North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Dan Durica" <dandurica@hotmail.com>]

Request for fruit trees

 

I have posted a number of questions on this list serve and I feel bad for always asking for things, but I don’t feel knowledgeable enough to join in many of the discussions.  I am learning though and maybe someday soon I can chime in.

 

I work for community gardens in Madison WI, and we are in the process of planting edible landscaping around our gardens to supplement our gardener’s supply of veggies.  We are a non-profit and most of our gardeners are low income, so providing more free food for them is the major goal of this project.  We also want to teach people about growing their own fruit and bring awareness of groups such as Nafex and Seed Savers and the importance of preserving our genetic heritage. We’re looking for individuals or businesses to donate hardy fruit trees and bushes to the project to be planted this spring.  Some of the fruit types we would like to grow are pears, cherries (tart and sweet), summer raspberries, apples (preferably for fresh eating), plums, peaches, blueberries, and bush cherries.  Our zone is on the edge of 4 and 5 and our property is close to a large lake.

 

I know there are a lot of experienced grafters in Nafex who may have extra stock or might be willing to graft something special for this project.  If you would like to donate or think you know of an individual or business that would be interested, please email me.  We are looking into possible donations from Jungs, a local store.  

 

We’d prefer cultivars that are as low maintenance as possible, though we will be training volunteers to prune and control what pests we may have.  Deer are a problem at the site and we don’t have fencing, so we would prefer large semi-dwarf or standard-sized trees.

 

Thank you all for listening.  If you would like to see more information on our projects, visit troygardens.org.

 

Dan Durica

Madison WI