I have heard my wonderful grandma tell the most enthusiastic and loving stories about family members who do routine tasks well. The way my grandma tells it, you would think that we discovered the secrets to unlock the universe.
However, the other day, I may have entered a whole NEW category of grandma-proud-ness. I told her that we have a garden and fruit trees at our house in Denver. (To be fair, I have probably set the bar low for her expecting me to do "domestic" stuff. And, to be even fairer, no one finds it funnier than me that I somehow LOVE to garden). There is just something magical about watching dirt and water grow into food in my yard.
For years, I have been meaning to document what is growing in my yard, especially the fruit trees, and grapevines. I know me, and I know that someday I will loose my notes and say, "Man! I wish I had really recorded what is growing." However, I haven't done it up until now... which is where my adorable grandma comes into play. Hearing her proud-ness and excitement at my garden has motivated me sufficently to document the stuff growing in my yard. And, the minor detail that I might get disowned if I don't let her see pictures of it. :)
You will probably also note that my "lawn" is what I lovingly call foreclosure-weeds. They are the type of super-weeds that take over in the summer of Colorado and survive the neglect of foreclosure. Seeing that all but 2 of the places we own have been bought out of foreclosure we are great lovers of the super foreclosure weeds. I honestly can't see myself ever caring enough to grow grass.
So here you go Grandma, Dad, Lori, & anyone else who cares enough to read 3 blog post of pictures and story of what is happening in my yard:
The first fall we owned our house Tait called and said he was at Ace Hardware, which is right next to K-Mart (I didn't know K-Mart was still around). He asked me what is the kind of apple you love? Jonagold, right? Well there is a pathetic Jonagold tree cooking in the K-Mart parking lot, do you want me to buy it for you? I now owned my 1st tree.
Then, the next summer, Tait's sister called me to tell me she just bought 5 (or more) fruit trees for her yard. I thought she had lost her mind. Who would want that many fruit trees to tend, prune, water, and care for? Well, I didn't yet know about how surprisingly addictive buying fruit trees can be.
A little bit after that, Tait called me to say, "CostCo is selling fruit trees for $15 and they are grafted with different varieties." So, off we went to 2 or 3 CostCo's that night looking for the perfect mix.
We ended up with a COMPLETELY insane number of fruit trees!
- 3 Cherry trees. 1 is Black Cherry. The other 2 are grafted trees so they have 3 varieties per tree.
- 1 apple tree -- Grafted with 5 different kinds of apples.
- 1 Pear tree -- 5 kinds of pears
- 1 Plum tree -- 5 kinds of plums
We planted Cherry Trees in the Front of the house.
I know someday they will look lovely. Right now, they look like twigs with giant leaves on them.
They are certainly in the awkward stage of life right now.
I think they look like a toddler trying on grown up clothes. I wish they would bulk up!
I think they look like a toddler trying on grown up clothes. I wish they would bulk up!
The tree to the south is 3 kinds of cherries, the tree to the north is BlackGold Cherry
We have part of our yard that was formerly a parking lot. The landscape plan worked so well with the trees there, but we felt guilty planting there, so we wanted to make it up to them. We heard, "Dig a $100 hole for a $20 tree." Tait dug and $56,000 hole for the $15 trees. It was 1/2 way between his knees and hips. Then he DRILLED with a huge boaring bit in all directions to help the roots have direction. I wish we had done all our holes like that! Our "parking lot" trees are at least twice as big as their counter parts.
5 kind of apples on the south of the parking lot area. Plums centered in the front.
Then this spring, Tait was staging his mom's condo to sell. Unable to do such a thing 1/2 way, Tait bought a full array of plants for the patio including... a peach tree and a nectarine tree. We adopted them after the condo sold (below).
Peach tree is in front of Tait's shop. Nectarine tree is on the north side of our house.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, there was already an apple tree in our yard when we bought our house. Looks so big compared to our baby trees (below).
After being here 3 summers, we STILL don't know what kind of apples these are, or even what color apples they will be. This tree keeps dropping all its fruit before it is ripe. Hopefully, it will be our lucky year this year.
In case you are keeping count, yep, that is 10 fruit trees. I think we may need to get a herd of goats to walk around our yard and eat the dropped fruit in a few years. Not really, but in a few years I am sure I will be wondering WHY I have 10 fruit trees!
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