Fruitfulness

Here is that photo of the prairie from May 9th. It is hard to believe how fast the green starts to assert itself after a burn. I do love the look of this photo with the paths running through it. Soon they will green up as well. Last summer the back part was just loaded with rudbeckia, and we’re hoping that most of what is coming up is flowers (not weeds). The front is the more etablished prairie, and it’s possible we’ll see some new things getting established this year. Personally, I’m hoping for a butterfly bush or two.

In the garden itself, I’m continuing to struggle with my ambivalence about growing fruit. I was at a brunch with Brother John Hansen recently, the monk at Saint John’s Abbey who cares for the apple orchard. He said, “There is not a creature alive who doesn’t love an apple tree.”

I’ve found this to be true as well: mice, moles, voles and rabbits all attack it from the bottom. Caterpillars and other insects descend on the blossoms as soon as they appear. Deer that have not so far bothered my garden at all, come out and gobble the tender branches. Because of this, my two apple trees (which I’m sure were on the verge of giving fruit this year!) are dead.

very good compost behind the barn…

OK, but there are berries. Raspberry bushes are the obvious choice, since they seem to grow more or less wild. After a few years of trying to find the right spot for them, I’ve got a new cleared space. It ain’t pretty, kind of a hummock filled with rocks, but I brought in new soil and compost and planted nine sticks with roots, as well as four blueberry bushes.  I still have a few plants over with the huckleberry bushes I planted last year. I’m anxious to see if those huckleberries are going to come back (I can’t think of a berry that is not perennial, but it was mighty cold this winter).

Somehow, planting sticks feels less hopeful than planting seeds. Even with a little mass of roots attached, they just look so very, very dead.

The ambivalence for berries comes from one simple question: is it worth it to tend them for what you get? I do believe, again, that raspberries are a no brainer. They are not hard to cultivate or care for and the fruit is so delicate that it is best picked close to home and close to eating time.

Blueberries and strawberries, however, I think should mostly be left to other people. I’m considering the blueberries an experiment, but I don’t plan to grow strawberries. There are a number of You-pick places around and for an hour or two I can get enough berries for jam and frozen berries for the year. The cost of mulching, pruning, covering, weeding, and otherwise caring for strawberry plants (and maybe also blueberry bushes), makes this the best option.

So for a while at least I’ll feel foolish watering my sticks, hoping for fruit by August. And then, hopefully, it’s just a matter of not letting the raspberries take over everything else.