Wednesday, August 3, 2011

New Fruit Trees... and yard sculpture

The fruit trees near the garden aren't doing well. Possibly because the soil isn't very good, or maybe because they don't get watered frequently enough.

We decided to take down some old 'junk' trees by the road and plant new fruit trees between the stumps (Hubby and every other person on the planet who has ever removed one stump realizes what a wonderful idea this is!)

The trees are more easily watered here, and they get more sun. 
Since we don't have young kids playing all day in the yard, we didn't mind loosing some of the shade in the yard for a few years. The fruit trees will never be as tall as the cottonwoods were, but they will never get in the power lines, either. The power company used to have to trim the cottonwoods every few years, and they looked kinda weird with their center cut out.

And with the cottonwoods gone, I imagine that the lilacs off to the right (not in the photo) will do much better over the next few years.

Hubby is great about alot of things, but putting his tools away is not one of them.
So, here's the new yard sculpture--an old pick-ax stuck in the stump. It looks kinda artistic in a rustic 'hobby farm' sort of way!

2 comments:

darius said...

Gave you considered what the fruits will pick up from exhaust gases from the road?

Other than that, I think it's a great idea to plant trees for fruits and nuts!

TJ said...

The trees we cut down should have been dead 10 years ago. They were what we call 'junk trees'--they grow tall very quickly, but then die within 15 year of planting. We've got 12 more junk trees on the property that seem to be doing well, so I don't think that exhaust is a problem in our area.