We've had so many people ask us what we'll be harvesting in the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard this year. Well, the serviceberry trees planted last fall will soon give us some of those yummy berries. And the rest? We can pretty much guarantee that we'll have no fruit at all since a bunch of us went to the orchard recently and carefully plucked off all the little pears, cherries, plums and apricots that we could find.
Why on earth would we do that? Because for the first two years after planting a fruit tree, you want the trees to pour all their energy into their roots. That way they'll grow strong enough to hold the fruit that they'll produce. And by the way, even when we allow them to fruit in a couple of years time, we'll still thin the fruit so as to not overload the young branches.
While our little trees have been in the ground just about a year, we were surprised how much fruit they produced this year. Have a peek at the pictures below. An award goes to the plum trees for being the most fruitful. And another award to the pear, for having the cutest looking baby fruit. And the biggest award goes to Christine, Sherry and Lynn for looking like three monkeys while they did their fruit thinning. Have a peek at our flickr page to see that picture called The Three Monkeys.
Young pears on tree
Christine and baby cherry
Fruitful Plums
