Jarrahdale primary school will host a workshop this month at the school’s orchard on how to care for fruit trees, presented by freelance horticultural consultant and tree specialist Peter Coppin.
The school’s garden specialist and sustainability coordinator Stacey Smithers said the workshop was part of the school’s sustainability efforts, which encouraged students to learn about cooking and gardening as well as being water and waste wise.
“We’re hoping to extend out into our community as part of our sustainability program because our job is to educate our children and if we can teach parents how to do things like care for fruit trees that trickles down to the kids,” she said.
“It’s vice versa too because what you teach the kids trickles up to their parents so there’s two-way learning.
“We also have a lot of fruit trees in the area so the bigger the knowledge base the better off our environment is.”
Ms Smithers said the workshop would also cover fruit flies, which was important because of the number of orchards in the community.
“This is all about up skilling our community so they can look after their fruit trees in an environmentally friendly way that doesn’t impact other people’s orchards,” she said.
The school’s orchard was about five years old and its produce was used in cooking classes with excess made into preserves.
The fruit trees included apples, apricots, pears, plums, citrus and a macadamia tree.
The workshop would be held on August 30 at the school in Wanliss Street, Jarrahdale and was sponsored by the school and Serpentine Jarrahdale food and farm alliance.
There were two sessions running from 8.45am to 12.15pm and 1pm to 4.30pm.
Tickets were $25 per session and included refreshments.
To book call 9525 5157 or 0448 768 003.
