Apple Trees

I love apple trees. Is any garden complete without an apple tree? The spring blooms in the summer can look like a cloud of white. When I was young, I would buy an apple tree for my dad at the local General Tractor for father’s day or his birthday. He’s always loved apple trees. One of the main reasons it brings wildlife into the backyard and the other of course Apple Pies.

Bruce and I got married in my parent’s backyard with a big white tent placed over his Apple Orchard all covered in white lights. So when I look at an Apple Tree I have all sorts of fuzzy happy feelings.

Our first small garden in the city, we planted a small apple tree in the backyard which had grafted five different apples. When you garden in a small space you need to think strategically. On the farm, we have a few apple trees planted in the space. They are unusual to say the least. One outside our back door has a large hole in the trunk that you can see right through. The tree doesn’t care one bit. It produces apples every year since we’ve been here in great abundance. The limbs are always overflowing with apples. This is a great treat for one black lab, Sawyer. No matter what season, he bounds down the back stairs and circles the tree awaiting his apple. On his birthday in May we have been known to buy a bushel of apples and hide them around the tree for him for a surprise.

In 2020, we cut down the apple tree out front. It produced maybe two to three apples a year. It began to look more like a Tim Burton Halloween tree. Although great during October not the best look for curb appeal for the other 11 months out of the year.

A crab apple tree is the back right of our backyard which the deer visit more than we do. Then way out in the back of our field there is a nest of Apple Trees. We see them in bloom and then in September the bright red of the apples pop up over the brush. Fighting against the red brush to get back there is a daunting endeavor so the harvest is left to the animals.

We’ve tried twice to plant apple trees in other areas in the yard to no avail as of yet. It seems the deer just can’t wait for them to grow and just gnaw them down before they grow to survive. Maybe, this year I’ll try again and add some protection in the fall for them.