166: Susan Poizner on Orchard People

Nurturing relationships with community and nature through orchards and fruit trees.

– – – –

Susan is an urban orchardist in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of the award-winning fruit tree care book “Growing Urban Orchards” and the creator of an award-winning online fruit tree care training course. In her in-person and online workshops Susan has trained hundreds of students from across North America. Her students include Master Gardeners, arborists and people who are completely new to gardening and fruit tree care.  Susan is also the host and creator of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast on RealityRadio101.com.—

In this podcast:  Greg meets another lover of fruit trees with Susan who founded a community orchard in her home town and found her calling as well. Susan tells how she got the idea to start an orchard in her neighborhood park, and how learning everything she could about fruit trees has morphed into her popular education program.  Her down-to-earth nature is very apparent as she explains some highs and lows on this journey and how her love for her community of people and trees has grown beyond her expectations. 

Listen in and learn about:

• Working as a gardener for the city of Toronto, and her brilliant idea of planting a community orchard in one of her community parks
• The inspiration behind the idea
• Sharing the idea with her friend and wondering if she was going to be told she was crazy
• Some of the challenges she faced before they planted trees
• The research that she did that helped he come up with a list of trees and how she learned that list was not going to work
• Why she felt she needed to take care above and beyond to make sure the orchard succeeded
• How not long after the orchard was created, others were commenting how they wanted a community orchard
• Why she started sharing about her mistakes and helping others to create their own orchards
• Ben Nobleman Community Orchard
• The diversity in her community
• How she faced her adversaries and helped allay their concerns
• What happened to the little-used and almost barren park since the orchard was instilled
• Their first harvest festival even though there was not a real harvest yet
• How many people showed up and what some of their reactions were
• How she came around to writing a book and how she used her gifts to make it easy to read
• Why she started offering educational videos
• How she designed her classes and who is a typical student
• The five parts of her program:  1) How to research your tree,  2) Planting and early years’ care,  3) Winter and summer pruning,  4) Soil and fertility management,  and 5) Preventing pests and disease
• Her role as she sees it, as a guardian of the trees
  
• Why it is so important to feed our trees
• Her podcast/radio show and how she is sharing information
• The episode on Sea Buckthorn and the one on fire blight
• What she thinks the future is like for orchard people.com
• Why she thinks it is important to spread information before people plant their trees
• Some of the future topics he plans to teach include tree leaf reading, pest and disease, grafting and espalier pruning
• What “espalier” is and why it can really benefit those with small spaces

As well as:

• Her failure – the time she planted her first trees and did not research the orange spots that were appearing, and ignored the signs of a problem
• Her success – the project when she taught fruit tree care class to a troubled neighborhood that started out not trusting her and ended up embracing the topic and appreciating the opportunity to learn about trees
• Her drive – she wants to make the world a better place, and her mission to help people be kind to each other and to nature too
• Her advice – If you are going to plant a fruit tree, learn to take care of it. If you are not going to take care of it, don’t plant it.  
• Her advice specifically to Urban Farm Podcast Listeners – Build a relationship with each one of your trees.

Book written by Susan:

Growing Urban Orchards: The Ups, Downs, and How Tos of Fruit Tree Care in the City

Susan’s Book recommendations:    

Grow a Little Fruit Tree: Simple Pruning Techniques for Small-Space, Easy-Harvest Fruit Trees by Ann Ralph 

How to reach Susan  

Online course: at http://www.orchardpeople.com/workshops
—  Use Urban Farm Podcast Listeners’ Discount code: grow723 for 20% off

The Urban Forestry Radio Show on RealityRadio101.com (www.orchardpeople.com/network)