Granted we do have to wait a couple of years in between planting a fruit tree and picking fruit but that fruit tree is more than just a fruit producing tree.

It provides:

Shelter for smaller birds who visit our garden.

Shade for us and our animals when we or they sit underneath it.

A good place to hang a sheet for a make shift cubby house.

Habitat for beneficial insects. The blossom is bee attracting.

A safe place for a bird to make a nest.

Interest in our garden. Setting up a table & chairs between the fruit trees and to sit and enjoy any meal is such a lovely treat.

Beautiful blossom in Springtime.

A shady spot for a doll’s hammock!

A resting place for little birds like Silver Eye’s, Fairy Wren’s, New Hollander’s & Fantail’s as they flit around our garden.

A natural sun blind that shades our hen & duck house windows in the hot summertime.

Veroschka the doll spent many Summer days in her hammock when we did home schooling under the shade of the fruit trees in our Back Orchard.

The Autumn leaves make good compost or we simply run the lawn mower over them, they break down easily back into the earth.  The Ducks & Hens scratch through the leaf litter fossicking for bugs and insects, natural pest control.

Growing fruit trees is a way for us to connect more deeply to the seasons as we watch and learn how the tree progresses though the year.  For me when our Almond trees started to blossom at our old house I always knew it was the first signs of Spring even when it didn’t feel like it! Here at Fairy Wren Cottage it is the Ornamental Apricot that flowers early marking the early beginnings that Spring is on its way.

Like learning to look after a small child before it becomes a teenager being new to tending fruit trees allowed me time to learn better about pruning and tending to them.  One of the best hours I have spent in the garden was with my neighbour who to quote him “was born with an apple in his hand.”  With a reputation for working in the orchards in these parts and his knowledge of pruning fruit trees, I was lucky enough to learn along side the master. He taught me how to prune a tree considering and planning for the following two years growth. He taught me that an apple tree will throw fruit if it has too much fruit on its branches, for me to hold back on thinning the fruit until I see signs of the tree doing this. Sure enough each year he is right.

Lunchtime in our Quince Orchard.

So far planting fruit trees has been one of the greatest unexpected  joys in life and there is not a day goes by that I am not grateful for them.

Fruit trees are simply more than just a fruit tree!

Jude x