Silver Creek Nursery
2343 Gerber Rd N0B 2T0 Wellesley, ON, Canada

While COVID-19 continues to make it difficult to hold in-person events, we’ve got the next best thing: virtual seminars! As mentioned in a previous post, we will be participating in the Kitchener Seedy Saturday online Zoom presentations this Saturday, February 27th. The event runs from 9:00am to 2:30pm. At 2:00pm, we will be hosting our seminar: Holistic Orchard Spray 101. We will cover Michael Phillips’ holistic spray recipe, the theory behind it, and how to tweak it to meet your needs, followed by a Q&A period. The event is totally free and if this sounds like something you would be interested in, you can follow the link below for more information, a list of the other seminars, and the Zoom link which will be posted within 24 hours of the event: http://www.kitchenerhs.ca/cms/events/2021/seedy-saturday-1/

Check out our updated profile on the Holistic Orchard Network! The Holistic Orchard Network (HON), spearheaded by Michael Phillips, is a fantastic resource for all growers, and the forum is a great place to go to pick the brains of fellow growers, of any scale. https://groworganicapples.com/profile.php?pid=411

With all our fruit-related posts, it’s easy to forget that we also have some farm animals running around the nursery. Recently, we saw the return of some of my favourite residents: newly hatched chicks! Wayne has gotten a few more chicks to add to his flock and they’re just as cute as the last batch! Here we have pics of the recently hatched balls of fluff and the older birds which we posted about at the end of January. As you can see, these chickies sure change a lot over the course of only a few weeks!

For those of you who missed out on signing up for our holistic spray workshop at the nursery, we will be doing a mini virtual lesson on Feb 27 at the Kitchener Seedy Saturday, 1:30-2:00 in the afternoon! It's just half an hour, so we won't get any equipment out, but we will go over the theory behind the spray/what it does, the recipe and ingredients, with a little Q and A at the end! Hope to see you there! -Steph

Happy New Year everyone! We wish you all the best in 2021! Here at Silver Creek Nursery, we’re already hard at work preparing for the busy year ahead. While some people start off the New Year with a fresh haircut, we start it off by giving our trees a fresh cut...or prune, in this case! With this pleasantly mild weather, Wayne has been able to get outdoors and prune some of the trees in our test orchard for optimal growth and fruit production. Similarly, using ropes and cind...erblocks we’re training some of the branches on our trees so they grow in a way that promotes greater strength and fruit production. For those unfamiliar with training fruit trees, this may look a little strange but it is definitely worth it! Last but not least, here’s a couple of the many exciting projects we’re taking on this year. Dotted around the property, we now have a bunch of homemade birdhouses (made mostly by our resident expert Wayne and Jade who ‘helped’) in order to attract more birds to the nursery. Both lovely to see and great for natural pest control! To keep our birds extra safe, the piping at the base is designed to deter squirrels and raccoons and we created wider entrances so sparrows can’t bully smaller birds like bluebirds and tree swallows. Also pictured is some old maple wood we converted into raised beds where we’ll be growing blueberries! We recently started carrying blueberry bushes but are of course going to keep some for ourselves so we can grow our own tasty little snacks!

Happy Family Day everyone! We hope you have a lovely one! We are closed today but will be back in the office bright and early tomorrow. Not to fear though, we have some good apple-y content to satisfy you until we open up again. In honour of Valentine’s Day yesterday, we have picked a fitting apple: Maiden’s Blush! This variety is named for the reddish-pink ‘blush’ that overlays its yellowy-green skin. This all-purpose apple sports a unique citrusy acidity and sweetness. It i...s also non-browning, making it a great apple for cooking, baking, and drying! Maiden's Blush is another variety where we’re not quite sure how old it is. It was first described in New Jersey in 1817 but had already been popular in Philadelphia markets for some time. It may have originated in the New Jersey area in the late 1700s and then remained popular through the early 1800s.

As December draws to a close and the new year approaches, it is time for us to wish you all a Happy Holidays! Silver Creek Nursery will be closed from Dec. 25th until January 4th as we take some much needed time to relax this holiday season. We will respond to any message once we are back in the office, so take some time to sit back and think about all the lovely little trees you want to add to your gardens and orchards next spring! See you all in 2021!

Happy Chinese New Year! We wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous year ahead! It is the year of the ox and people born this year are considered strong, hardworking, and reliable. Hopefully you know some ox in your life! Fitting with our Chinese theme, today we’ll take a look at Ping Guo Li, one of our Asian pears! Although not traditionally eaten on Chinese New Years, Ping Guo Li is nonetheless a delightful little fruit that is juicy and sweet. Of our Asian pears, it has a flavour most akin to European pears. Ping Guo Li literally translates from Mandarin as ‘apple pear,’ the name possibly stemming from its round apple-like shape. It was developed by Jilin Sheng in China and although we are not certain quite how old this variety is, it is noted as being an older one.

With Christmas just around the corner, we thought of the perfect apple to introduce you to: the Christmas apple! Commonly known as Lady apple, this variety is one of the oldest that we know of. These apples can be traced back to 17th century France and some claim (with contention) that they may be a favoured variety from Ancient Rome. With their pretty skin and crisp, sweet flesh, it is easy to see how they have lasted so long! But why the name ‘Christmas apple?’ Well, traditionally these small apples have been used to adorn Christmas wreaths in Europe and North America! These apples last all winter so they’re the perfect little decoration for the holidays, adding some much-needed colour and a little fruity goodness!

Still looking for ideas for Christmas presents? Know someone interested in growing fruit trees? Then get a Silver Creek Nursery gift certificate for the holidays! It’s the perfect gift for anyone looking to start their own orchard in the spring or grow an existing one. These lovely little certificates can be used on any order placed in our store, whether you are buying online or picking up your trees from us. To get a gift certificate today, you can: ... Visit our website here: https://bit.ly/3oWvas4 Email us at: [email protected]

Want to learn a little horticultural history today? Then meet Isabella Preston, the Queen of Ornamental Horticulture! Preston was born in 1881 in England and loved gardening from a young age. When she was 31 she immigrated to Canada where she became the first professional female plant hybridist in the country. Her goal was to create ornamental plants hardy enough to survive in Canada’s harsher climate! In 1920 she began working at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa and s...uccessfully created over 200 hybrids of flowers such as lilacs, roses, and peonies along with twenty ‘rosybloom’ crabapple trees, including Geneva which we grow here! For her hard work she earned numerous awards in horticulture and even had one named after her. Fun fact: Her knowledge of plants was so well-renowned that she even advised Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King on landscaping for his Kingsmere estate and the Royal Canadian Air Force on what plants would help camouflage aircraft hangars during WW2.

A difficult topic, but today we wanted to bring attention to the struggles faced by growers such as Nature Fresh Farms and their guest/migrant workers due to COVID-19. Covered in an article by The Grower and their own documentary The Hardest Harvest, this past summer Nature Fresh’s greenhouses had to be shut down due to COVID-19 cases among their guest workers, resulting in the loss of 7.8 million pounds of food. The loss of food was felt poignantly by every grower involved..., thankfully none of whom became seriously ill or passed away from the virus. As we all know, this year has been one of uncertainty with tough decisions and restrictions that have consequences. Agriculture has been hit especially hard, with stories such as crops being ploughed under and milk being poured down the drain as demand from major food industries fell. Nature Fresh’s case helps to outline the difficult human element of this as well and how hard this year has been on everyone. Having visited Nature Fresh's greenhouse and lived in the area for work, this particular story is especially sad to hear. For anyone who wants more information, check out the links below. The Grower article on Nature Fresh: https://bit.ly/3gcCUTK The Hardest Harvest documentary: https://bit.ly/36GAycr CBC article on migrant workers and the pandemic: https://bit.ly/33MbRJE