My butt is dragging today, I spent several hours yesterday moving soil and gravel from the south end of my garden (which I’m abandoning) to the north side (that I’m refurbishing and reinforcing).
The most valuable thing in the garden is the soil, so I wanted to make sure that I recovered as much as possible. As for the gravel: I need it, it’s there, so a little sweat makes it a lot more affordable than it otherwise would be. So I shoveled the gravel into the yellow buckets…..
….and then move those to the 20 gallon buckets sitting on the rack on the back of my jeep.
I’d then drive those to the north side of the garden to build out the new planting areas.
So I put my brain and fingers to work (they were about the only thing still working) and ordered additional root stock and scion for my little orchard. I purchased 12 apple root stock (I went with EMLA 106) and 10 root stock for pear (Provence Quince). Both are semi dwarf and produce trees that are roughly 65 percent the size of a standard tree. I’d love to get root stock for full sized apple trees,but there two problems with that: first, I’d like to plant a tree that fruits in my life time. Secondly, I’m getting a little long in tooth and no longer amused by falling from high places. Semi dwarf will work just fine.
This will be my first year grafting up some pear trees and I’ll be pulling scion from the Kieffer and Bartlett I planted a couple of years ago and from an old dying pear tree that sits on the front of the farm near the hay barn.
I have no idea what type of pear that old tree is, but I do know that it makes great pear preserves (think of hot breakfast biscuits with homemade pear preserves splattered across the top). The recipe goes something like: Peel and core as many as you can and stick them in a very large pot. Pour 3 or 4 cups of sugar on top, cover, and let set overnight. Simmer until it reduces by half. Pack the result in half pint jars and can with a pressure canner. I cranked out almost 2 dozen half pint jars and, owing to my wife’s generosity and some obscure southern rule about gifts from the garden, a week later I had two jars left.
I’ve got 16 apple trees now. Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, Fugi, Wagener, Harrison Cider, King and Gala. The scion I ordered is for Cox Orange Pippin, Granny Smith, and Gold Russet.
These 22 additional trees (12 apple 10 pear) will just about fill up the little area I have between my garden plot and a gravel road that runs up to the equipment barn. I can see part of this area from the cabin so in a couple of years it will look great in the spring when they bloom. The cost per tree, on average works out to a very affordable 8 bucks or so.