Winter Fruit Tree Pruning

We know that taking shears to your favourite fruit tree can be intimidating, however proper pruning is essential to maintaining tree health and ensuring a good harvest for years to come.

This workshop will cover the basics of pruning and provide a live demonstration on one of the many fruit trees in the orchard. You’ll learn: how to select the proper tools; how to use and care for those tools, and why; as well as how and when to prune your trees and vines.

By the end of this workshop, our goal is for you to be confident enough to tackle pruning in your own backyard.

Be sure to come dressed for the elements as this workshop will be held outdoors.

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]

Access from the parking area off Stancil Lane is through a latching unlocked gate. There is a gravel/dirt path sloping downward from the gate that leads to a wide flat grassy area with picnic table seating. If you are coming from the Galloping Goose entrance, which also has a latching unlocked gate, you will find a gravel/dirt path that slopes upward to the wide flat seating area. This section of path has one small area with uneven exposed bedrock. The steepness of the path varies throughout the Orchard and is steepest at the top of the Orchard closer to the Stancil Lane entrance, and at the bottom between the Galloping Goose trail and the Orchard entrance. The pathway from the Galloping Goose to the entrance to the Orchard has several sharp turns.

The Orchard has a single-stall gender-neutral composting toilet facility on site with ramp access (and currently without transfer bars). The composting toilet is located below the flat area and toward the Galloping Goose entrance. There is a hand-washing station on site (without soap) but the water is not potable. Hand sanitizer is available inside the toilet.

The workshop will be held outside rain or shine, please dress appropriately for the weather. The seating provided is picnic benches. Please feel free to bring a cushion or your own folding chair, a limited number of cushions are available at the orchard. The workshop area is in dappled shade, depending on the time of the day.

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

Host or Publisher Welland Community Orchard