Welland Orchard Tour

Event Description

Whether you are a regular park visitor, or have never heard of Welland Orchard before, come out and explore with a guided 1 hour tour of this incredible community resource. Learn about some of the 100 + heritage apple varieties planted in the orchard, as well as some fruit trees you may have never heard of before such as Plout and Medlar! Plus learn about some of the interesting features on site including rainwater collection, pollinator habitat and native plant gardens.

The tour will be followed by a Welland Orchard Work Party from 1pm-3pm. If you plan to attend both, feel free to bring a lunch and enjoy a picnic in the orchard. For more information about the work party or to sign up, please visit the Gleaning Hub at https://gleaning.lifecyclesproject.ca

Be sure to come dressed for the elements as the tour will be held outdoors.

As there is limited parking available at the orchard, please bike, walk, bus or carpool if possible. We are located right on the galloping goose, and you are welcome to bring bikes into the orchard to lock them up safely.

If you are driving, there are 8 parking spots located at the end of stancil lane, 2 of which will be reserved as accessible spots for the duration of the workshop. Please be mindful of our neighbours and do not park in the large driveway on the south side of the street. Additional parking can be found along the street on High St and Eaton Ave.

About the Instructor

River (they/them) works for Lifecycles Project as the Welland Orchard Coordinator, as well as running their own landscaping business, Nightingale Gardens. They are passionate about increasing the resilience of urban and suburban landscapes through utilising plants native to these territories, increasing food security through integrating edible perennials and fruit trees into the landscape, and helping to increase connections to land through making gardening more possible and accessible.

Their background is in agriculture, with five seasons spent working on small-scale organic farms, as well as a Landscape Horticulture Certificate (Red Seal levels 1 and 2) from the Pacific Horticulture College. They have also spent several years facilitating group learning and activities, for both kids and adults, in a variety of environments.

Their family is primarily from Ireland, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and England. They were raised on kʷikʷəƛ̓əm territories (Coquitlam BC) and have been living on W̱SÁNEĆ and lək̓ʷəŋən territories for the past 10 years. Their work is grounded in intersectional queer feminism, disability justice, and decolonization. They are queer, trans, and neurodivergent and have a lifelong love of fruit trees.

How to Register for this Event

This workshop is in person only. Please dress appropriately for all types of weather, as the workshop will be hosted outside in the orchard.

Tickets are available by a suggested donation of $10/person.

Please contact us if you are no longer able to attend but hold a ticket so we can make your space available to someone else and work to process your refund.

You can also register for the event by calling our office at 250 383-5800 or via email by contacting welland@lifecyclesproject.ca

Accessibility

Access from the parking area off Stancil Lane is through a latching unlocked gate. There is a gravel/dirt path sloping downward from the gate that leads to a wide flat grassy area with picnic table seating. If you are coming from the Galloping Goose entrance, which also has a latching unlocked gate, you will find a gravel/dirt path that slopes upward to the wide flat seating area. This section of path has one small area with uneven exposed bedrock. The steepness of the path varies throughout the Orchard and is steepest at the top of the Orchard closer to the Stancil Lane entrance, and at the bottom between the Galloping Goose trail and the Orchard entrance. The pathway from the Galloping Goose to the entrance to the Orchard has several sharp turns.

The Orchard has a single-stall gender-neutral composting toilet facility on site with ramp access (and currently without transfer bars). The composting toilet is located below the flat area and toward the Galloping Goose entrance. There is a hand-washing station on site (without soap) but the water is not potable. Hand sanitizer is available inside the toilet.

The tour will be held outside rain or shine, please dress appropriately for the weather. The majority of the tour involves standing and walking at a slow pace around the 2/3 of an acre site, including some sections of uneven ground.

There is access to potable water on site. Please bring your own water bottle.

If you have any questions of if more details would be helpful please reachout to River at welland@lifecyclesproject.ca