In 1907, this happy old home was built as a farm house in the middle of an apple orchard located in Ravenna the same year it was annexed by Seattle. Coincidently, a century later, a girl who grew up among apple and pear orchards, moved in with a boy who bought this old house and together we’re working to restore its original surroundings of fruit trees that once flourished here so long ago. In the last two years we’ve installed 2 apples trees, 2 pears, a plum, an apricot, two grape vines, two kiwis, a fig, 6 lingonberries, 5 blueberries and a partridge in a pear tree.
We get most of our guidance from my father who started building wooden apple boxes at 5 cents a piece for an orchard in Chelan, Washington when he was 14 and he’s known orchards ever since. From flying as a crop duster to growing trees of his own for over 30 years now, his knowledge is our greatest resource.
We’ve also recently dicovered a small community demonstration orchard growing in Magnuson Park and we’re now frequent visitors comparing the growth in our small orchard to the the growth of their’s and observing how each veriety thrives in our climate.
Another amazing resource worth looking into is a local organization called City Fruit. City Fruit works neighborhood by neighborhood to help residential tree owners grow healthy fruit, to harvest and use what they can, and to share what they don’t need. You can register to have members of the City Fruit Coalition help you with pruning or harvesting and add your tree to a display map of all the privately grown fruit trees registered in the city.
We’ve purchased most of our fruit trees and vines through Raintree Nursery and Flower World.
