When it comes to growing food, urban orchardist Matt Soltys of Guelph, would rather look up for fresh hanging fruit.
From backyards to sidewalks, Soltys sees fruit-bearing trees as a pathway to food security and climate adaptation with ongoing efforts to reforest the city with fruit and nut trees.
“There is definitely more interest in this recently. Guelph has dozens of community gardens, and many people want to expand the perennials they have in these gardens. This includes trees too, so that they can all be collectively shared,” Soltys said.
“More people are getting involved and many gardens are turning into mixed garden orchards. This is happening more.”
Not only do they produce food, but fruit trees provide shade, remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and improve water quality.
Soltys said fruit trees can have a longer lasting impact on communities. And with just a bit of pruning, trees are much simpler to care for than growing a vegetable garden every year.
Rather than purchasing food, people can access fresh fruit from their own backyards, something Soltys said can help feed families and those in need with their harvests.
“Fruit forests can bring people together and offer yields that can be shared among the community,” Soltys said. “People are increasingly excited about bringing people together to grow fresh local food. And the merits of fresh food are just outside your door.”
Especially with rising food prices, fruit trees can help feed families with little cost.
“It’s not just making the environment more resilient to climate change, but also helping families with the cost of food prices,” he said.
While operating his own tree nursery and consulting business, The Urban Orchardist, Soltys is dedicated to fruit tree horticulture and edible landscapes.
Since 2021, the nursery specializes in a curated selection of organically grown berry and nut trees as well as a variety of fruit trees including the European and Asian pear, sweet and tart cherry, plums, peach, concord grape and apple.
Soltys grows trees for home and community orchards and for anyone looking to make their yard more edible.
“My nursery gives me a glimpse and 'a finger on the pulse' into what people are thinking about for their yards and what fruit trees they would like to see in their yards, so I can take more of a landscaping approach too,” Soltys said.
Soltys transformed his own front yard into an urban orchard which includes over 25 different species of fruit and nut trees.
As a father of two, Soltys said he believes that by simply teaching people to care for fruit trees that already exist in the city, this could have a long lasting impact on the community’s food security.
As well as having managed a community orchard at Ignatius Farm, Soltys operated the Guelph Fruit Tree Project, and co-founded a community food forest in his neighbourhood.
For Soltys, every backyard, front yard, city park or boulevard has the potential to produce an abundance of fruit and nuts.
“People are also really excited about fruit trees that have a neat story behind them. There’s a particular peach tree that grew for a family in Cambridge for generations. This is a very popular type of peach,” Soltys said.
“People are surprised you can even grow peaches here, but it’s a local story, and people love them.” .
Being able to grow local varieties is a big part of the nursery business for Soltys.
“There are local trees that people have seen in the area and in their neighbourhoods. They have loved these trees for years, but they have no idea what they are,” he said.
“I can propagate these trees and then we can watch a new generation grow.”
