Wednesday, November 07, 2012

A package came today

Back in July when I was eating peaches from my tree every day and freezing the surplus, I thought to myself how nice it would be to have other kinds of fruit.  Oh, we have strawberries and a pie cherry tree whose fruit is so sour you can't eat it fresh off the tree, but I want variety.  About that time when I was knee-deep in peaches, a Stark Brothers' catalogue came in the mail with pictures of luscious looking fruit; I asked myself, why not have sweet cherries, and plums?  Oh look, here's a new variety of peach that is similar to Belle of Georgia.  And apricots!  I love apricots!  I sat right down and made out my order for four dwarf fruit trees.  




I have these three dwarf apple trees in the back yard:  Golden Delicious, Fuji, and Gala.  Next year they will have been there three years.  I have yet to eat an apple from these trees.  There is a remote possibility that they might bear fruit next year, because it takes at least three years for them to start bearing.  


 There is a sweet cherry tree in this box that isn't expected to start bearing fruit until it's at least five years old.  I'll be seventy-three years old by then, and it would greatly surprise me if I am even still living on this property at that time!  And why did I think I needed another peach tree when I already have two?   What was I thinking?  

Then there's the matter of planting the trees:  Somebody is going to have to dig four holes.  The old saying goes, "Dig a ten-dollar hole for a five-dollar tree."  A hole twice as big around as the room the roots take up, in other words.  
Cliff is conveniently away, helping his brother at Higginsville with some project or other.  Oh, the trees would wait until he gets home, but he didn't ask for or want the trees.  It behooves me to head out there and at least try to dig the holes.  
Wish me luck.  
Indeed, what was I thinking?

4 comments:

  1. Planning for the future. Nothing wrong with that.

    I have to admit when I saw that first picture I looked at the box and I thought it said "Stark Bra's" rather than "Bro's." Looked at the size of the box and thought "Holy snap!"

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  2. Someday you'll have quite an orchard there. From experience I know digging holes is not an easy task at all. I'd put those trees in a shady cool place and wait for some able bodied soul to come along. Take care!

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  3. Because you're enjoying life. When you buy those trees, you don't think about how old you'll be; you assume you'll see its fruit and enjoy it just as much as you would enjoy it today... it you had some of it!

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  4. I purchased a dwarf Reliance peach tree from Stark 4 years ago. It is a heavy producer. It produced heavily in its second and fourth seasons. They are delicious peaches.

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