarch butterflies as endangered. Monarch butterflies are widely recognized as ambassadors of pollinators all around the world.

One in every three bites of food are the result of pollination. Pollinators play a critical role in feeding the world, so it is important know about the needs of all pollinators and do our part to help them.

During this event, you’ll learn about monarchs, their needs and how to raise them from egg to adult butterfly. In addition, you will find out how we can play an active role in improving our environment, which will not only help monarchs, but also all of the other pollinators in our area.

If you love seeing these beautiful creatures as they flutter in the wind, now is the time to learn more about them and how you can play an active role in helping them survive.