3/12/2025
RCMG had a wonderful new opportunity this past August to play a role in maintaining and supporting an orchard located at the Ramsey County Correctional Facility (RCCF) in Maplewood. About a decade ago, a Metropolitan State professor and some students planted a small orchard with apple, pear, plum, and cherry trees.
There are approximately 35 apple trees, 5 plum trees, 10 cherry trees and 4 pear trees (no partridges have yet been spotted) in the orchard. While previously, residents at RCCF were involved in the maintenance, that has not been an option since 2020. Because of this, since August, we’ve been evaluating the current health and status of many of the trees and establishing a system for maintenance and harvesting by RCMG volunteers into the future.
This past fall, volunteers worked to harvest the apples and pears. We coordinated with several existing programs to distribute fruit through community connections such as Every Meal, Gardens for Good and the Children’s Peace Garden.
In February, we invited University Extension Educator, Madeline Wimmer, to visit the site and help train volunteers in pruning techniques for established fruit trees. Her main message was that it is always better to be able to train your fruit trees from a young age, but if you’re working with established trees, make cuts and changes that will help prevent damage to bark and tissue in the future (i.e., crossed branches, branches growing towards one another) and to do additional pruning after a season’s observation of the impact of the current pruning efforts.
This coming growing season (2025), we’ll establish regular work days with volunteers every 3-4 weeks so we can observe and trap for potential pests, watch for ripening times for all fruits, and do the maintenance that the grounds have lacked over the past few years (mulching around trees, replacing/removing broken tree guards, etc). We also hope to reach out to the Washington County Master Gardeners given their close proximity to and past interest in the site to establish a collaboration between our organizations on this project.
Watch for future sign-ups to get involved or contact Alex Meyer or Dawn Cameron for more information.
 Dawn C Orchard Co-Lead |  Alex M Orchard Co-Lead |
Dawn C