Thunderbird Blvd Orchard
Thunderbird Blvd Orchard
living laboratories on campus
I spent a sunny morning with Gregg Doughty, UBC arborist and sub-head gardener, learning about the apple orchard below the Reconciliation Pole at Main Mall and Thunderbird Boulevard. Many of us likely walk by the orchard and local tree grove daily. I’ve enjoyed watching it grow and talking with Gregg and his crew over the years as they carefully tend the orchard. Gregg is an avid horticulturalist who speaks with passion about the plantings around campus he is responsible for.
When this part of campus was redesigned in the early 2000s, the campus architect included a fruit orchard of apples and European pears. Since then the European pears have been replaced with Asian pears (they are more resistent to the endemic pear trellis rust than the European variety).
All but a couple of the apple trees have also been replaced by Gregg and his team. One of the apple trees is grafted from the old macintosh tree growing in the McMillan Building courtyard. Most of the replacement apples are heritage specimens grafted onto root stock and cultivated in UBC’s south campus nursery.
The south campus nursery is quite a large complex. It is located at the far south of campus between the library storage facility and the environmental waste treatment site. A lot of the plants, shrubs, and trees that are located around campus have had their origin in this nursery (or its predecessor).
It’s important to note this isn’t simply an ornamental garden, it’s also an active experiment in orcharding. Over the years Gregg has been able to cultivate and tend to the orchard to develop a strong healthy, and productive crop. Even though a sign saying ‘experiment in progress’ is partly a humous intervention, it is also a serious statement of fact. As an arborist Gregg and his team are constantly monitoring, modifying, and testing tree husbandry approaches to ensure we all have this thing of beauty to walk by and enjoy with our eyes.
The trees are treated with dormant spray in the early spring before the buds begin to swell. Most applications of dormant spray these days are vegetable oil based products. Using the spray helps keep insect problems down and makes the use of more problematic pesticides less necessary. For many years I volunteered tending the apple trees at the Old Barn and one of my favourite activities was winter dormant spraying.
Gregg uses the Lorette style of pruning. This involves summer pruning of new growth on mature trees. Winter pruning is done to provide the structural framework of the trees.
One of the perpetual problems of public gardening is theft and vandalism. For the most part this garden is well respected by passersby, but there are folks who do regularly strip the orchard. Recently the entire garlic crop was pulled out, most was taken, but a lot was left behind on the ground. Gregg noted that when garlic is harvested properly, one lifts it out with the aid of a hand tool. If one pulls it, like the unofficial harvesters do, then the stalks can break off at the ground leaving the bulb behind.
I’ve actually seen folks in the garden packaging the garlic scapes up for themselves.
Gregg is fairly resigned to this aspect of public gardening. The team has tried a number of approaches to ward off unofficial harvesting over the years with varying degrees of success. As a community resident I think it is important we respect and value the labour and creativity of our campus gardeners. One of the best ways to show our respect is to honour the fences and signs and not pick the fruits of other peoples’ labour. Food that is produced from the Orchard goes to a good place and is not wasted. If it’s picked before it’s ripe or in ways that vandalize the orchard it impoverishes all of us.
The Thunderbird Orchard is a beautiful installation that adds joy to our lives. The care and attention of folks like Gregg in the Orchard and at other spots on campus is part of what makes UBC a great place for work, study and living. I’m pleased that I’ve gotten to know Gregg by saying hello as I would walk by him and his crew at work making UBC a beautiful place for all of us.