Fruitful laneway

If you find
Not everyone likes the same fruit nor at the same stage of ripeness.

Maintaining an orchard on traditional lines but with multiple varieties can be a problem when it comes to spraying one and not getting spray on the tree next to it that has fruit that is just about ready to eat. It’s easier to plant extra trees to make sure the pests leave you some and to scatter the trees about the place so they are handy to you but separated from each other.
Then,
PLUCKING ripe fruit as you walk your normal tracks between the house, the mailbox, the workshop and the Kitchen garden is like being in Paradise on Earth.

This is where humans started, living among their food sources instead of driving to the supermarket. Why not return there now by planting fruit trees and vines along the pathways you and your family take every day?

After all, reaching out, plucking fruit in season and eating it at your perfect stage of ripeness must be pretty close to heaven. It is for many of us who are sick of tasteless and denatured supermarket fruit.

As the children walk down the driveway to catch the school bus each morning, they fill their bags with fruit for lunch.

On their return they fill their bags with fruit for the dinner table.

This is part of the Kitchen garden which is an extension of the Home orchard. The home orchard doesn’t have to be all in neat rows in a rectangle, it can be scattered along the paths and tracks of the farm so that there is a Rolling harvest and a Harvest to hand.

Having Fruitful laneways throughout the farm is an easy way to engage your children in feeding themselves and helps develop Resourceful youngsters.

Plus it ensures that Farm feeds family first, as it used to and as it might as well do — it’s better, cheaper, fresh, handy and plentiful.

Tips to make your Fruitful laneways succeed for you:

  • Aim for a year-round supply of fruit — not always possible, of course
  • Accept that some trees will be attacked by pests and aim for resistant varieties
  • Some trees work well as multi-grafts where there are two or more varieties on a single tree
  • Cross pollination increases yield dramatically in some varieties. Your plant supplier should have a chart of suitable pollinators. Sometimes these can just be a branch grafted onto the tree it pollinates
  • Some varieties need enough cold. If your area is not cold enough, there may be a low-chill variety available
  • Don’t forget some nut trees
  • Fruit trees can be beautiful trees, too.
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