This is a guest post, written by Thomas Frankel, who is a retired attorney and gardening enthusiast and has one of the coolest gardens I have ever seen! I first met Tom when he participated in my dried fig sensory panel in graduate school, and then was lucky enough to get to tour his garden in person and receive his continuous support ever since. Enjoy this garden inspiration!
I have lived in the same home in Davis, California for 52 years. My lot is about one-third of an acre, which includes a very small piece of grass. Other than that, the lot is a productive garden. The garden is made up partially of beautiful roses, dahlias, camellias, alstroemeria, and a few other flowers primarily tended to by my wife. The rest is some 80 fruit trees, almost all dwarf or semi-dwarf. Some of the trees I planted are more than 40 years old, but the majority have been planted in the past 30 years and some have been planted in the past year. Some of those I propagated. Many of my trees are unusual varieties. The standard ones include about twelve different citrus varieties, four fig varieties, three persimmons, two peach, two mulberry, two pomegranates, two nectarines, and various other assorted trees.
I am definitely an amateur gardener. I have learned by trial and error, especially error. I am self taught, although I do belong to the California Rare Fruit Growers and enjoy receiving that organizations’ help.
There are a number of lessons that I have learned that might be of benefit to other home orchard growers.
BE CREATIVE: For example, using a carefully pruned Fuyu persimmon tree as an umbrella over an enclosed patio outside our bedroom is a year-round artistic spectacle. This tree produces a huge crop, and provides shade and color. It has been pruned to fit the space. Using citrus as an evergreen privacy screen is creative. So is using many trees as a canopy over part of the yard. Tea plant as a cover for a fence enclosing trash cans is another example. Using a Kadota fig espaliered to grow on a fence is productive, attractive, playful, and covers an ugly fence. I have successfully propagated root cuttings from a number of my trees, including almond, apple, and plum. When initially planting trees, it is important to visualize how everything will look in five, ten or more years.
I have placed four different citrus trees to form an arbor on a frame I had built toward our front door. Again, this is extremely productive, has beautiful year-round color, provides spring intoxicating scent and blossoms, and adds an unusual creative feature to the front of our home.
TRY UNUSUAL APPROACHES: The common thinking is that figs and citrus need lots of sun. I planted my Kadota fig toward the side of my home where it does not get much sun. This is an old tree, with a substantially angled trunk that provides a climbing structure for grandchildren and produces hundred of pounds of figs a season.
I did the same with several varieties of citrus and they are productive. I have tiny dwarf peach and nectarine trees that get no sun, yet are productive. Experiment with fruit that can be used in different ways. An example is the Jujube tree that has a huge fall crop. We dry the fruit, both whole and sliced. This is a medicinal fruit and it can be used in tea or other food dishes.
Another important approach is to try to grow organically. For example, rather than spray fruit as it is ripening to keep pests, birds, squirrels, or vermin away, I put tiny nylon socks on the fruit. These socks are made for this purpose, are very effective, and can be reused.
YARD SPACING: Visualizing how trees will grow and what their shapes will be is like forecasting the weather. There is some science but also a great deal of creativity. I try to put bigger trees in back and smaller ones close to the house. This does not always work. I have done some grouping of citrus or stone fruit, but this also gets changed. Some trees can thrive while very close together, even in the same planting hole, and others need more space.
TRY UNUSUAL FRUIT: I have very successfully grown such trees as goji, jujube, che, tea, goumi, mulberry, and medlar. Some rare trees are worthwhile and others need to be removed. It is hard to take out a tree that has been nursed from infancy, but sometimes it must be done.
PLANT TREES THAT WILL PROVIDE YEAR ROUND FRUIT: To have so many trees producing at the same time would be overwhelming. I have a 9-tray food dryer that I use extensively for my garden fruit. I also have an upright freezer that is fully packed with our garden harvest by the end of fall. I dry figs (whole and as leather), persimmons, jujube, plums and pluots. We freeze many other crops, including peaches, nectarines, plums, mulberries, and many more. Jam, pastries, and other uses are found for our fruit. The various varieties of citrus produce for approximately 6 months, and we have juice in the freezer. The end result is that we are never without some of our own fruit.
EMBRACE CHANGE AND EXPERIMENTATION: Trees die or simply do not produce as expected. It is not a personal failure when this happens. The other side of this is that when something is really successful, embrace it. Try different varieties of the same fruit.
SHARE: Share information, trees and fruit. When someone complements me on my yard or asks a question, I usually offer them fruit, a tree, or both. Figs and pomegranates are easy to propagate. I usually have a supply. There are fig trees from me planted around our neighborhood and community. I give my excess fruit to a community organization that distributes it to people in need. I am always giving fruit to friends and family.
One of my favorite trees is an old semi-dwarf mulberry that has a large crop that goes into a yearly jam production. Most of that great jam is given away.
Each of our grandchildren has his or her own tree, complete with a home made ceramic plaque identifying it as theirs. Each has also experienced the phases of tree growth. Hopefully, lifetime appreciation will follow.
GROWING IS AN ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY: We all thrive with a balance in our lives among family, friends, occupation, intellectual and artistic activities, and hopefully, creativity. To prune a tree so that it will thrive and be beautiful is always a challenge. Sometimes, I will take a long time to consider and implement a cut of a limb of a tree. I look at it in different light and from different angles. How does it fit with other adjoining trees? I am creating an art piece. When I prune trees, I try to visualize the consequences. When I succeed, the aesthetic rewards are real. When I fail, there is always next year.
BEING A GARDEN GROWER IS ITSELF A GROWTH ACTIVITY: Growing fruit trees is a vehicle to learn, be stimulated, and do something good in a world that needs goodness. As an elder, I want to keep my mind and body active. My body is slowing, but the garden provides a way to be gently active. I want to learn new techniques. As an example of my personal garden growth, I am in the process of having a small greenhouse built. This opens up a whole new area for my fruit production (along with vegetables, herbs, and flowers). The excitement continues.
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