I’ve found myself wondering what the economic and carbon footprint implication of urban fruit trees are. We’re thinking about planting some sort of tree with edible output. Suppose most American homes plant one new fruit or nut tree in the next year. There is carbon sequestration from the new tree, of course but then we also cease trucking that “apple a day” from Washington state to South Carolina. If we were able to get 100 apples a year from our own back yard, that seems like perhaps the greater carbon footprint gain.
Plus, I just like the thought of a certain percentage of our food supply being available for free, in our own back yard, with almost zero maintenance. My father-in-law has a fig tree that I envy. I’m actually thinking that in our climate, an olive tree might be nice. Mmmm, fresh olives! It’s like a victory garden minus the gardening part!
Update: Two blueberry bushes were purchased yesterday. We need to get a little sphagnum peat moss and then we are planting these suckers! I’m told they will bear this year, so we are on our way.
I have a relative that has a blueberry bush in her backyard. It was awesome to pick them and make smoothies. Believe me…there were a lot of them too.
Forgive me, but when I first saw this headline on the RSS, I thought it was going to be about you getting a makeover or something.
Back on topic, I completely agree with you. I want both a peach and pecan tree. The trouble with those is that I have a ginormous elm in my back yard sucking up the light for a block on either side. Which means if I wanted them to grow I would have to get the tree cut down. Getting my wife to sign on to that would be about as likely as getting the late Senator Strom Thurmond to admit that he knew the words to “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud”.
Hmm, James “getting him to admit” implies that he did know. Didn’t know that. He’s got one up on me-I just know the song.
For me it would be a kumquat bush. Love that tangy flavor.
Oh, he knew it. We all know that he had a wider range than he was willing to admit.
I was trying for a triple entendre in that sentence, but couldn’t quite pull it off.
Kreg, in fact we got blueberry bushes yesterday. I can’t wait until we have bowls full of them for breakfast.
My parents used to have two plum trees. Each plum tree had 3 different varieties growing on it, made for a tasty summer.
You should get a chicken as a backyard pet. My chicken just started laying eggs. I have got about 9 eggs in ten days, it is quite the machine. The chicken will also eat all your compost and then use its manure as fertilizer.
You can get grafted fruit tress that actually grow several different varieties of fruit. When I have a yard, I want one.