Are you interested in growing apple trees from seed and needs more apple tree tips, then read this article on how to grow an apple tree in 10 easy steps.
Apple seeds are easy to grow at home with the proper preparation, and seedlings are often more vigorous than their grafted nursery counterparts. Give an apple tree seedling 3-4 years, and it'll catch up to
‘Honeycrisp’ apples are a game-changer with their extremely crisp flesh and sweet but tangy flavor. Learn how to grow your own now on Gardener’s Path.
Do you know when to harvest apples? Follow these tips to learn when and how to pick apples and also what to do with them once you pick them.
Black apple is a fantastic pick for anyone looking for a medium to a tall tropical tree. Here is everything you need to know to grow and care for this beloved bush tucker.
Lovely, below, excepting why is the guild missing? Before learning what a guild is, I would have thought this garden, below, 'complete'. . Do you know what a guild is? . No? Parlay what you know a guild to be, in secular life, into the orchard. Pic, above, here. . From Google: "guild ɡild/ noun noun: guild; plural noun: guilds; noun: gild; plural noun: gilds a medieval association of craftsmen or merchants, often having considerable power. an association of people for mutual aid or the pursuit of a common goal. synonyms: association, society, union, league, organization, company, cooperative, fellowship, club, order, lodge, brotherhood, fraternity, sisterhood, sorority "the copper craftsmen have formed a guild" ECOLOGY a group of species that have similar requirements and play a similar role within a community. Origin late Old English: probably from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch gilde, of Germanic origin; related to yield." . Obvious now, what a guild is? No, at the front end, I still would not have understood what an orchard guild is. . Orchard guild, below . Pic, above, Long Barn, here. . Seeing the orchard guild, above, can you describe what the guild is doing? . No, I couldn't either at the front end. . An orchard guild is a mix of plantings, blooming at the same time the fruit trees are blooming, increasing pollination. Increasing fruit tree yields by 80%. . Do the math. . By weight & lucre, a fruit tree guild is your best employee. . Looking at the Google definition of guild, above, the mention, "related to yield." . So. moving along, knowing what a guild is, seeing this orchard, below. I would like to see this orchard in bloom, trees & guilds. The guilds, below, seem more appropriate to pleasure gardening not agriculture. What percentage of the guilds are flowers blooming before/after the fruit trees, not providing support, pollinators, to fruit tree yield? Pic, above, here. . Guilds in an orchard are a symbiotic wilding. Excepting the skills/knowledge of fruit tree guilds has become re-wilding. . Pic, above, here. . Nice sentiment, above. Excepting we're more than 1 generation past agrarian & pastoral knowledge in the macro. . Zenobia Barlow, has created a system of ecoliteracy. Actively educating about ecoliteracy. Rewilding knowledge. What are the bridges needed in Ecoliteracy? Barlow has been drawing the map, aiming for territory. Fabulous start. Dozens more strategic voices needed. We don't know, what we don't know. More, Barlow's map covers myriad disparate layers, she knows she doesn't know & creates space for unknowing to become knowing, on the map to territorial knowledge. . Decades I've been teaching at the local college, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Extension Service classes and Master Gardener's training. Never a day passes I don't learn something important about gardening ornamentally or agriculturally. More, much of the learning is counterintuitive. What a ride ! . I add, below, for anyone interested in working with schools and ecoliteracy. Learning from what they've already done, and adding to their knowledge. A system designed with stewardship. Another arrow for your quiver. . Why you must know what a fruit tree guild is? Ecoliteracy. Know this, get significantly more fruit for less money, less effort. . From, The Center for Ecoliteracy, below. "The first guiding principle of the Center for Ecoliteracy's framework for schooling for sustainability — Smart by Nature™ — is "nature is our teacher." 25140 reads 1488 The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. --W.B. Yeats 7 Lessons For Leaders --by Michael K. Stone, Zenobia Barlow, syndicated from ecoliteracy.org, Dec 12, 2013 The first guiding principle of the Center for Ecoliteracy's framework for schooling for sustainability — Smart by Nature™ — is "nature is our teacher." Taking nature as our teacher requires thinking in terms of systems, one of nature's basic patterns. Systems can be incredibly complex, but the concept is quite straightforward. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, for example, defines a "system" as "any collection of things that have some influence on one another." Individual things — like plants, people, schools, communities, and watersheds — are all systems of interrelated elements. At the same time, they can't be fully understood apart from the larger systems in which they exist. Living systems have their own dynamics. Observing systems reveals recurring properties and processes. They resist change, but they also develop, adapt, and evolve. Understanding how systems maintain themselves and how they change has very practical consequences that go to the heart of education for sustainable living. Much of the Center's work over the past two decades could be thought of as applied systems thinking. As an offering for leaders engaged in systems change, we report in this piece on seven important lessons we've learned. While the work of the Center has been profoundly affected by the insights of our cofounder, systems theorist Fritjof Capra, as well as by other notable thinkers including Margaret Wheatley, Joanna Macy, and Donella Meadows, we will touch only briefly here on their important theoretical work. At the end of this report, we've listed a few sources for readers who want to pursue these ideas more deeply. Seven Lessons for Leaders For educators and change agents who are tackling the challenge of changing systems, some of them deeply entrenched, we are pleased to offer these lessons, based on our work with thousands of leaders. Lesson #1: To promote systems change, foster community and cultivate networks. Most of the qualities of a living system, notes Fritjof Capra, are aspects of a single fundamental network pattern: nature sustains life by creating and nurturing communities. Lasting change frequently requires a critical mass or density of interrelationships within a community. For instance, we've seen from research and our experience that curricular innovation at a school usually becomes sustainable only when at least a third of the faculty are engaged and committed. "If nothing exists in isolation," writes famed essayist Wendell Berry, "then all problems are circumstantial; no problem resides, or can be solved, in anybody's department." Even if problems defy solution by a single department, school districts are often structured so that responsibilities are assigned to isolated and unconnected divisions. Nutrition services may report to the business manager, while academic concerns lie within the domain of the director of curriculum. To achieve systems change, leaders must cross department boundaries and bring people addressing parts of the problem around the same table. For example, we're currently coordinating a feasibility study with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). It requires looking simultaneously at ten aspects of school food operations (from teaching and learning to finance and facilities) identified in our Rethinking School Lunch framework. In the push to make decisions and produce results quickly, it's easy to bypass people — often the very people, such as food service staff and custodians, who will have the task of implementing changes and whose cooperation is key to success. It's necessary to keep asking: "Who's being left out?" and "Who should be in the room?" Lesson #2: Work at multiple levels of scale. "Nested systems" is a core ecological principle. Like Russian "matryoshka" dolls that fit one into the other, most systems contain other systems and are contained within larger systems: cells within organs within individuals within communities; classes within schools within districts within counties, states, and the nation. Changing a system affects both the systems within it and the systems in which it is nested. The challenge for change agents is choosing the right level, or levels, of scale for the changes they seek. The answer is often working at multiple levels: top down, bottom up, outside in, and inside out. The Center for Ecoliteracy is applying this strategy in Oakland. We're supporting a pilot school, Cleveland Elementary, on garden and classroom projects that can be accomplished on a single campus. We're helping to facilitate the Oakland Food Web, which is a network of teachers, parents, and staff members from several Oakland schools, the district's food service, and the County Department of Public Health. The OUSD feasibility study, meanwhile, is taking on changes that depend on centralized administration, facilities, economies of scale, and coordination possible only at the district level. Lesson #3: Make space for self-organization. Fritjof Capra writes, "Perhaps the central concept in the systems view of life" is that the pattern favored by life "is a network pattern capable of self-organization." He adds, "Life constantly reaches out into novelty, and this property of all living systems is the origin of development, learning, and evolution." Networks that can effect systems change will sometimes self-organize if you set up the right conditions. Our seminars and institutes are designed for teams representing schools and districts rather than for individuals. Parents, teachers, administrators, and community volunteers — sometimes including people who had not met before the seminar — have organized themselves into effective ongoing collaborations, such as the Oakland Food Web, which still continue. Lesson #4: Seize breakthrough opportunities when they arise. Living systems generally remain in a stable state. That's a good thing; otherwise, we'd be living in chaos. But it's also why systems change can be so difficult. From time to time, however, a system encounters a point of instability where it is confronted by new circumstances or information that it can't absorb without giving up some of its old structures, behaviors, or beliefs. That instability can precipitate either a breakdown or — due to systems' capacities for self-organization — a breakthrough to new possibilities. Remember the adage of former White House Chief of Staff (now Chicago Mayor) Rahm Emanuel: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." Take the epidemic of obesity and nutrition-related disease. It's a serious crisis that could precipitate a public health breakdown. At the same time, authorities who once viewed school food reform as a frivolous issue being promoted by foodies have now become more willing to look at the role that school food plays in an array of related problems ranging from rising health care costs to disparities in academic achievement. And that willingness in turn has created opportunities to use food as an entree for introducing a variety of sustainability topics into the curriculum, as we addressed in our book Big Ideas: Linking Food, Culture, Health, and the Environment. Lesson #5: Facilitate — but give up the illusion that you can direct — change. "We never succeed in directing or telling people how they must change," observes Margaret Wheatley. "We don't succeed by handing them a plan, or pestering them with our interpretations, or relentlessly pressing forward with our agenda, believing that volume and intensity will convince them to see it our way." So what can you do? In the provocative maxim of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, "You can never direct a living system. You can only disturb it." How do you disturb a system? By introducing information that contradicts old assumptions. By demonstrating that things people believe they can't do are already being accomplished somewhere (one of the objectives of our book Smart by Nature: Schooling for Sustainability). By inviting new people into the conversation. By rearranging structures so that people relate in ways they're not used to. By presenting issues from different perspectives. Meanwhile, you can create conditions that take advantage of the system's capacity for generating creative solutions. Nurture networks of connection and communication, create climates of trust and mutual support, encourage questioning, and reward innovation. Effective leaders recognize emergent novelty, articulate it, and incorporate it into organizations' designs. Leaders sometimes lead best when they loosen control and take the risk of dispersing authority and responsibility. Lesson #6: Assume that change is going to take time. "Quick fixes are an oxymoron," says Margaret Wheatley. "If leaders would learn anything from the past many years, it's that there are no quick fixes. For most organizations, meaningful change is at least a three- to five-year process — though this seems impossibly long. Yet multiyear change efforts are the hard reality we must face." Anticipate that you'll need time for the education and training required for people to change attitudes, adopt new practices, or use new tools. Set high goals, but take manageable steps. Look for intermediate achievements that allow people to experience — and celebrate — success and to receive recognition on the way to the ultimate goal. Taking time for stakeholders to understand each other's concerns and learn to trust each other's motivations and intentions can be time well spent. OUSD has one of the most comprehensive wellness policies we've seen. Writing that policy began with scores of community members meeting in a process marked by debate and often disagreement. When the policy was finally formulated, though, it received buy-in throughout the community. Lesson #7: Be prepared to be surprised. Change in living systems is nonlinear. As they develop and evolve, living systems generate phenomena that are not predictable from the properties of their individual parts, much as the wetness of water cannot be forecast by adding together the properties of hydrogen and oxygen. Systems theorists call these "emergent properties." In the late 1990s, we convened a disparate community of activists with a variety of complaints about school meals in Berkeley. A year later, the first district school food policy in the nation emerged. The coherence of the policy, which has had a worldwide impact, was an expression of the group rather than the vision of any single individual. The art and science of systems change are continually evolving. We encourage people to experiment with these seven lessons — and to expect surprises. Frequently it's the unanticipated consequences that are the most rewarding and effective results of immersion in dynamic systems. Some good resources: Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems (New York: Anchor Books, 1996); The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living (New York: Anchor Books, 2002). Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Ourselves, Our World (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1998). Humberto M. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela, The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding (Boston: Shambhala, 1992). Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (White River, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008). Margaret Wheatley, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time (San Francisco: Barrett-Kohler Publishers, 2005, 2007); Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006). The Center for Ecoliteracy where this article originally appeared supports and advances education for sustainable living. You can follow its work at www.twitter.com/ecoliteracy; he has also written for the Toronto Star and The New York Times, among other publications. Zenobia Barlow, executive director of the Center for Ecoliteracy (www.ecoliteracy.org), coauthored Ecoliterate: How Educators Are Cultivating Emotional, Social, and Ecological Intelligence (Jossey-Bass, 2012) and coedited Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World (Sierra Club Books, 2005) and Ecoliteracy: Mapping the Terrain (Learning in the Real World, 1999), in addition to her role leading the Center’s grant-making, educational, and publishing programs. " Print Loved This? Pass It On! 1488 Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
Black Diamond apples are a rare breed of apples grown in the mountains of Tibet. They have a unique dark purple skin.
Look at these cute apples. Here are delicious apples for you. Let's count and color them. You can use this worksheet for kindergarten, preschool and first graders. Kids will their counting abilities with this apple seed counting worksheet. You can use this apple seed counting worksheet in your class...
Use this simple tutorial to grow an apple tree using the seeds found in fruit from the grocery store. It's an excellent beginner project for anyone wanting to try simple plant propagation.
First graders will begin learning about how plants grow and develop next week. I usually do apple trees with red, glittery apples but I thought I would try something different this year. We are goi…
Last year we wanted to plant some apple trees on our property, so we needed to know How to Plant & Care for an Apple Tree.
Learn how to grow cauliflower in containers in this article. Growing cauliflowers in containers is not very difficult if you know its proper requirements and ideal growing conditions.
It’s been a crazy 2 weeks here! We just finished up our goal setting conferences, my husband’s best friend from Norway was visiting, my girls (both of them!) were sick, and my hubby is gone again for the weekend. I took my daughter into the clinic yesterday, and the poor thing has pneumonia! Thank goodness for a short school week this week! I’m still catching up on blog posts, so here goes! Here is some of the fun that we had with apples! Math Centers: We practiced patterns with red, yellow and green apple die cuts. The children could decide which patterns they wanted to create – some were ready for more complicated patterns, and others stuck to AB patterns. Counting apple seeds: the children worked on 1:1 correspondence, counting and number writing with this center. 1:1 correspondence and counting again! Number writing and counting Sequencing 1-10. Sorry for the blur! Literacy Centers: My kiddos are LOVING the weekly pocket chart, and I love that parents are seeing the words that we are working on. Thanks, Julie, for introducing me to this idea! Sorting Sounds: Roll and write with beginning sounds: Reading and dobbing sight words: Here are a couple of charts that we did when talking about apples: The pictures are on velcro, so the kids can mix them up and sequence them in the correct order. Again, the parts are on velcro! I forgot to take picture of the kids’ science notebooks, but we also did a taste test, a float/sink experiment, drew an apple tree in each of the four seasons, and labeled the parts of an apple in our science notebooks. This was one of my favorite projects that we did! I saw it on {this blog} first! Thanks, Katie for the great idea! We also did a super cute 10 Apples Up on Top activity that I forgot to take a picture of ….if you look closely in the right hand corner of the above picture you can see a tiny bit of one. Have a great Sunday….all this apple talk makes me want to make some apple pie! It’s too bad our apple tree has not had apples on it yet! I keep my fingers crossed each year for blossoms, but so far, none yet!
It’s time for an update on the apple espalier as the Fall season gets underway. As much as I hate to acknowledge there’s limited time to celebrate the last hurrahs of the growing season…
Apples are a huge hit in our house...apple slices, applesauce, apple juice and, of course, apple pie. It was no surprise that our apple science and math activities this past week were a success, too. Apple Science Read Aloud We began our apple fun by reading the book How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro. This book
I have had great success with this recipe in drawing coddling moths away from my apples. This is what I do to trap them: Using a clean...
9 Dwarf Trees With High Yield Great For Small Areas! When it comes to gardening in small spaces, dwarf trees are a fantastic choice. These compact beauties not only add aesthetic appeal but also provide
The zucchini plants in my garden have gone completely bonkers. The first few zucchini were fun… we enjoyed Cheesy Zucchini Roses for dinner, and filled the freezer with Chocolate Zucchini Bre…
Learn the different types of dwarf fruit trees you can grow in any yard with these helpful tips and tricks.
I first used this craft as part of an “All About Me” themed session where we also made a fingerpainted house and created some fantastic self portraits on the painting table! It's really simple idea and craft but very often the most simple ideas are the best! It was such a popular craft for younger children that it’s one I’ve taken out and about again and again. Kids love to make their whole family so it’s worth printing out quite a few extra templates – and it’s a craft that can be used as a great learning tool for colours, families and body parts as well as exploring different textures. Older kids can also use it as a scissor practice exercise! This is what you’ll need Stiff a4 card Glue Pens or crayons A box of different materials – fabric, card, papers,wool, tissue…….. Firstly, print out the A4 template below onto card – like I say it’s a good idea to print out a few! You should hopefully be able to copy and paste this template and then resize it if needed - if not then you can download templates elsewhere or just draw your own person! Let your child get creative with the template, materials and glue – dress it, colour it in, add hair (or not!). You can either leave the person as he/she is on the card – or try cutting it out to make a cardboard doll!
This was a very FUN project that i did for a friend's school. They auctioned these off for their school fundraising event. I photographed each child in the 3 kindergarten classes and then asked them what they wanted to be...
One of my favorite things about the kitchen garden is the fruit! I grow plenty of them here, and I enjoy making my own juice. For example apple juice!
Look no further you have finally found your "forever" method for growing tomatoes. The String Method. Used by commercial growers for years, it's finally caught on with hoe growers. Here's how to do it ...
I’m always looking for zucchini recipes to try in the summer because they’re so plentiful—sometimes I grow some in my garden or I have friends who do, and they’re always happy to …
Learn everything you need to know about apple tree care for your backyard apple trees. From planting to pruning to fertilizing and MORE!
A very desirable garden plant, Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum', commonly known as Plume Thistle, is a tall, branching, upright perennial exhibiting strong, leafless stems with pincushion-like, deep crimson flowers, up to 1 in wide (3 cm), atop a large basal rosette of soft green leaves. A magnet for bees and birds!
Landscape Simply. Garden Design. Regenerative. Pollinators. Agrarian. Eco. Beautiful Easy Landscapes. Gardening. Cut Flowers. Speaker writer.
Pin We enjoyed our annual family apple picking adventure this past weekend. To me, apple picking is the start of Fall and all the fun festivities that come with this wonderful season! Our oldest daughter loves the book, “Hello, World! How Do Apples Grow?” It’s a great educational book that pairs well with all of […]
Researchers tested two common pesticides -- the fungicide thiabendazole, which past research has shown can penetrate apple peels, and the insecticide phosmet. One method was consistently better at removing pesticides.
How to freeze apples- a step by step tutorial with photos to show you exactly how to freeze fresh apples. Perfect for when you have a big apple haul!
