URI's College of the Environment and Life Sciences

East Farm Open House and Crabapple Festival

May 8th 

10:00 am - 2:00 pm

URI East Farm, located on Rte. 108 in Kingston

 

URI’s 70 acre East Farm was acquired by the university in 1928 and is used for horticultural evaluation, fruit culture research. The farm includes one of the largest crabapple collections in the country with over 170 trees of 50 varieties. It also contains a Pinetum (evergreen arboretum) and a five-acre deciduous arboretum rarely open to the public. Please come explore the farm, have your soil tested, buy some plants, and help preserve the farm’s horticultural history.

 

Plant Sales – All Day

  • Rhode Island Wild Plant Society

  • URI Master Gardeners – perennials and annuals

  • South County Garden Club  - 4 “ perennial pots (with demonstration on flower conditioning and arranging)

  • SRICD  - Deutzia, witch hazel, lupines, blue jay blueberries, nelson blueberries, winterberry holly, heaths, heathers and daylilies

  • Nelumbo Water Gardens – Aquatic plant sales & hands-on demonstration of propagating water lilies and marginals

 

Demonstrations/Information Booths – All Day

  • Ask-A-Master Gardener

  • Soil Ph testing – Master Gardeners Bob Rafka and Ron Sienowski

  • Bird Banding – Dr. Peter Paton, URI NRS

  • Mosquito Management – Dr. Al Gettman, RIDEM/URI PLS

  • What is Biological Control?  Insect Zoo – Lisa Tewksbury, URI Plant Sciences/Bio Control Lab

  • Pruning Small Trees & Fruit – Dr. Steven Alm and Heather Faubert – URI PLS

  • Healthy Landscapes: Clean Water starts at Home - URI CE Home A Syst

  • Hydroponics; recirculating system; tropical fish breeding; water garden - URI CE Finfish Aquaculture Extension Aquaculture Demonstration Facilities

  • Favorite Container Gardens from Local Garden Centers- Clark Farms, Farmers Daughter, Rose Shack, Schartner Farms

  • Veggie Garden Q and A

 

Fisheries Demonstration/Lectures

10:30 What's Going On With Our Lobsters? by Kathy Castro
11:15 Bizarre Sea Creatures of Rhode Island, by Laura Skrobe
12:00 Commercial Fishing Methods of Rhode Island, by Dave Beutel
12:45 Sea Turtles -- Warm Water Tourists to Rhode Island, by Malia Schwartz

Cooking Demonstrations

10:30 Cooking with Normand LeClair, chef and author

11:30 & 1:00 Cooking with Apples and Blueberries- MG and Chef Lorrie Vezineau

  Tours and Workshops

10:30 and 12:30 An Historical Tour of East Farm – Professor Wayne Durfee     

11:00 Building an Asparagus Bed   

12:00 Hand Pruning with Dave Renzi of Distinctive Landscapes   

11:00 and 1:00 Ornamental Horticulture Evaluation Plots – Dr. Brian Maynard  

 

If you would like to know more please visit URI's flowering crabapple website:

http://cels.uri.edu/crabapples