North Asheville Tree Care Skill Share

A few weeks ago, on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon, a group of 20 Fruit Nuts gathered at the Montford Recreation Center with one thing in mind......wheelbarrow race!  So after we got that out of our systems we began a fun filled day of learning and implementing the front end fluffing the mature edible planting at the center.  We built burms around the base of all the trees to catch rain water and direct it toward the root zone.  We followed that with a dose of magic fairy dust aka organic slow release nutrients that we forked into the ground around the trees to get it to the roots.  The trees also received a generous helping of the infamous "Eli Sludge" (anaerobically digested goat manure) and compost from Crowell Farms.  We then placed a layer of cardboard down to hold back any grass or weeds that were thinking about trying to take nutrients away from our trees.  On top of the cardboard we placed a generous helping of leaves that we gathered from around the site, followed by a heaping pile of every trees favorite thing MULCH!!

Compost Delivery!

Thank you to Asheville Greenworks and their group of volunteers for helping to load, deliver, and unload compost donated by Danny's Dumpster!

 On Sunday, February 26th a group of 20+ Fruit Nutz arrived at the West Asheville Park to maintain the Edible Planting on the hillside just beyond the outfield of the baseball diamond.  We were greeted by healthy trees, a warm breeze and shining sun.  What a beautiful day to move some mulch!!

There is a wonderful diversity of fruit and nuts at the site including; hazelnuts, mulberry, peach, paw paw, elderberry, strawberries and a smattering of pollinators plants tucked into the beds.  There are some freshly painted signs made by students at Rainbow Mountain that look absolutely fantastic.  If you have yet to see this site, get on over and check it out!


We played a number of games throughout the day including; move the mulch, pull the weeds, transplant the strawberries, and or course HAYRIDING!!!!  If you have yet to experience hay riding, it is a climate change activity that can be done in place or sleigh riding.  All you will need is a piece of cardboard, a grassy hillside, and a friend to push you.

After the fun and games it was time for a little teaching session on water, a prevailing topic at this site.  The Club is in the process of working with the city to gain approval to implement a rain garden and swale that will capture and divert the water that is currently rushing down Morris St and eroding the hillside that leads into the park.   Sherry Ingram taught the group about the importance of capturing rain water and allowing it to percolate into the soil and provide much needed moisture to plants and trees.  Urban areas tend to use storm drains to divert water directly into streams and rivers which can cause  many problems such as flooding and pollution of waterways.  Bill Whipple then presented his plan on how to implement the rain garden and swale.  Dylan Ryals-Hamilton then taught the group how to use an A-Frame Level (Permometer) to find the contour of the land and flag out the projected path of the swale.

After getting our learn on we had to get right back to what this group is becoming famous for, having a good time.  So with cardboard in hand we hiked to the top of the hill for another round of hay riding.  What a day!  After we gathered up our tools and wished the plants farewell we headed over to Ramin's house for an after event potluck and scion swap.  Another wildly succesful Fruit Nut's Event for the record books.

We even had some press coverage for this one!  To see the article in the Mountain express follow the link:

http://mountainx.com/article/40739/Volunteers-working-with-Asheville-city-staff-on-runoff-in-park#

Elderberry Swap, Potluck and Tree Care Skill Share

Just a reminder that this Saturday is the First Fruit and Nut Club event of the year!  We will be meeting at the Montford Rec Center on Saturday, January 28th at 11:00 a.m.  Come prepared to learn the ins and outs of caring for fruit and nut trees this time of year.  Bring a sack lunch, gloves, pruners, a pitchfork, shovel and wheelbarrow if you have them.  If you can make it please RSVP to Tom Knaust at tknaust@gmail.com.  

There will be an after event Potluck dinner at my house at 15 Conestee Place starting at 6:30 P.M.  At the potluck we will be doing an Elderberry Stake Swap.  The idea is that we will all bring different varieties of elderberry and swap them.  Then go home and drive them into the ground where they will root and grow, increasing the diversity of elderberries in the places we live.  To harvest "stakes" simply cut 18inch or longer sections of elderberry.  Be sure to make an angled cut on the "bottom" of the cutting so we know which end to drive into the ground.  I hope to see you all on Saturday!

Meeting Minutes 1/18/12

Fruit Nutz, 
We had a great meeting on the 18th with 27 attendees.  We collected the 
$10.00 membership fee for 2012 and had 18 people sign up, generating 
$180.00 for projects and materials.  We touched on our accomplishments 
of 2011 and moved right into projects and events for 2012, setting 
dates for three upcoming events.  After a short break we raffled off 
door prizes of strawberry and raspberry plants, honey, seeds, homemade 
almond milk and the infamous maidens medicinal elderberry syrup.  We 
were then graced with two short presentations; one on the wonders of 
elderberry's and another describing the front-end-fluff.  Overall it 
was a very productive and promising sap rising meeting. 

The events that we put on the calendar are:
1. North Asheville Tree Care Skill Share Saturday, January, 28th
2. Stephens Lee Pruning day and Scion Swap Saturday, February 4th
3. West Asheville Park Primping Saturday, February 25th 

So mark your calendars and get ready for a good time!  More Details on
the these events to come. 

If you would like to become a member of the Buncombe Fruit and Nut
Club (which is not mandatory, but will help pay for events, projects
and field trips)  please bring $10.00 check or cash to one of the
upcoming events.  If yo would like to be added to our mailing list to please 

e-mail Tom Knaust- tknaust@gmail.com.

Hall Fletcher park update

For those of you who are following this story I met with the principal of Hall Fletcher, Gordon Grant, Monday morning. We walked the site and he was extremely appologetic. It doesnt bring back our loss, but I appreciated his concern and intent to make projects like ours safer. Here is the follow up letter I wrote that he asked me to send to him. I hope this is an invitation for you fruit nutters to get involved with the club again. We have a lot we can do if we so choose. (Karen, i think getting some press on this is a great idea. Do you have any interest in following up on that? We have graphic photos. "Parks and wrecks" is notorious for damaging trees. A letter to the mayor? letter to the editor Mountain x?)

Gordon,Thank you again for your time and concern. This helps alleviate the frustration and disheartened feelings in the wake of the city digging up and throwing away the plantings at the Hall Fletcher school while working on the storm drains. I figure we lost close to $400.00 of money we raised as community memebers for the original plant material and mulch. This doesn’t include three years of care and anticipation of fruiting that most likely would have begun this spring. Events like this, and the perennial girdling of young plantings by careless weed eaters by the school's, as well as parks and recs, grounds keepers are very familiar to us. This discourages people from volunteering. I try to tell them what they do will make a difference, but it is always one step forward and two steps back. We dont get paid for our efforts. The only reward we get is the possibility of making our community a little better for us and our kids.

Looking forward, I will talk to the people in my club (some who are in the Hall Fletcher community) and see what interest there is in revitalizing that planting. I have ideas, and the club has some resources, but I know many of them will be discouraged and angry. I will tell them of our meeting and hopefully they will see this as an opportunity and move on. If that goes well the second phase will be purchasing some native riparian meadow flower seed mix for the basin and discuss what we have in the budget to spare for plantings. Thank you for agreeing to leave the basin free from fescue and a 6 foot wide corridor around the top for plantings. I will keep you posted on the sentiments of the club. Please feel free to forward this to the people who supervise these projects as it is in their care that we trust. If they don’t know of the damage suffered, than we can never change the situation. Regards,Bill WhippleNeighbor and community supporter of the Hall Fletcher school

1.) I will talk to the Buncombe fruit nuts club and see what interest there is.

2.)Order native seed mix from Ernst seeds (paid by club)

3.)Redesign plantings and begin soil preparation

4.)(If possible) Gordon uses his influence to procure some well composted leaf mould and mulch from the city. A truck load of each dumped at the site would be optimal.

5.)Encourage a class, or classes to get involved (perhaps adopt a plant). Teachers can use this as an opportunity to incorporate into their curriculum essential skills needed in the future. Skills such as soil care and its restoration, riparian ecology, appropriate planting for ecosystems and microclimates, nutrition, wildlife, art for signs, etc …

City helps with weeding at the Hall Fletcher edible park

Fruitcakes and nutrolls,

Thought you may want to see the "progress" at Hall fletcher Park we observed yesterday. I find out tomorrow whether the plant material was saved and put aside or what. There was a meader persimmon, an aronia, 2 grafted paw paws, several hazels, and a couple of select elderberries. One elderberry held its ground as did a hazel. A memorial service for the park will be held on the field trip this weekend.

Bill