Summer Pruning

Taking shears to a beloved fruit tree is intimidating! But proper pruning is essential to maintain tree health and ensure a bountiful harvest. Join us at Welland Legacy Orchard to learn effective pruning techniques and ease your tree care woes.

This workshop will include an intorduction to the the basic of pruning as well as a live demonstration on one of the many trees at Welland.

You’ll learn: how to select the proper tools; how to use and care for those tools, and why; and how to prune your trees and vines, and when.

Our goal is to send you home feeling confident to summer prune in your own backyard to promote a beautiful, productive and healthy harvest.

As there is limited parking available at the orchard, please bike, walk, bus or carpool if possible. We are located right on the galloping goose, and you are welcome to bring bikes into the orchard to lock them up safely.

If you are driving, there are 8 parking spots located at the end of stancil lane, 2 of which will be reserved as accessible spots for the duration of the workshop. Please be mindful of our neighbours and do not park in the large driveway on the south side of the street. Additional parking can be found along the street on High St and Eaton Ave.

About the Instructor

River (they/them) works for Lifecycles Project as the Welland Orchard Coordinator, as well as running their own landscaping business, Nightingale Gardens. They are passionate about increasing the resilience of urban and suburban landscapes through utilising plants native to these territories, increasing food security through integrating edible perennials and fruit trees into the landscape, and helping to increase connections to land through making gardening more possible and accessible.
Their background is in agriculture, with five seasons spent working on small-scale organic farms, as well as a Landscape Horticulture Certificate (Red Seal levels 1 and 2) from the Pacific Horticulture College. They have also spent several years facilitating group learning and activities, for both kids and adults, in a variety of environments.
Their family is primarily from Ireland, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and England. They were raised on kʷikʷəƛ̓əm territories (Coquitlam BC) and have been living on W̱SÁNEĆ and lək̓ʷəŋən territories for the past 10 years. Their work is grounded in intersectional queer feminism, disability justice, and decolonization. They are queer, trans, and neurodivergent and have a lifelong love of fruit trees.

This workshop is in person only. Please dress appropriately for all types of weather, as the workshop will be hosted outside in the orchard.

There are a limited number of Pay What You Can tickets available for folks who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC), as well as people who are facing significant financial barriers to registration. There are also free tickets available for seniors, thanks to funding from The New Horizons for Seniors Program.

LifeCycles Project Society is always working to learn more about, and breakdown, barriers that may exist in accessing our programming. We understand that these tickets are by no means an exhaustive look at systems of oppression that exist for people. We welcome your ideas and feedback as we work to continue learning.

Please contact us if you are no longer able to attend but hold a ticket so we can make your space available to someone else and work to process your refund.

You can also register for the event by calling our office at 250 383-5800 or via email by contacting [email protected]

The Welland Legacy Part & Community Orchard site is accessible from the Galloping Goose Trail as well as from the parking area on Stacil Lane. Coming up from the Galloping Goose there is a steep wood chip path that then levels out once in the Park itself. Access from the parking area is along a sloped gravel path that levels out closer to the workshop area.

There is a single-stall gender neutral composting toilet facility on site that includes ramp access.

The seating provided is picnic benches. Please feel free to bring a cushion or your own folding chair. The workshop area is in dappled shade, depending on the time of the day. We suggest bringing a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen.

There is access to potable water on site. Please bring your own water bottle.

Host or Publisher Welland Community Orchard