Tree time

Back in May, we planted six dwarf fruit trees in the backyard. It's been exciting to see them leaf out and grow this summer.  If all goes well, we should have fruit in 2-3 years. 

Here's the Little Guy next to a peach tree when it was planted:

And here are the peach trees now, over four months later:

Here, the Little Guy "poses" next to the Starkrimson Red Delicious apple tree. This tree, like most of the others, is now even with the top of the fence making it five feet high.  Five feet tall for a tree might seem small, but the dwarf-size is considered fully grown at eight feet. We're over halfway there!

Remember that Girls Night Out event I went to at Spring Bluff Nursery?  I used my 50% off coupon to get the Skyline honeylocust tree I had my eye on, and they installed it two weeks ago.  While it looks close to the house, the tree is actually 19 feet away and is sort of in what could be considered the central part of the yard (without being smack in the middle of the backyard).   It's as tall as the second story of the house, which makes me really happy. In a few years, this tree should provide some nice shade for the backyard and the house without interfering with the fruit trees or my perimeter garden.  

This tree joins the honeylocust the Big Guy won for me in the spring.  I think that as far as shade trees go, we're good in the back yard.  Perhaps years from now, when my gardening days are over, a third shade tree can be planted, but for now I'm quite happy with the two honeylocust trees.  May they grow strong and quick to shade our house and portions of our backyard!

I'm not done with fruit trees, though.  As I've mentioned before, I'll plant two more dwarf apple trees in the spring: Honeycrisp and Winesap.  In three years I hope to be swimming in apples.  I can hardly wait!