Hot off the press! You can now download The Buzz: A Gude to Pollinator-Friendly Plants right here! The Buzz is our original month-by-month guide to help save the bees and create more holistic edible ecosystems, written by Ben Howard and illustrated by Karyn Lao.
Please donate to support our work by clicking here, and entering “Baltimore Orchard Project” under the Project Designation section.
Download The Buzz here!
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One of the greatest resources for any urban orchardist is Bounty: An Orchardist’s Illustrated Guide to a Fruitful Harvest. Bounty is our original month-by-month guide to fruit tree care, written and illustrated by Ben Howard and Maria Smilde.
The sheer volume of information available on the responsibilities and maintenance involved in orchard care is overwhelming and even conflicting at times. Bounty is a collection of our best advice and the essential practices for healthy trees and a bountiful harvest.
Not only have we sifted through the material, but we have organized it and presented it in a manner that is engaging and helpful. The guide has been created for Baltimore’s climate, and with that in mind, readers elsewhere should adjust accordingly. Our goal with Bounty is to encourage, inspire, and involve people like you in a movement towards creating an edible Baltimore.
At the Baltimore Orchard Project, we work to provide as much support as we can to our city’s current and prospective orchardists. Please donate to support our work by clicking here, and entering “Baltimore Orchard Project” under the Project Designation section.
Check out more compiled resources, both general and local, below. Expand each to read more.
Clifton Park Food Forest
The Buzz on BioDiversity: Ecological Landscaping Association
Gaia’s Garden: a guide to home-scale permaculture by Toby Hemenway
Five permaculture videos
Edible Ecosystem Teaching Garden
Edible Forest Gardens
Edible Trails Project
Perennial Solutions
Soil Testing
Lead in Soils – What You Need to Know: Baltimore City Department of Health
Lead in Garden Soils: University of Maryland Extension
Selecting and Using a Soil Testing Laboratory: University of Maryland Extension
Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Laboratory: UMass Amherst (about $15 for lead, arsenic and cadmium soil testing – confirm prices)
Soil Safety Resource Guide for Urban Food Growers: Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Urban Community Gardeners’ Knowledge and Perceptions of Soil Contaminant Risks, Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health