Futility of Fruit Trees

They always say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  We are blessed in the fact that when we purchased our home it came with 20 year old mature shade trees in the yard.  We looked at a few houses that were new builds with empty lots-- and no trees.  Sometimes a blank slate is fun but a 20 year head start is even better.  Since we have plenty of shade trees in our yard we wanted to diversify and add some fruit trees.  Kansas isn't an ideal place to grow fruit trees but with the investment and risk does hopefully come reward of a bountiful harvest.

For the past year we have been planning and plotting our backyard orchard.  I have poured over varieties deciding which trees might have the best chance in our climate, which are most resistant to disease, what type of varieties with pollinate other varieties, the pros and cons of different root stock, and when expected harvest occurs to space our fruit throughout the summer and fall.  Last fall I had a general idea of where I envisioned our groups of trees going so I prepared beds with compost, cardboard, and leaves to help get the best possible soil.  All winter we looked out over our piles of cardboard and leaves and tried to ignore the starkness and dream of fruit trees blooming in the spring.  (I'm not sure our neighbors who had to look at the same piles all winter had the optimistic views we had.

It finally came time to make the final decisions about varieties and put in our order.  It was probably a risky move for Arthur to leave me with a laptop, credit card, and gardening website-- there are endless possibilities.  We selected pawpaws, apples, and pears.  We would love to have peaches some day but the crops are inconsistent in Kansas due to unexpected weather changes in the spring-- no kidding as it was 80F a day ago with a tornado watch and now I am watching snow flurries.  Pawpaws are actually native to the area, do well with less sunlight since our yard has a lot of shady spots, and the fruit is the flavor of a mango and banana.  The fruit is only good for a few days so it isn't sold commercially but could be perfect for our garden.  Our pears are actually Asian pears which are suppose to be more crisp like an apple.  I eagerly awaited my box of trees (more realistically sticks) to arrive and finally this week it was time to plant.

The first step was checking the soil drainage since the roots don't like to be too soggy.  Through this process I learned that the site I selected for my pear trees wouldn't work but I could build a raised bed over the same area to get better drainage.  Then one night I was digging the hole for one of the apple trees when about 10" down I cam across a black pipe.  Now a lot of planning and consideration had gone into site selection including where the sprinkler lines and utilities were located on the schematics we have.  However this pipe wasn't marked.  This lead to digging a number of holes across the area to see if it was the electric line to the shed, trying to find a few of the sprinklers to determine if this pipe went to any of them, and then digging up a sprinkler to see what type of pipe was used.  This also happened to be right under the pile of leaves and cardboard that had been lovingly preparing the soil all winter... so onto plan B.

I decided then to move the apple trees about 8 feet from that pipe and proceeded to dig three holes 2'x2'x2'.  I had to trees happily planted and was finishing up the third hole when the shovel made contact-- another black pipe running almost perpendicular to the first.  The maddening thing was that the other two trees now straddle this pipe as well and I had only missed it by a mere inch or two when I drove in my t-post stake.  I had dug three holes and planted 2 trees and would now have to redo all of it because another sprinkler line was not on the schematic.

After I came across the first sprinkler line I mentioned my plight to a co-worker.  He suggested taking two coat hangers and using the wire to make two straight pieces of wire with a 90 degree bend for a handle.  He said that these wires would work like well witching sticks and pull together when you stepped over a sprinkler line or any other utility line.  My husband and father thought it sounded crazy and laughed at the idea so I just assumed that when I moved to dig the second set of holes I would be fine.  However after I had spent my evening digging more dirt than I have ever dug in my life I wanted to know if that trick would have worked and saved me and my shovel from despair.  I pulled out my s'more roasting sticks made from coat hangers and was shocked when the wires crossed walking over that pipe even though the wind was blowing hard.  Arthur doubted the accuracy saying it couldn't work more than 50% of the time.  I then pointed out that my sprinkler schematic had let me down 100% of the time.

So we are still in the process of planting our fruit trees.  I currently have the 2 pawpaws planted and two apple trees are in the ground but they will have to be relocated.  Our yard looks like the front line trenches complete with foxholes, piles of dirt, and a myriad of colored utility flags flapping in the wind.  However we are not waving the white flag of surrender on the fruit trees yet.  I will sit here patiently waiting for the first fruits of all my labor to be harvested in 5 years.  That is if there are not any casualties to fire blight, apple scab, bacterial canker, ceder rust, or powdery mildew.  Omnia Vincit Amore.