Tag Archives: guerrilla gardening

It’s time to look at the apple trees

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Remember, way back in February 2014, we planted some apple seeds?

and they grew (well some of them died, but some of them grew)

And we checked in on them in 2015 and again in 2016 and they just kept on growing!

So we planted them outside in the ground.  We thought the chickens might like them for shade when they’re bigger, but while they’re still young we put some wood around them to keep the girls from scratching the earth off their roots.  There’s four in here (I wonder if you’ll be able to spot them all), and two of them are taller than me!  The 8 to 10 years wikihow said we’d have to wait for fruit seemed like a long time, but it’s been 3 years already and time’s just flying 😀

NB this is not my garden 🙂 but luckily we were able to plant them here.  So, if you don’t have anywhere of your own to plant them, look for a suitable spot on public property where they won’t get hacked down by farm machinery and then everyone can enjoy them.  Check out the Scottish Forest Gardener to see how he successfully plants trees on council property 🙂

Plant trees!  You know it makes sense 😉

 

Don’t forget to wave

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Prompted by our new and exciting interest in growing our food we’ve found something garden-related for you to enjoy 🙂

And if, after that, you’re feeling inspired, as we are, to indulge in some forest gardening, take a look at this gem of a blog I found yesterday – Of Plums and Pignuts – it’s choc full of inspiration.  This post in particular gives you that “anything’s possible” excitement that makes you want to just get out there and do it! 😉

Grow your own apple trees

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COMICS FOR VEGGIE KIDS

One day we caught the bus into the city and on the way, in the middle of nowhere, the bus stopped to pick someone up.  Right next to the bus stop, on the wide grass verge, was a large apple tree.  It was full of apples.  An apple tree, in the middle of nowhere, by a bus stop, apparently not belonging to anyone.  Free apples for anyone who chose to help themselves.

“How brilliant!” we thought.  We should all plant fruit and nut trees at every opportunity, and provide free food for foragers.  Food that will keep being produced year after year without any help from us.

So, we looked up how to grow an apple tree from seed (turns out there’s seed drying, seed damp-wrapping and seed cooling to be done, plus some weeks of waiting) and began 🙂

apple seedling

This was taken in January of our first seedling

And this is what it looks like now

And this is what it looks like now

So far we have 3 little apple trees going strong, all different varieties as advised on wikihow

So far we have 3 little apple trees going strong, all different varieties as advised on wikihow

It’s very exciting to watch them grow 😀

According to wikihow these trees, grown from seed, will be big (so we’ll have to carefully consider where we plant them) and it will probably be 10 years before they produce any fruit – but so what? We’re planting for the future, and that’s very cool!  It doesn’t cost us anything and it’s a very positive thing to do.  Why don’t you have a go?  Here’s how

Fancy growing other types of tree from seeds you’ve collected?  No problem – just look at this brilliant web page

UPDATES:

Look here to see how our little apple trees are doing 14 months later 🙂

And look at them now – after 2 and a quarter years 😀

And the year after that! (2017)

And in 2019!