KAMSACK, Sask. — A couple dozen volunteers assembled at the western end of Kamsack’s urban orchard during a beautiful sunny morning on Aug. 22 to plant a variety of fruit trees to add to the orchard’s many established plants.
Under the direction of Ambur Hrooshkin, Kamsack’s community development officer, and Fitz Shaw, Director of Recreation and Community Development, the group included members of the Kamsack Fire Department and Kamsack and District Horticulture Association.
With spades and a pickaxe in hand, a pile of bagged soil at the ready, and the department’s truck loaded with water, the volunteers went about digging the holes and planting the trees.
Among the fruit trees, especially selected for the growing conditions in the Kamsack area, were apples, plums, pears, currents and haskaps. There were also hazelnuts, raspberries and rhubarb plants included in the collection.
The planting bee was a continuation of an initiative of Hrooshkin and Shaw, who had planned to have the trees planted in June, but a delay in the trees’ arrival the subsequent heavy rainfall and resulting flooding had forced its postponement.
The trees were obtained in consultation with Katey Vanin, an arborist from Alberta, who had visited the area earlier this year.
