Money Matters
hoffse
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Fruit trees
Has anybody tried this? We have a long fence near our garden that gets plenty of sun, and I am thinking of planting 4-5 dwarf fruit trees, both for aesthetic purposes and for food purposes. I'm thinking:
Nectarine - H's favorite
Apricot - for canning/jams
Plum - my favorite
Golden apple - for eating
Granny smith - for baking
(Two apple trees needed for pollination)
They probably won't bare for a couple years, but in the meantime we should get some nice foliage so our fence looks more interesting. They all flower in the spring.
I found some varieties that are supposed to be hardy in my zone, priced around $25-$35 each.
Crazy?
Nectarine - H's favorite
Apricot - for canning/jams
Plum - my favorite
Golden apple - for eating
Granny smith - for baking
(Two apple trees needed for pollination)
They probably won't bare for a couple years, but in the meantime we should get some nice foliage so our fence looks more interesting. They all flower in the spring.
I found some varieties that are supposed to be hardy in my zone, priced around $25-$35 each.
Crazy?
Re: Fruit trees
I'm sure you've heard of Walter Reeves. I'd check out his website for tips, common issues, etc. It'll be somewhat relate-able at least for Birmingham weather. Or check out The Grumpy Gardener from Southern Living!
H is cool with it. He views it entirely as a hobby and doesn't care if they don't produce before we sell the house. I think I'm going to do it.
This will be an adventure...
Unless you're blasting them with pesticides, prepare for worms. My parents have multiple apple trees and the apples are either really small or have worms. Their apricot tree died and their pear trees probably do the best out of all of the trees. They have a decent vegetable garden that is their main source of food (they're both vegetarians). Their raspberry, blueberry, blackberry bushes are probably their best producers for fruit- the blueberry bushes are the only ones they planted, the other 2 are wild and spread like crazy.
We have 3 blueberry bushes in our tiny backyard- they don't produce a lot yet, but the girls love picking berries off of them.. super easy to maintain too.
I've tried blackberries before, and the birds get to them before we do. We need a huge patch to feed the birds and us. I'm kind of scared to plant a big berry patch because they will spread like a weed where we live.
I loved blueberries as a kid... and then in the fourth grade a friend and I ate a gallon of them, we both got sick, and I haven't had a blueberry since!
I had a friend that had an apple tree in his backyard. Every year at harvest he would bake several apple pies and have an apple pie party, it was a blast.
We like Stark because they also tell you which month each variety produces in. You can stagger the harvest then. Some apples come in September and others in October.
I say go for it. Be sure whatever you get is suitable for your Agriculture Zone and that you have proper pollinators for each tree (but some are self-pollinating).
Having planted a few apple trees before, you will want to stake them for support and wrap the bottom 18" of their trunks to protect them.
We don't have enough space to plant $700 worth (I wish we did!), but there is a large variety suitable for our zone that are self-pollinating.
How many/what kinds are you guys planting?
We are in Zone 4b, so there is only a handful of certain ones we can plant aside from Apples. I bet you have way more options.
2 Plum (Bubblegum and Superior).
2 Apricot (Goldcot).
1 Cherry (North Star) - we can only sustain dessert cherries here, not sweet ones.
2 Peach (Reliance and Intrepid).
4 Apple (Golden Delicious [a pollinator], Liberty, Freedom, Enterprise).
2 pear (Peggy and New Century)
We bought the Stark Supremes when available. All dwarf or semi-dwarf.
And we ordered 4 varieties (3 plants each) of raspberries (Heritage, Latham, Fall Everbearing, and Anne Yellow).
We also got a bunch of supplies like fertilizer, tree wraps, and water bins for the bases.
I may do some potted citrus and just bring them inside from December - February. We have a daylight basement we can use that stays cooler than the rest of the house. They would probably be fine down there with a humidifier. We really only get about 2-3 weeks where temps are consistently below freezing, but that's enough to kill them in the ground.
I think this year we only had 1 week of sub-freezing temperatures. My herb garden is already planted, and I'm going to put tomatoes out before the end of March.