Volunteers Aaron Parker, Kristen Sheehy and Shanna Hostetter, Tend to the Mt. Joy Orcnard All Day Saturday.

Hotstetter and Adam Taddia, 13, Plant Bee Balm at the Orchard Last Saturday. Taddia’s Family is a Member of the Munjoy Hill Community Garden Nearby.

Landscaper, Aaron Parker, Plants A Tree on the Mt. Joy Orchard.

By Carol McCracken  (Post # 2,292)

“The goal of this Orchard is to provide an open space that is free to anyone to come and eat anything they want.  It’s a plant library,” said Shanna Hostetter, the head organizer for the group of volunteers who gathered on Saturday to grow the Orchard.

Last May 11, Jeff Tarling, city arborist, planted twelve apple trees as sixty students from the nearby East End Community School, North Street, watched.  Tarlilng also told the attentive children that this part of the east end of Portland was originally known as Mount Joy.  But the words began to get slurred so in time it became known as Munjoy Hill.  But Tarling told the students from now on it will be known as Mt. Joy Orchard at the bottom of the hillside across from their North Street schoo on Munjoy Hill.

Hostetter is a permaculture designer with her business Resislance Hub located on Anderson Street. The volunteers added 18 trees to the Orchard that included peach trees, Asian pear trees and persimmon trees. Since there is no hose long enough to water the trees from the Community Garden,  watering buckets will have to be used.  She said that the city of Portland has been very helpful  in getting us the trees and composite that we needed to do this. Hotstetter is planning a work group to come in once a month in the evenings to maintain the trees and keep them watered.  “We will be looking for assistance with that,” she said.

Another member of the organizing team Aaron Parker, a professional landscaper,  said:  “We are really excited to have this piece of land for this project.  It’s the first time we’ve been in a public space.”  The City is in the process of converting a small piece of land at the Fox Street Field into the Fox Field Food Forest Parker said.

“This place will be buzzing with life within the next five to ten years,” promised Hostetter.

Please see: http://www.mtjoy.tk for more information.