Ocean Park Community Orchard
12815 - 22 Avenue Surrey, BC, Canada

A little humour for this grey, grey week! (stolen from my friend Kevin's page!)

If you love monarch butterflies, consider joining this Zoom presentation.

We had a safe and socially distanced clean-up today. We are missing our regular big helper groups, but we are fortunate to have a few friends drop by to help keep the orchard tidy and trees watered. #lovewhereyoulive #surreyparks @TheCityofSurrey

Never plant seeds that you did not order. Contact the CFIA.

Flowers, bees, and a scouter family!

The worker bees are patiently waiting for the sun to return, so they can collect more nectar and pollen.

We love when Cassie and Genevieve come to check up on the honeybees. They check the frames to make sure that the bees are healthy and that everything looks good! Thanks, Honeybee Centre! #honeybeecentrekids

It’s World Day! Happy to have lots of healthy bees in our orchard! Thanks to Genevieve and Cassie from the Honeybee Centre and Roger from the South Surrey Garden Club for their help in maintaining a healthy bee population in the orchard!

We love the Honeybee Centre!!

If you love honeybees, bee sure to tune into the #honeybeekids Instagram live Wednesday at 1. So cool! Thanks for this opportunity to learn Honeybee Centre!

Thanks, Honeybee Centre for taking such good care of our bees!

Happy to see flowers in the orchard today while getting ready for our bees to come back. Yay!

We have a visitor to the OPCO mason bee hotel. Can you see the male mason bee? He has a little white crown on his head. The close-up shot is from a guide to mason bees (http://tinyurl.com/ydepvt67). Maybe we'll find another one on our apple tree blossoms today so we can add him to the City Nature Challenge 2020!

Roger, our mason bee expert, checked in on the mason bees at the orchard today. You'll see the mason bee poop on the outside of their package indicating that they had emerged. Most of the cocoons were empty with a couple of bees emerging just as Roger was checking on them.

Join the City of Surrey’s Nature Challenge today through Monday using the free app iNaturalist. Read more about it on the City’s website. Take photos at home, on your neighborhood walk, and out at the orchard!

Looking for plants this weekend?

h a p p y e a r t h d a y !

Volunteers will work in the orchard this spring and summer following provincial guidelines. Food produced from the orchard is donated to the local food bank.

Here’s a post that our friends at the Eva Bene Butterfly Garden shared on their page. Stay tuned for news about our participation in the Suzuki Butterflyway project. In the meantime, consider adding some of these early flowering plants to your garden.

Looking forward to seeing our bees again!

Should we bless our apple trees with a ceremony? Thanks to Heather for this suggestion!!! Does anyone know some wassailers?

We were pleased to have members from the Canucks Autism Network' s Explorer program help start tidying up the orchard this weekend!

For those interested to learn the basics of gardening to encourage pollinators to visit.

Interested in pruning fruit trees? We've had Richard out to the orchard a couple of times pruning our young trees. This time, he'll be demonstrating on the mature trees at the nearby Stewart Farm. (note: you probably will want to dress more warmly than the folks in the photo!) Saturday January 25th, 1:00-3:00pm Historic Stewart Farm, 13723 Crescent Rd FREE fruit-tree pruning workshop ... Hosted by the Sources Food Hub Featuring expert arborist Richard Hallman, Learn how to get bigger harvests and avoid diseases through pruning and other best practices. RSVP to [email protected] or 604-596-0973

Dreaming of Spring? Come out to hear Brian Minter next Wednesday (Jan 22) at 7 pm at St. Mark's in South Surrey. Brian will have plants for sale (cash only), delicious goodies at the break and Gwen Odermatt from Petal & Butterflies will have a Show & Tell highlighting plants with winter interest. $5 guest fee.

Find a treasure hidden in the snow at the orchard!

Thanks for the reminder!

Do you care about bees as much as we do? The award-winning movie, The Pollinators is coming to Vancouver for a limited showing on November 11. Find out more and order your tickets online : https://tickets.demand.film/event/8446

Bees are off to their winter vacation home at the Honeybee Centre

Here are some more photos from our Lavender Tea! Are you following us on Instagram?? Check us out!

We harvested some of the lavender to make tea and sachets, tasted honey from our hives, and got some help in the orchard from FedEx Richmond community volunteers (thanks to the connection from Tree Canada). #lovewhereyoulive @TheCityofSurrey

Come join us in the orchard next weekend. This family-oriented event is free and open to the public. Honeybee Centre - Tree Canada / Arbres Canada - City of Surrey Ocean Park, Surrey Celebrating our connection to the environment all year round Surrey Environmental Extravaganza

With all of the rain, we certainly don't need the tree bags anymore. Thanks to the 6th Peace Arch scouts for coming to help us get them ready for storage!

Guests are welcome to the South Surrey Garden Club meetings. $5 fee that can be applied to membership.

Join us next week when we have another horticultural therapy session in the orchard. [email protected] for more info

Great effort today to do a little weeding, deadheading, and watering. Thanks Angela, Regula, Brenda, Rachel, Diane, Jill, and Linda for helping to tidy up the orchard. And so happy to see Nancy in the orchard too!

WEED & WATER DROP-IN Drop in to help weed and water today, Tuesday, August 27th 4-6 pm. Bring some gloves and pruners if you have them or come as you are!

What's happening in the cob house lately? Our 3-generation herb team is drying some lavender for our tea social this fall. We'll invite our neighbours to join us in an old-fashioned tea and herb mixer. Stay tuned!

We love pier doodles. Check them out on Instagram!

Have you visited the Eva Bene Butterfly Garden in Centennial Park? If you can, drop by for a visit Thursday when they release some butterflies and everything is beautifully in bloom!

We truly appreciate all of the work that the scouts have put into weeding, composting, and watering in the orchard. As a treat, Monday was a fun night for the scouts. Cassie from the Honeybee Centre opened up the hives and we all got to taste some fresh honey! #lovewhereyoulivesurrey #honeybeecentre #honeybeecentrekids #environmentalextravanganza #oporchard

Our Ocean Park TD Bank friends came to help us weed, spread bark mulch, and fill our tree bags with water. We are so thankful for our community partnerships! #lovewhereyoulivesurrey #environmentalextravaganza #communityspirit #TDBank #oceanpark

What's happening with the trees in the orchard this week? During the windstorm in late December, some trees were damaged and marked for removal. Upon closer inspection of all of the trees on the eastern side of the orchard, 12 were found to be dead or dying. The City Urban Forestry staff are removing those trees this week for safety reasons. We will work with the City to add appropriate plants in the Fall to some of the bare areas. If you have any questions, please call the City's info line at (604) 501-5050. If you would like to be involved in our ongoing planting and maintenance efforts, please contact us at [email protected] We are excited about a recent Tree Canada grant that we just received which will enable us to further enhance the orchard space.

Check out this interesting talk right here in Ocean Park.

Don't worry, bee happy!

Caterpillars are hungry! Thanks to our orchard friends Laurence from Eva Bene Butterfly Garden for providing a few more caterpillars to watch and Diane from the South Surrey Garden Club for providing some Lavatera for our fuzzy friends to munch on.

The best plant sale! Don't miss it! Saturday, May 11, 9-12 at St. Mark's Church A couple of blocks from the orchard!

Our butterflies were still in chrysalis form at our open house last week. Here's one that just emerged today. #environmentalextravaganza #paintedlady #pollinators #surreyparks

Here are a few snaps from our EE event last Sunday. #environmentalextravanganza #honeybeecentre #oporchard #southsurreygardenclub #surreyparks

Join us Sunday, April 28th, 10am-1pm for a fun Open House at the orchard! It’s free and open to the public. Taste some honey, peek into the cob house, plant some flowers, or get your face painted! Don’t forget to bring your camera! 128th and 22nd in South Surrey. #environmentalextravaganza #honeybeecentre #oporchard

Support your local garden club! South Surrey Garden Club at St. Marks on May 11th, 9noon.

The bees are coming back from their winter vacation. Come join us in the orchard on April 28th, 10am - 1pm for a special visit with our bees and friends from the #HoneybeeCentre. Free treats and lots of activities--great for the whole family! This event is part of the City of Surrey's #EnvironmentalExtravaganza Free and open to the public.

A great evening in the orchard! After a very rainy Monday we were happy to see some blue sky on Wednesday so the scouts could help out in the orchard. They pulled weeds and then sprinkled some nutrient-rich composted soil around the tree bases.

You'll see our orchard team most weekends getting a little work done in the orchard. Drop by and join us, we have tools and gloves and we would love company! More Info: [email protected]

We're planting herbs in the front beds! Do you have any that you can share? Join us Sunday, March 31st, 10-noon at the orchard.

Start your own pollinator’s garden with help from our friends at Botanus. We’ll be adding some Echinacea purpurea to the kiosk area this year as well as several types of Asclepias. #bees #butterflies #pollination

Getting the orchard ready for Spring! Have you seen the daffodils? We appreciate the contributions of all of our partners who make this orchard possible.

Got busy in the orchard today to start getting ready for the Spring!

We would love to see your orchard photos! Make a snow angel in the orchard and post it to Instagram: with #oporchard Or, send us your favourite orchard photos: [email protected] and we'll feature you on our Instagram and FB page!

With this cold snap, maybe we’ll find some ghost apples in the orchard!

As orchard lovers, you may be interested in this free presentation about pollinators. February 14th at 7:30 p.m. Sunnyside Community Hall.

Can’t wait until the folks from the Honeybee Centre visit us again! A special day is being planned for April 28th!!

With the mild weather this month, Spring feels even closer. Lots of new adventures in the orchard are being planned! Stay tuned.

What a great opportunity in the neighbourhood--come hear Douglas Justice from the UBC Botanical Garden present at the upcoming South Surrey Garden Club. Members are free and guests are welcome ($5.00 fee which can be applied to a membership). Douglas is a captivating speaker who you don't want to miss! This Wednesday evening at 7 pm at St. Marks.

We love the support that the orchard receives from the OPCA and especially the Youth Team. If you love this community as much as we do, won't you please consider becoming a member of the association? They offer us so much, let's give them a little love back!

A little more work on the cob shed and the bees are off to their winter home.

The Annual Apple Festival At UBC Botanical Garden is this weekend!

We were fortunate enough to get a Neighbourhood Enhancement Grant from the City of Surrey so that we could create art on our new cob shed with some of our friends from Ocean Cliff Elementary School.