HFS Orchard Workshops for June 2022

In June, HFS Volunteer Workshops at the Petty's Orchard Heritage Fruit block will take place:

the month's first Wednesday, 1 June
the month's first Sunday, 5 June
the month's third Wednesday, 15 June

You're cordially invited to help us with:

Our on-going annual winter pruning
Doing checks on young trees in the plum and apricot collections
Doing checks on all mature trees throughout the heritage block
In the HFS Nursery:
- Checking on status of trees and the irrigation cube
- Preparing additional "bath" areas there
- ... and a range of other on-going improvements
Mowing, weeding, whipper-snipping, hole-filling and removing blackberry plants
Painting labels on trees

As always, we'll make time for a social break over cuppas and home-baked nibbles. Please bring your own keep-cup to avoid generating unnecessary rubbish. We hope to see you soon!

WHAT'S GOING ON AT THE HFS BLOCK AT PETTY'S

Our annual HFS Grafting Days ... and you: Our biggest public-facing events each "normal" year are our public HFS Grafting Days in early August. If you're new to HFS, you may be wondering what happens at these, and why they're so important - and why you might jump at the chance to be involved!

The main purposes of the Heritage Fruits Society are to conserve, study and advocate heritage fruit varieties, and to inform and encourage the public to appreciate their many virtues, ideally through growing and sharing such fruits themselves. We usually appear before our adoring public for two types of events: our Tastings in autumn, where visitors can test-taste a range of seasonal apples and other rare fruits, and our winter Grafting Days.

Over the last few years, COVID has prevented us from running events in a "normal" way. But this year we're finally expecting to run both of our "traditional" HFS Grafting Days:

Saturday 6 August from 10.00am to noon: at CERES Nursery in Brunswick, close to the entrance near the end of Roberts Street
Sunday 7 August from 9.00am to noon: at the HFS Heritage Block at Pettys Orchard

At these Grafting Days, visitors can:

obtain scion (budwood) from many of our hundreds of varieties of apples and other fruits
request on-site grafting of apple scion onto suitable rootstock we provide
purchase pre-grafted young trees, suitable for you to plant at home
observe experienced (and friendly) HFS volunteers as they graft up new trees
ask questions about all aspects of the above
join a guided walking tour of the Heritage Block (at the Petty's Orchard Grafting Day only)

Scion and freshly-grafted trees are sold at extremely reasonable prices - in line with our objective of making it as easy as possible for everyone to help individually in maintaining unusual fruit varieties, as well as instilling an interest in this precious and remarkable field. The scion and tree varieties are mainly ones popular with attendees of prior Tastings and Grafting Days, and they are typically difficult or impossible to obtain from any other source.

All this takes quite a bit of preparation! Prior to the event, HFS volunteers will be collecting, labelling and packing scion, and on the days, doing facility setup and tear-down. Please help us out if you can. And please feel free to forward this email to friends who might be interested.

Titbits from Petty's past: Petty's Orchard has been in business since about 1910. Through most of the middle of the 1900s, members of the Petty family ran a number of orchards in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, until all but Petty's Orchard were converted to suburbia. Your newsletter editor (Fred) recently got wind of a treasure trove of information about the history of these orchards on the Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society. One highlight of this is a short film on orchard life in the 1930s here, which includes:

the Petty and Hillman Plows in action - a surviving example of one of these can still be examined in the Museum shelter at Petty's Orchard, near the café. But does anyone know why the young lad might have been plowing between tree rows?
A very young child, having be let loose with an apple sprayer - goodness knows what nasties he/she breathed in doing that ...
Familiar-looking rows of apple and pear trees, fruiting well even without the benefits modern drip irrigation or trellis training

The Petty family ran not just Petty's Orchard, but also many others in the district. Around 1980, the Heritage Block was created after MMBW (Metropolitan Melbourne Board of Works) acquired all of Petty's Orchard, which since then has been administered by Melbourne Parks and Waterways and today by Parks Victoria.

COVID-19 NOTICE

Most long-standing COVID-19 restrictions have now been lifted, but nonetheless:

If you are feeling unwell - even with only mild symptoms - please protect yourself and others by doing the right thing and staying at home and getting tested
All volunteers should endeavour to maintain social distancing at all times
Please feel free to wear a mask if and when you wish