11 Oct 2011: Ed checks out the apple "bush."
Since we had Monday and Tuesday off from school this week, I decided we needed to spend Tuesday morning raking up the fallen pine needles from the last batch of storms. As I raked around the huge bush by the fence (see above picture), I found a small red apple on the ground. I was a little irritated, wondering who was throwing perfectly good apples into our yard for us to clean up!
Soon I found another little red apple closer to the bush. Just then, Ed came out of the house. I asked him, "Why do you suppose we have these apples in our yard?" He matter-of-factly replied, "Because that's an apple tree, honey."
Our apples!
Huh? I was flabbergasted. When we bought this house in July 1993 that bush was tiny and scraggly, only about half as tall as the 4-foot fence it was growing against. As it got bigger and bushier, it coiled tightly through the fence, and trying to control it caused us all kinds of grief. In the past, it never produced any fruit that I was aware of. It was just a bush that I occasionally thought about cutting down. Wow, do I feel silly!
Ed, on the other hand, knew it was an apple tree but figured it would never bear fruit because of the giant pine tree hovering over it. As you can see in the top photo, the pine branches completely block the tree's growth and prevent it from getting all the sunlight it should receive.
So we were both surprised. We sampled the apples and found that despite their small size, they were sweetly delicious! Now Ed is making plans to prune the apple tree and clear away as many of the hovering pine branches as feasible. Next year we may have a nice crop of apples!
11 Oct 2011: Dylan's friends, Elijah and Justin, helped out
with the raking and hauling of pine needles.
11 Oct 2011: My son-in-law Chris and my son Dylan took care of
sweeping pine needles off the roof and cleaning them out of the rain gutters.
11 Oct 2011: My husband Ed feeds branches, leaves, and pine needles
into the wood chipper to go into the compost pile for next year's garden.
He has a huge pile to chip up before the serious snow begins!
2 comments:
I don't think I ever noticed that tree. If I did I would have know it was an apple tree. Normally you have to plant two trees for them to bear decent fruit. We used to grow apples in So. Cal.
Hey Unknown, you tease! I've been wracking my brain all day trying to figure out who knows me well enough to know my yard, who has also lived in Southern California. I give up, who are you?!
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