We have been steadily adding to our fruit tree inventory. Our hope is
to squeeze in as many fruit trees as our little piece of land will hold. We can do this amazing fruit growing feat thanks to the art of espalier! This is a Kieffer Pear tree and it is doing splendidly in its spot in front of Le Poulet Chalet. You can just see our espaliered apple trees and our berry barrels in the background, so I think they are in a nice proximity to one another.
to squeeze in as many fruit trees as our little piece of land will hold. We can do this amazing fruit growing feat thanks to the art of espalier! This is a Kieffer Pear tree and it is doing splendidly in its spot in front of Le Poulet Chalet. You can just see our espaliered apple trees and our berry barrels in the background, so I think they are in a nice proximity to one another.
This is a Capulin Cherry tree, and we planted it behind our garage. The future spot of our Secret Garden.
The black posts are actually table legs I acquired many years ago when I thought I was going to open a tearoom, but that is another story.
My husband brought home an Ein Shemer apple tree which hails from Israel. It pollinates well with the Anna apple tree and the three Dorset trees we have. All of these varieties only require a few hundred chill hours to produce fruit. We also acquired a three variety pear tree, and personally, I'll be surprised if it produces any fruit. Some of the varieties require well above 300 chill hours.
My husband surprised me one day by showing me our late apricot tree has produced two seedlings. My beloved apricot tree bit the dust this winter. I found it had contracted canker and it had to be cut down. The canker infection even affected our ornamental plum in the front yard, and it was hacked down too (sad frown.) We replaced that tree with an olive tree, Manzanillo. Anyway, my beloved apricot didn't die without leaving us with two offspring. But my husband wants to buy some grafted apricot trees, which I am totally okay with, while we wait for these little whippersnappers to grow up, which will take darn near a DECADE! We also want to purchase a black mission fig, and a Eureka lemon, Santa Rosa plum, and some sort of baby orange. Things are shaping up here on our little suburban homestead.
Happy gardening!
Happy gardening!
Article written by Heather Zubiate on March 17, 2014