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Twilight Garden Series: Fanciful Fruit

June 22, 2012

The Twilight Garden Series is an annual event which features local gardening experts. Come take advantage of the knowledge base that is created by research and practice in these fields by Colorado State and other regional organizations.

Tuesday, June 26
6-8:30 p.m.
Gardens at Spring Creek

Gardeners of any ability welcome

Twilight Garden Series Gardeners of any ability can learn from professionals during the annual Twilight Garden Series, a series of three, two-hour workshops that emphasize practical information delivered informally on a variety of gardening topics.

On-site registration and payment

• On-site registration - 6–6:30 p.m.
• Programs begin promptly at 6:30 p.m. and end by 8:30 p.m
• Admission is $5/single event or $10/entire series
• Refreshments and door prizes will be handed out

Save space through espalier

Espalier is a technique which combines pruning and grafting to train trees to create two-dimensional forms with branches. The technique grew out of the Middle Ages. Gardeners decorated the interiors of castle walls with these artful creations that took the shape of fans, fences, and candelabra.  

The practice is often used with fruit trees, pruning and tying branches to a frame so that they grow into a flat plane. This may be done against a wall. Sunlight heats the wall and extends the growing season so that the fruit has longer to mature.

Tom Throgmorton with Throgmorton Plant Management will present information about the techniques in, "Space-saving espaliers: Pruning fruit trees for small spaces."

Fruit trees on the Front Range

Scott Swartzendruber from the Fort Collins Nursery will talk about:

• unique challenges of cultivating fruit trees on the Front Range,
• varieties that are more likely to thrive, and
• the satisfaction of harvesting your own apples, plums, cherries, and other fruits.

The "lesser" fruits

Smaller fruits, such as berries, are anything but "lesser fruits," according to Sue Oberle with the On The Vine Urban Farm and CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).

Oberle is one of the farming partners on a 3+ acre organic farm centrally located in Fort Collins. Their produce is sold through their CSA as well as on the farm.

Oberle's talk, "Big Doin’s with Small Fruit," will cover plants that have high yields but smaller fruit -- for example rhubarb, currants, gooseberries, and chokecherries.

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Contact: Tracy Smith-Jones
E-mail: tracy.smith-jones@colostate.edu
Phone: (970) 491-0877