Rebecca Phillips of the Fort Street Pollinator Habitat committee gives some gardening advice and local history tidbits to Girl Scouts of Troop 10100 as she prepares the new McIntosh apple tree for planting. Committee member Dylan Holdren is also pictured, center. (Photo by Nancy Taylor)

A tree grows in Harmar.

It’s not the only one, of course.

But this one is newly planted and connected to Marietta lives in so many ways.

“You are a part of history now,” Rebecca Phillips told the members of Girl Scout Troop 10100 on Friday afternoon.

As she talked, she was using a shovel tip to gently loosen the roots from their circular pattern around the young apple tree that had just come out of its container.

Alleeah Black, front, Aleigha Hall, center, and Harmony Ellerson do a final check and dirt patting. (Photo by Nancy Taylor)

Phillips is one of the committee working on a memorial garden in the pollinator zone that nestles on the slope below Fort Street and faces the Muskingum River.

“And this is the first official planting in the pollinator memorial garden,” she told the troop members gathered for the event.

“You are planting this in the oldest part of Marietta. And there was an apple orchard in Harmar before there was a City of Marietta.”

The orchard, she said, was used by Revolutionary War soldiers. In a lower voice, she added an aside to several adult bystanders: “I don’t think we have to include the information that the soldiers used the apples for hard cider.”

But the members of Troop 10100 already have a clear vision for the two fruit trees they have given the city. Besides the apple tree at the top of the pollinator zone, there is a young peach tree planted between the road and the fence at Flanders Field. Their Scout leaders, T.J. Lincoln and Tracy Hall, explained that they received a $125 grant from the Girl Scouts when they applied to participate in the Girl Scout Tree Promise goal of planting 1,000 trees.

Shown are Khloe Lincoln, Sam Phelps, Aleigha Hall, Mayor Josh Schlicher behind Harmony Ellerson, Hannah Hall, and co-leader Tracy Hall behind Alleeah Black. (Photo by Nancy Taylor)

“When we asked the troop what kind of tree they wanted to plant, they chose ‘fruit tree,”’ Hall said.

“Why is that, Kloe?” the leaders prompted troop member Khloe Lincoln. “It’s because we want the homeless people to have something they can eat when the drop-in shelter is closed,” she said.

Leader T.J. Lincoln already knows what a good idea the apple tree is for the pollinator zone.

“The tree was at my house after we bought it, and it had bees swarming all over it,” she said. “And I did get stung.”

Mayor Josh Schlicher attended the tree planting and Scouts helped him place the tree. Marietta Main Street coordinator Jen Tinkler was also there. The C-4 section of Harmar is Main Street’s responsibility, Tinkler said.

Co-leader Tracy Hall displays the Girl Scout Tree Promise badge on Khloe Lincoln’s Scout vest. Troop 10100 used Tree Promise funds to buy the two fruit trees they planted in Harmar, an apple tree at the pollinator zone below Fort Street and a peach tree beside Flanders Field. (Photo by Nancy Taylor)

“When I walk out of my office in the summer, this is what I see. It is soul enriching,” she said.

Dylan Holdren of the Fort Street pollinator habitat group was there.

“If there’s a place on this side of town that involves planting and dirt, I’m there,” he said.

Holdren said his activities also included Harvest of Hope and his earlier work with the late Jim Couts in the Jubilee Organic Gardens. Holdren sees the pollinator zone as a natural integration with nature, natural foods, and the cycle of living things.

One of the later guests to arrive at the tree planting was J.D. Williamson of Williamstown, known locally as a cartooning artist and storyteller, among other creative pursuits. Williamson was there because he is a kind of “adoptee” of Troop 10100. He has helped the Scouts with their badges, Hall said. In turn, when Williamson was undergoing leukemia treatments, the girls sent him things he liked and kept in touch with him.

Hall said Troop 10100 is always looking for girls who are interested in joining. At this point, they have members who are in kindergarten through 10th grade. A few more 10th graders would be nice, she said. The troop meets 4-6 p.m. each Tuesday at the Unitarian Universalist Church at Putnam and Third streets. The members are from Marietta, Williamstown and Parkersburg.