Hello everyone,
I hope you all have been staying cool and enjoying the continued summer rains. It has been another busy and productive month in the Food Forest, with several major projects completed, new educational programs underway, and plenty of exciting growth throughout the garden.
The Garden Gets a Makeover
The Food Forest has officially been cleaned up from the major pruning and removal projects involving our Apollo mulberry and beloved Muntingia strawberry tree. Thanks to our members and volunteers, the debris has been processed and cleared, leaving the garden much more organized and accessible.
Our new garden beds are also finished and ready for growing! This has been a major step forward for the garden, and we appreciate everyone who contributed their time and effort to getting them completed.
Junior Gardeners Are Growing!
One of the biggest highlights this month has been the launch of our new Junior Gardener Class, which has already been a tremendous hit!
The young gardeners have been getting hands-on experience with growing and caring for plants, including working with their own dedicated garden bed. The kids have also had a say in what we grow. At their request, we planted a Vietnamese pomegranate tree next to the location of our former strawberry tree. The tree was sourced from a local nursery and gives our young gardeners another fruit tree to watch, care for, and learn from as it grows.
It’s exciting to see the next generation developing an interest in growing food and taking ownership of a small part of the Food Forest.
Grafting Workshop Success
Our recent Mulberry Grafting Workshop was another major success. Participants were introduced to the fundamentals of grafting while working with one of our favorite fruit trees.
We learned how to identify quality budwood, understand the principles behind grafting, and perform an introductory cleft graft. We grafted Australian Green (White Shatoot/White Pakistani) mulberry scions onto carefully prepared Apollo mulberry rootstocks.
A special thank-you goes to our garden member Frankie, who carefully prepared the Apollo rootstocks used during the workshop.
The goal was not simply to teach everyone how to make a graft, but to introduce the art and science behind it—showing how grafting can allow us to grow varieties that may otherwise struggle in our local conditions.
Now comes the exciting part: waiting to see whose grafts take! Over the coming weeks, we’ll be watching for new growth and signs that the grafts have successfully healed and begun growing.
Our own cocktail mulberry project has also had some success, with multiple scions taking on the Apollo rootstock. Unfortunately, some of the grafts were damaged after being tampered with, so we may have lost some of those combinations. But that’s gardening—and experimentation is part of the fun. We’ll have another opportunity to try again in the spring as the growing season gets underway.
Sugar Apple Harvest
Another big highlight this month was our sugar apple harvest! Both the red and green varieties have produced fruit, and we’ve already begun harvesting and sharing them with our members.
There are still green sugar apples developing on the trees, along with a few red fruits, so we’re looking forward to seeing what the remainder of the season brings. I hope everyone who received some was able to enjoy the harvest!
We’re also continuing to address some pest pressure in the Food Forest. Appropriate trapping and pest-management measures are currently being used to help protect our developing fruit and maintain healthy production throughout the garden.
Growing Our Community
We’re also preparing for our upcoming plant sale, with propagation becoming an increasingly important part of our work. Producing more plants for our community will allow us to expand the diversity and productivity of the Food Forest while sharing some of the varieties we’ve been growing and propagating.
Our recent Annual Membership Meeting was another tremendous success. We welcomed new members, provided tours, shared the history of the garden, and discussed ideas for its continued development. Thank you to everyone who came out and contributed their time, ideas, and enthusiasm.
As we continue developing the Food Forest, member input will be an important part of the process. We want to hear what you’d like to see in the garden and what would make it more useful, educational, productive, and enjoyable for our community.
What’s Next?
With fall approaching and the growing season beginning to wind down, our next major project will be pruning the Australian Green mulberry, following the same approach we used with the Apollo mulberry. We’ll also continue trimming and maintaining other trees throughout the Food Forest as we prepare for the change in season.
The summer rains have brought an incredible amount of growth, and it’s exciting to see the garden responding. Despite the heat, the Food Forest continues to thrive through the combined efforts of our members, volunteers, and young gardeners.
Thank you to everyone who continues to show up, volunteer, participate in classes, share ideas, and support the garden. Whether you’re helping build a garden bed, teaching a child how to plant a seed, learning how to graft a tree, or simply enjoying some fruit from the Food Forest, you are part of what makes this garden special.
Please continue to stay cool and take care of yourselves during these hot days. I look forward to seeing everyone in the garden.
Happy Gardening,
Chris Serville
Food Forest Coordinator
Apollo Beach Garden Club
