I planted a little back yard orchard during the winter. My sister and nephew came to visit during winter break and saw my spindly little baby trees. She asked about my fruit trees yesterday. So since she asked....
I'll show..... The peaches were pretty, but the leaves were all holey from ants. The trees wore lovely blooms this spring. We had colorful cherry blossoms, abundant peach blossoms, a few nectarine blossoms but the apple trees only flowered a bit. I had high hopes for a taste of fresh fruit this summer.
I suppose I should post a picture allowing you to actually appreciate the size of our first peaches. Hhmmm, not so big I'll be the first to admit. But it was a proud moment when we determined that it was time to harvest.
Well, I guess I should also include a photo so that you can appreciate the size of tree that produced those four little mini peaches. Even the grand kids had no trouble reaching the branches to pick the fruit. And yes I said four, four fresh peaches and five here for dinner. What could we do? 
DESSERT!
Fresh peach slices over vanilla ice cream for all! The best dessert we had all summer long.
I am pleased that it was such a tasty dish because it was the most expensive dessert that I have ever enjoyed.....
The COST of planting a small orchard:
Planting orchard......................................................1 fun day digging in dirt
Fruit trees (3 cherry, 2 peach, 1 nectarine, 4 apple).........$308.63
Gopher wire..............................................................$12.86
Dirt & Fertilizer.........................................................$43.58
Insecticide.............................................................$12.00
Antifungal fruit tree medication.......................$15.00
Hand watering...................................................2 x weekly chore until August
Drip system (installed to eliminate above chore)....1/2 day hard labor in August
Digging out danged Star Thistle by hand....weekly allowance to Grandson $$$
The pleasure of sharing and enjoying the fruit of your labors - PRICELESS-
BUT WAIT!
THERE'S MORE!!!!!
We have AN APPLE growing also!
6 comments:
Lovely! And yummy! That's one tiny tree...did you plant dwarfs?
We didn't get ANY fruit from our trees this year, but we planted 'em late. We didn't get any apple trees because they didn't have the variety I wanted...hopefully they will have them this fall. I also want to plant a second peach tree and a second cherry tree.
I researched the ants on the peach trees because ours had 'em bad and I was worried they would kill it...and guess what? They're not bad! They are actually a natural and effective way to control aphids (which are bad).
Thanks Jenn. I did not research ants on the peach trees. I, um, well, I killed them, gulp.... Maybe aphids made those holes in the leafs after I murdered the ants. Now I will know better, thanks again.
you are so funny. I saw your blog ahd actually MOVED on my bloglist and went WHOA she actually put up a post and I high tailed it over here DIRECTLY! Needless to say I wasn't disappointed. In 3 years you'll be sweatin like the rest of us puttin up fruit. They will grow.
i'll expect some homemade peach jam in a few years for christmas :)
by the way, WOW is your grass green!!!
Congratulations on your mini orchard. The dessert looks great.
Your Orchard looks great, for being new and the fruit, home grown. what can be better then that! Makes my mouth water, yummy.
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