Planted More Fruit Trees

This morning Gary and I got up early and planted five more fruit trees. If you recall we already planted fruit trees (above) in front of our retaining wall intending to espalier them against the wall. The fruit trees we planted there are Early Elberta Peach (2), Kieffer Pear (2), and a Santa Rosa Plum.

I thought I might need some cross pollinators for the peach, pear and plum and I hadn't planted any apple trees. So today we planted more fruit trees, We planted a Red Haven Peach which we had in California and loved. We also planted an Arkansas Black Apple, Fuji Apple, Bartlett Pear, and an Ozark Premier Plum (trees above).

Since the trees we planted today are in the open on the hillside we decided we'd better stake them from the high winds we sometimes get here. Gary went to the lumber yard and got a pack of two foot grading stakes. He put a screw in the top back of each stake. I hammered in three stakes per tree with the screw facing out. The screw keeps the tie tape from slipping off the stake and if the tie tape gets too loose it can be wound around the screw to tighten the tie tape. The grading stakes have a sharpened point on one end and are easy to hammer in the ground with a mini sledge hammer.

We don't make the tie tape too tight since the idea is to let the tree sway somewhat in the wind to encourage the development of strength in the trunk. Above is a photo of the red haven peaches I grew in California. That's the harvest from one peach tree. I can't wait to harvest some fruit here. It will be a year or two before any production but planting fruit trees is well worth it.

Textured Vases & Fuji Apples

All of these apples came from one Fuji apple tree I planted almost four years ago. The tree was really loaded down. I was remiss in thinning them so they are a bit small but are really tasty. I don't use any herbicides or pesticides on any of my fruits or vegetables. I only had three or four apples with worm holes, the rest are fine.

The deer have stripped every leaf off all the lower limbs of the other fruit trees, but didn't discover this tree. I tasted one of the apples and it seemed ripe, but the deer are probably smarter than I am. The apples probably could go a bit longer. Last year I let them go longer and the deer ate every apple but one. Not this year; I left the wormy ones out there for them, but deer don't seem to eat anything from the ground only from about two feet off the ground up to five feet.


Here are four hand built textured vases I made yesterday. The largest is 15 inches tall and the smallest is 11.5 inches tall. All are 5 inches in diameter. I used a section of PVC pipe to shape the clay around. Before I form the clay around the PVC pipe, I spray it with WD-40 which allows the form to slip nicely off the pipe after it hardens up a bit. Then I attach the bottom and do some clean up. My texture tools are a plastic bath mat, a plastic place mat, and a fondant roller.