Fruit Trees – an investment in the next generation

Yesterday my family and I did something that we just love to do. We went to the nursery to buy fruit trees for our orchard. Although we already have over 30 fruit trees in our orchard, it is still good to keep planting more. Just this winter we lost 3 trees that didn’t survive the cold so we need to always be replacing and adding new types of fruit, nut and berry bushes that we don’t already have. We have been growing our trees for nearly 4 years now and only now are we starting to get any return for this investment. For the first few years the trees just needed to get established and make it through the harsh winters. During those harsh winters we learnt the hard lessons about what types of trees don’t grow in our area – namely citrus fruits like oranges, nartjies and lemons and tropical trees like avos and bananas. Our collection of surviving trees now includes plenty of peach trees, apples, pears, plums, nectarines, apricots, quince, pomegranate, young berry, mulberry and pecan nut. So yesterday we added walnut and cherry trees to the collection.
The funny thing is that although we spent under R100 for each, they are an investment for our children and our children’s children. Not the type of investment that will pay out large sums of money for their education etc. But the kind of investment into their health and childhood memories that is rather priceless. I look forward to my children and I being able to picnic in our orchard and just walk through the rows picking off ripe fruit as we go and eating it right of the tree. (no herbicides or pesticides included). I look forward to my grandchildren coming to visit us out here and helping me bottle peaches and make jams – something I don’t envisage myself having the time for till I am an old granny.
So we are investing in our children and our children’s children – one fruit tree at a time....
Ps. For info on the best way to plant your new fruit trees – lessons learnt from making mistakes – take a look at www.natural-organic-farming.com/what-not-to-do.html