Firmly planted
Truro Newcomers plant apple trees in community garden
Newcomers group sponsors the planting of apple trees in Truro’s community garden.
A women’s social group has helped green up a corner of a community garden in Truro.
The Truro Newcomers and Alumnae sponsored the planting of two apple trees in the garden on King Street Tuesday.
“I love trees,” says group member Elizabeth Lunn, who brought the project suggestion to the group. “They provide oxygen, shade, fruit, and something to climb on – it’s an environmental thing to do.”
The Town of Truro planted a third apple tree – all were of the Liberty variety.
Andrew Williams, urban forestry co-ordinator with the town, says the variety requires very little pesticide application and should be bearing a good deal of fruit in about five years.
The town already planted three pear trees, three peach trees and three plum trees when the King Street community garden opened in 2015.
The apple trees cost $63.25 each but the women’s group was also able to apply to the town’s tree planting rebate program.
Anyone, individual or business owner, who plants a tree in the Town of Truro is eligible to get back 50 per cent of the cost of the tree up to $50 per tree and for a maximum of ten trees per season.
“It’s a great program for the town,” says Williams. “It pays people to do the right thing to make the town greener for all of us.” The Truro Newcomers and Alumnae Group meets once a month to introduce new women to the community and to give women whose social circumstances have changed a chance to socialize. They organize lunches at restaurants around Truro and Colchester County, they meet for coffee and run book clubs, hold quilting bees and even visit the race track, for example.
After three years as a Newcomer, members are invited to become an Alumna and help introduce new women to the community.
The Truro group has about 15 Alumnae and a dozen Newcomers.
Beryl Keilty founded the group in 1994 after coming to Truro from Ottawa, where she had been a member of a Newcomers group there.
The group is an affiliate of the National Newcomers Association of Canada which has over 6,500 members.
The Truro changed their rules last year to include women who had lost a partner or been through divorce or for similar reasons were looking for new social connections.
Anyone interested in learning more about the group can call Cathy Davis at 902-890-3219 or Liz McGee at 902-890-4798.
“it’s a great program for the town … it pays people to do the right thing to make the town greener for all of us.” Andrew Williams, urban forestry co-ordinator, Town of Truro