Community orchard

And they can make an ordinary park or green space into a community centre, where residents volunteer together to care for and harvest the trees.

As part of their membership, however, they must attend a certain number of mandatory work party days which take place on the last Sunday of every month except December.

In food forests, trees, shrubs, and herbs work together to prevent pest and disease problems and to increase soil fertility.

Their goal was to encourage local food production, foster community involvement, educate Calgarians about fruit tree care techniques, to demonstrate and test a range of fruit trees and shrubs and to evaluate the success of community orchard models, share results and recommend changes if required.

[6] One of the problems faced by the community orchard movement is that many groups are planting fruit trees without knowing the complexities of how to care for them organically.

In an article "Community Orchards" by the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, author and NCAT Horticulture Specialist Guy K. Ames writes.

An ill-chosen variety can cost years of time and care before it is discarded as impractical or chronic diseases exact their toll.

And a pruning, fertilization, and training regimen needs to be well-considered at the start and somewhat consistent through the years, or the orchardists are risking aggravating diseases, inducing biennial bearing, delaying the age of fruiting, or otherwise creating long-lasting problems for themselves and the plants.

In Toronto, Canada, a proposal to plant a community orchard in a local park raised an uproar as some residents feared that the fruit trees would displace children playing ball.

Their goal is to create public orchards that will be cared for by the community and will also be a place where all members of society can share "experiences, techniques, recipes and food".

[19] Their goal was to create a network of community orchardists who could share resources and information for the purpose of "advancing the conduct, knowledge and impact of urban agroforestry.

Within the first 6 months of its founding in January 2015, The Community Orchard Network had a membership of 185 people from North America and beyond in its google group.