Somerset Meadows Has an Apple Orchard Next Door. Roger's Grove Is the One That Says "Help Yourself."

The City of Longmont hasn't published any guidance on who gets the apples at Clover Meadows Park. The 6.84-acre park at 4850 Heatherhill Street in southwest Longmont opened with an apple orchard. The City of Longmont lists Somerset Meadows first among the neighborhoods around it, along with Meadowview West, Tromonto and the future North Star neighborhood. The city calls it Longmont's "second city-owned apple orchard." The first one, at Roger's Grove Nature Area across town, has a city facility page that says its apple grove has "fruit free for your harvest." No city page we found says anything like that about Clover Meadows.

So the newest orchard in town sits on Somerset Meadows' doorstep, but the city's open invitation to pick belongs to the older orchard. The thing at Clover Meadows that no other Longmont park has is the bike course a few steps from the trees.

Two orchards, two very different public records

Here is what the City of Longmont has published about each orchard, side by side.

One orchard is about three decades into its life and has a written invitation. The other is less than two years old. Its own city pages list the orchard as an amenity and stop there.

What the city has actually said about the Clover Meadows trees

The Clover Meadows apples have shown up in exactly one public moment. When the park opened on Saturday, November 2, 2024, the city billed a fall-themed celebration with "free apples and cider," a ribbon cutting by City Manager Harold Dominguez, a scavenger hunt and breakfast burritos for the first 50 guests. The city's announcement asked guests to arrive by bicycle to save parking for the event.

David Bell, Longmont's director of Parks and Natural Resources, described the park in the city's grand opening release this way:

"It stands out with Longmont's first bike playground, our second city-owned apple orchard, and a large, fully accessible playground with sand play."

Bell's order is the right one. The bike playground comes first, and that release also called Clover Meadows the first new park Longmont had opened since Dickens Farm Nature Area in 2020.

Since then, the city's facility listing has kept the orchard on its amenity list next to the bicycle skills course, accessible play area, sand play and trail connection. It doesn't add harvest guidance. The city's parks rules page points to Municipal Code Chapter 13.20, Public Lands, and its summary doesn't address picking fruit either. We found no 2025 or 2026 harvest event at Clover Meadows. We also found no local news coverage of the park after its opening. This is a general summary of what the city has published, not legal advice. If you're unsure whether something is allowed at a particular park, Longmont Parks and Natural Resources is the place to ask.

Why Roger's Grove is where the apples have a track record

Roger's Grove has been in the city's park system far longer, and its role as a public orchard is spelled out. The 54.9-acre nature area sits next to the St. Vrain Greenway and includes Fairgrounds Lake, paved and gravel trails, a shelter, an outdoor amphitheater, demonstration gardens and the apple grove. The Roger and Roberta Jones Foundation funded most of its design and construction. The city describes the couple as St. Vrain Valley educators who wanted a place where children and adults could visit, learn and enjoy. That's why the grounds were planned as a nature area, arboretum and outdoor learning center.

The orchard there is still being looked after. The city's reinvestment tracker shows new apple trees planted at Roger's Grove, with the work marked done on September 29, 2023. In 2024 the grove hosted an organized harvest. The Daily Camera reported that a community harvest was set for September 21 that year, with Longmont Parks volunteers and Community Fruit Rescue, and that the apples would go to Longmont Food Rescue and other recipients. We didn't find a comparable announcement for 2025 or 2026, so that event is a past example, not a standing date.

A few practical details from the city's page. Roger's Grove is open from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset, and dogs are allowed on leash. Louisville artist Robert Tulley's "Waterline," "Kestrel's Way" and "Prairie Underground" have stood there since 1995. His "Listening Stones" followed in 1998 along the nearby St. Vrain Greenway trail.

The feature that belongs only to Clover Meadows

The bike course is what sets Clover Meadows apart. The park's June 2024 site plan labels it a "Bicycle Skills Course." Bell's release calls it Longmont's first bike playground. The city's Art in Public Places program goes further and calls it "the first (and only) bike pump park in town." Among neighborhood parks, Longmont has one of these, and it's in Somerset Meadows' park.

The artwork that marks it is easy to walk past without knowing the story. IN TANDEM, by Mike Burke, was installed in 2025. It's an oversized, colorful bicycle spoke set into red gravel, with two benches shaped like bike pedals. Burke built it from upcycled chain off an old ski lift, plus stainless steel and reflective vinyl. It spans the sidewalk and works as a bench or a table.

The rest of the park fills in around those two features:

• A large playground with age-appropriate areas for kids 2 to 5 and 5 to 12, plus sand play
• A reservable shade shelter and permanent restrooms
• A large lawn for open play
• A nature path seeded with native grass and flowers
• A trail connection, though the city's facility page doesn't name the trail

The city's reinvestment record lists construction as finished on December 12, 2024. It also sets out the park's planned lifecycle work: a bike repair station in 2030, signage and furnishings in 2035, and shelter renewal in 2050. We found nothing in the city's records showing a fall 2026 closure or new project at the park.

How Somerset Meadows ended up with any of this

The park came together from several neighborhoods' development deals. According to the city, the land was donated in two pieces: two acres with the Meadowview West subdivision and 4.84 acres with the North Star development. The Somerset Meadows developer helped pay for the park. The city also asked the public what it wanted. Residents and other community members took part in public meetings, a survey on design concepts and a park-naming process, before presentations to the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board and City Council.

That background is why the orchard's young age matters. A neighborhood park planned with public input, opened in late 2024 and scheduled for upkeep decades out is still at the start of its life. Roger's Grove's orchard got the "free for your harvest" line and an organized volunteer harvest over a much longer run. The city hasn't published that kind of guidance for Clover Meadows yet.

If you'd like the apples to go somewhere useful

Longmont already has a system for fruit nobody picks. The city's food-system page lists Community Fruit Rescue as a resource for donating fruit from a tree. On its tree stewards page, the nonprofit says it coordinates volunteer harvests at registered sites and lists Longmont among its 2026 service areas. That program covers sites registered with the group. It isn't a picking permit for either city orchard. It's also the same nonprofit that worked the 2024 harvest at Roger's Grove. For Somerset Meadows homeowners with a fruit tree in their own yard, it's a local, named option. For anyone wondering about the trees at Clover Meadows, the 2024 Roger's Grove harvest is the closest example of how the city and its partners have handled a public orchard.

A park with Longmont's only bike pump park and its newest orchard is part of what a Somerset Meadows address offers, and it's the kind of nearby detail we look at when we price a home. If you'd like to know how your home stacks up, Dwellings Colorado can put together a free home valuation that reflects what's actually near your street.