Course Curriculum
Welcome! Course Introduction
- Introducing Ourselves
- How To Use This Course
Tour of Fruit Trees & More with Bob Duncan, August 2020 (North Saanich, BC)
- Video – Figs (7:43)
- Video – Stone Fruits (7:17)
- Video – Kiwi (6:51)
- Video – Citrus (8:48)
- Video – Winter Citrus Follow-Up (1:41)
- Video – 8 Fruit You Didn’t Know You Could Grow (11:41)
Choosing Fruits & Nuts
- PDF – Fruit & Nuts for Southern Vancouver Island by Hatchet & Seed
- PDF – Fruit Cultivar Descriptions & Availability at Fruit Trees & More
- Local Nurseries & Fruit Cultivar Descriptions
Planning Your Fruit & Nut Orchard: From Backyards to Farms
- Slideshow – Inspiring Trees & Their Stories (13:26)
- Slideshow – Site Selection (9:05)
- Slideshow – Pollination (9:55)
- Slideshow – Rootstocks (6:13)
- Slideshow – Tree Forms & Spacing (14:34)
- Video: Drip Irrigating Your Trees (4:53)
- VIDEO – Suburban Food Forest Case Study (18:11)
- Resource: Cross-Pollination Charts
Soil Preparation & Planting
- Slideshow: Soil Preparation Case Studies (16:48)
- Slideshow: Planting Do’s & Dont’s (7:48)
- Video: How to Plant a Tree (13:19)
- Video: How to Plant a Tree 2 (8:25)
- Video: Mixed Orchard Installation (9:35)
- Additional Resources
Seasonal Pruning & Training
- Slideshow: Understanding Fruit Tree Habits (11:32)
- Slideshow: Pruning & Training Basics (26:47)
- Video – Bob Duncan on Training Styles (3:57)
- Video: Plum Pruning (Winter) with Tayler (7:48)
- Video: Espalier Winter Pruning with Tayler & Chris Adams (5:37)
- Video: Winter Pruning with Bob Duncan (16:22)
- Video: Review – Heading Cut vs. Thinning Cut (Winter) with Tayler (1:58)
- Video: Winter Pruning Central Leader Dwarf Apple Tree (8:45)
- Video: Training a Young Dwarf Fruit Tree for ‘Christmas Tree-Style’ (3:30)
- Video: Summer Pruning Demo (3:10)
- Video: How to Prune Figs with Bob Duncan
- Video: Restoring an Old Heritage Apple Tree (12:01)
- Slideshow: Grafting Basics (14:12)
- Additional Resources
Pest, Disease & Fertility Management
- Slideshow: Pest & Disease Management (18:54)
- Slideshow: Fertility Management (8:01)
- Video: Chris Adams on Holistic Pest Management (2:14)
- Video: The Fungal Garden (2:54)
- PDF: Holistic Fruit Tree Sprays
- Additional Resources
Harvest, Processing & Storage Tips
- Video: Brief History of the Orchard Wassail (7:56)
- Slideshow: Harvesting Tips & Tools (10:06)
- Slideshow: Hard Cider Basics (18:48)
- Additional Resources
A word from the makers:
This ‘self-paced‘ online course has grown out of our 10 years of managing Hatchet & Seed – Edible Landscapes in ‘the garden city’ – Victoria, BC.
Designing, installing & co-evolving with our own backyard edible landscapes, as well as our client’s orchards/edible landscapes has been humbling and gratifying.
Being so multi-locational – with projects all throughout Southern Vancouver Island – we’ve learnt a lot in those ten years from both mistakes & successes.
While cultivating fruit may seem as easy as planting fruit trees, there are many factors to consider.
Site selection, soil type, soil preparation, planting, training, pruning, pest management, harvest, processing & storage are all important considerations to plan for ahead of time.
We’ve designed this course to be a high-quality, well-organized, multi-media reference place for those seeking help on their journey to horticultural & homesteading mastery.
While our ten years of experience has been enlightening, we are still early-learners in the unbelievably rich world of fruit cultivation. This is why we’re thrilled to have partnered with Bob & Verna Duncan of Fruit Trees & More in North Saanich, BC. They bring several additional decades of wisdom growing rare & unique fruits in our eco-region. We’re also featuring some other friends and colleagues who have fruit wisdom to share!
We sincerely hope you enjoy, Tayler & Solara.