Valentine is a day for homemade gifts in our household. This year Christi ordered me our first fruit trees for the farm, but the trees came too late to be gifted for Valentine's Day. As a present for me to open, she made me an unfolding, growing card of an apple tree and poem.
It was so thoughtful of her to gift fruit trees. Our first house had peach trees that I had cultivated. In the middle of urban Houston, I had tilled up the St Augustine grass to plant an herb garden with 4 white peaches (200 chill hrs) and 3 MidPride peaches (300 chill hrs), 3 Anshiner (sp?) apples and 3 Reverend Morgan apples. This last spring, the peaches outdid themselves and the Midpride produced the best fruit I or Christi had ever eaten. We made peach chili all summer long. Houston had very low chill hours, so I would need to learn all new varieties for Arkansas.
Understandably, Christi wanted to get started growing fruit right away! As a tease before we truly set our garden plans, she bought one Golden Delicious Apple (700 chill hr) and one Red Delicious Apple (800 chill hr) as a pair to symbolize our love. She also added one more branched bare root tree to get free shipping, lol, an Alberta Peach (800 chill hr).
Never too early to plant a tree. The best time to plant a tree is ten years ago.
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Nothing makes me realize how short my life will be more than planting trees. It's a worthwhile cause, but still it's sad to know that I won't live to see them at their prime. I am the granddaughter of a fruit tree farmer, so I have a deep appreciation for fruit trees.
ReplyDeleteI think the trees were a wonderful gift!
Amy, I can scance understand the depths of your appreciation. Wandering among apple trees in Italy put me in such wonder of the generations of care and conversation with nature that pruning requires, I can hardly dare attempt the art myself... but then again, I love the taste ;)
ReplyDeleteand yes, I neglected to outright say in the post ... I LOVED the gift.
Two comments -- one, this blog is a lovely window into your new life. Best wishes to you, and I'll look forward to following along.
ReplyDeleteI worked at Monticello for something like 13 years and consequently will be quoting Jefferson for the rest of my life. He was a big tree fan and wrote, "Too old to plant trees for my own gratification, I shall do it for posterity." Thanks for your gift to posterity!