Free for all to attend STFS summer pruning workshop happens this Sat 15 Aug 2026 10 AM to noon and will be led by experienced college horticultural instructor Ingela W.
Site of workshop with its old,old apple&pear trees is NW Seattle’s Carkeek Park Piper’s Orchard, 950 NW Carkeek Park Rd, Seattle, WA 98177 Piper’s Orchard – Bing Maps
Thanks to City Fruit for the following site description of parking and access to Piper’s Orchard Piper’s Orchard – City Fruit:
To find Piper’s Orchard, start from Carkeek Park’s lower meadow parking lot and walk up along Piper’s Creek. The orchard is a 5-minute walk from the parking lot on an unpaved, slight upgrade. A second, steeper trail to the orchard leads down from the park entrance near the Nancy Malmgren Environmental Learning Center. An alternative way to reach the orchard is by following the ravine from the park’s small southerly McAbee entrance. The McAbee parking lot and trailhead are behind a QFC grocery store on Holman Road, off of NW 100th Place at 6th Avenue N.
No attendee is expected to do any pruning, but if hands-on instruction is desired, attendees should bring their pruning tools. Following end of formal instruction, some attendees will remain to volunteer their time completing additional pruning.
Bring: Everything you need for being outside 2 hours with a small group of people. Your own pruning tools if you want hands-on practice with the ready advice of a fruit tree pruning pro. Your own snacks and liquid refreshments. You can decide whether to share or not.
Dress: For weather which is expected to be very warmish (high 70s F). Believe it or not: walking up all Piper’s Creek there may be muddy walking surfaces and the actual orchard’s walking surface is steep. Dress for gardening chores IF you choose to help with orchard pruning/upkeep tasks (NOT REQUIRED!!!)
Facilities: Spare … Closest toilet is port-a-potty at lower parking lot before walking up to orchard along Piper’s Creek. (Got TP?).
Questions?: Email seattletreefruitsociety@gmail.com
Piper’s Orchard also hosts the Festival of Fruit which occurs next on Sun 4 Oct 2026 10 AM to 1 PM. Highlights of last year’s edition are featured at: Friends of Pipers Orchard | News and information about the historical orchard in Carkeek Park Seattle, Washington.
Some older fruit trees of Piper’s Orchard have eerily irregular scaffolds that might benefit from more radical, restorative pruning. Vashon Island Fruit Club (VIFC) recently hosted Steve Gaber, founder of non-profit NW Fruit Rescue and long time pruning teacher at nwfruit.org, to demonstrate renovation pruning for neglected trees.
If you’ve got a gnarly old apple or pear tree in need of restoration, check out NW Fruit Rescue’s Guidelines+for+Renovation+Pruning+of+Apples+and+Pears-2.pdf for ideas on how severely a neglected tree can be pruned. Pics of radical prunes begin on page 8.