Planning Ahead with Trees

Ever since my 19 year old daughter was tiny, she has said that she wished we had an apple tree, or a peach tree,  or a (fill in the blank) tree.   I always told her that trees take so long to grow, it would be too long before we could reap the benefits.  So we never planted any fruit trees. (Plus, I never thought we’d be in our little [ 888 sq. ft.! ] house that long. But we still are.)

Today, as we drove home from the grocery store, we passed a big vegetable garden, and my daughter exclaimed at how big that garden was and how next year we should expand ours. “We need to be more self sufficient,” she said.  And,  once again she said the words, “I wish we had an apple tree.”    (I wish I knew how many times she has said that over her lifetime.)

And then it hit me.  Had we just planted an apple tree when she was little, we would be eating apples from it now.

“I should blog about that,” I told my daughter.  “YES!” she said, even more emphatically than usual. (I’m still feeling a little mom-guilt about not planting that tree. And not building that playhouse. And about the fact that she was way too tall for the ride-on Barbie car she wanted so badly at age 4.  But I had no control over that one!  I’m digressing again.)

According to my research, you could be eating the fruit in 2-4 years if you plant young trees which are one to two years old when you get them from the nursery.

So, if you have a little one who is interested in planting fruit trees, perhaps you could plant one now.   And when that little one is 19, you will be picking apples from that nice mature tree together.  Being ever so self sufficient.