why aren't we planting more fruit trees? are we stupid?

We have Oranges, Grapefruits, limes, lemons and date palms everywhere here in my area of Arizona and there are as many signs stating "No Trespassing" and the owners will spray you with lead if you get close to them der trees. But yet there is fruit all over the ground being wasted. People would rather throw away, let the fruit rot before giving it away to the hungry.

Sad greedy world we live in.

Well, duh. It sounds like you are talking about cars stopping on the road, the occupants scrambling out to go across medians and fences to get to orange trees on private property (AKA the oranges that are destined to be in your morning juice).

If you own your own trees, nothing is stopping you. You can even grow mini-trees on your deck.

I was thinking this yesterday too!!! Fortunately enough, around my area we have a few, and I literally mean a few, trees that bear small apples. You have to travel quite a long ways away if you want to find decent, unbruised apples, but I picked a good gaggle yesterday and put them in my fridge!

I was at an orchard yesterday, where they let you "pick your own." Since this was too close to NYC I guess (not really very close, it was in Newburgh which is about 70 miles north) the prices were very high. It was cheaper to buy the fruit at a market in NYC than to pick it in this place.

But what I liked was the pear trees. They are very handsome, much better looking than apple trees. I may have some pear trees in my yard.

Planting fruit trees is a great idea for anyone, and for public areas. The problem is that someone has to care for them. I know, I have 24 fruit trees on my acreage. You can't just stick a tree in the ground and get productive growth and abundant fruit. It's like growing any other kind of fruit or vegetable. It takes patience and care.

TRUTH

don't forget about fruit and nut bushes which produce much sooner and keep spreading and getting bigger :)

i planted 3 apples trees, 2 chestnut trees
2 blueberry bushes, 1 gooseberry, 1 currant, 3 hazelnut
2 elderberry, 1 blackberry, a black walnut, and a fig tree to grow inside! :) and a raspberry bush!

hazelnut bushes produce quite quickly. we are going to need protein when TSHTF!

also other edibles like rose bushes for rose hips, mint, lavendar, wild arugula, chamomile, sunflowers (another great source for seeds and oil), jerusalem artichokes, siberian pea bushes, st john's wort, heal all, feverfew, valerian, poppies, lemon balm, oregano and more that i can't think of cause i just woke up.
but all these are perennial :) and many are deer resistant :)

fruit, nuts and medicinal plants. plant them!

then i learned a lot about the wild plants around me that ar very delicious!
nettles, lamb's quarters, pigweed, purslane, acorns, pine needle tea and bark..

oh ya, and seaberry, gojiberry, and saskatoon serviceberry :)

if you don't own land google: guerilla gardening and seed bombing

planting in containers, and VERTICAL FARMING for those city dwellers. also rooftop gardening. the world is your oyster! get creative!

Last Edited by pink cat on 09/04/2012 09:58 AM

1. yes, we are stupid for letting this happen
2. they can't be patented

'they' cannot CONtrol that can they...can't have people providing for themselves....might not be able to keep everyone feeling scared about food prices, doesn't add to the chaos and drama they feel compelled to provide




surely it would be a violation of their Codex Alimentarius...their one world CONtrol of all food and resources, including the people marked with RFID tattoo like cattle and swine...



here we are...



for those in denial


good bye

All i plant on my property are food bearing plants, don't know about you but i figured this out long ago...

Planters/pots!

Vegetables grow in pots, too.

If things are still ok next planting season. I'm doing this!
We live in a neighborhood, but my yard is a little over 3/4 of an acre and planted heavily with flowers, shrubs and trees. I've worked on this yard since 1987.
I have black walnut, sassafras, mulberry and peach trees already.

I've had small garden patches and grown veggies in pots. I finally got a used tiller for a real garden, but it crapped out and I haven't been able to afford another one yet and was saving for one---but, why?

I have flower beds in need of border plants so why not radishes instead of monkey grass?
Why not beans on a trellis instead of clematis?
Corn against the back of the house instead of sunflowers?
Etc.
I am so gonna do this and share with my neighbors!

OP---you have truly inspired me! Thank you!!

Last Edited by Mandevilla on 09/04/2012 09:49 AM

Why not just grow your own soil using leaves, grass and other compost and do not use a tiller. I find that most things grow better in a bed like this. One bed at a time and before you know it you have a whole raised garden. I never till. Last years grass cuttings and leaves from neighbors are next year's garden bed. As long as the neighbors do not use chemicals on their lawns.

great link, thank you

Two years ago hubby & I purchased a home. We narrowed our choices down to 2 houses.

Choice 1 we called the better homes & garden house. It was beautiful like right out of the pages of the magazine.

Choice 2 we called big tree lot. We knew the house would need some updating work, but it had an acre + lot with about 75 trees, including 17 fruit trees.

We went with choice 2 because of the fruit trees.

Ok. Thats enough BS. You can't pick oranges because they belong to a farmer. Do you think you could go to Iowa and just start picking corn out of some farmers field? They made this law because orange groves usually are unfenced and farmers were regularly ripped off. Like the title of the thread states, plant your own fruit trees. Btw, the only oranges rotting on the trees are ones in backyards.

you Americans are so foolish. There are fruits and vegetables on all steet every land where nobody would go HUNGRY in fact in 3r world countries this is how it is. But you Americans have only LIVED ONE PLACE your whole lives so you only know american ways. America is such a fraud you people live on an artificial land your entire landscape is fucked up and doesnt look anything like mother nature intended it to be no wonder you are living the POOREST lifestyles i mean you fools would waste $500,000 on a house/land where you cant even freely grow MJ plus you have Home owner association TELLIN you how to live. DO not ever say America has more freedom than any country its just more distorted brainwashing america does to its citizens its a shame.

For those in fl, check out the edible landscape, by Tom mc cubbin

How bout Rivers of chocolate?

please understand, your idea is wonderful, in theory, but your "take a seed and shove it in the ground" idea is just a little bit simplistic. there is a great deal of work involved in producing food with no guarantee of success. still it is pleasant work and more people should take it up.

A few cities over here have fruit trees all over.
My city has a few different ones spread through out the streets.

Non is edible.

City environment poisons the fruit too much.

Specially good choice if you have kids or plan to. BH&G house won't look that way with kids around, unless you are way overly repressive with your kids.

Thanks! We have talked about raised beds since the tiller is an issue and we have tons of leaves and grass cuttings, etc., so we'll most likely go ahead with that, too.

I don't know why I find this so exciting. Maybe it's my sinus pill! LOL

Seriously, nothing is better than home-grown food.

if we are all so foolish and misguided, why are you here?

I agree to some point. The only problem is that you'd have quite a bumpy ride if the street were riddled with apple trees by the sidewalk. lol

..and yes I believe there would be problems with city-wide clean ups.

Last Edited by Starry eyes on 09/04/2012 10:20 AM

Damned city slickers.

I put in tomatoes and potatoes this year.

Then the weeds came up and I could hardly see which were my plants and which were the weeds.

Then the white-tail deer started visiting the garden.

Now I don't see any more tomatoes or potatoes.

If I don't invest about $3000 (that's a good price actually) in 9' high deer fencing, it does me no good to grow food. I'll just be feeding the deer.

if you own your own property and were smart enough not to buy where there are stupid, restrictive HOA covenants, then get rid of your useless lawn and plant fruit trees and other perennial food sources. permaculture is the way to go.

You get soil in only 1 season from when it was leaves and grass? You must live in the south, it takes several years here in my yard in NY.

My kids are adults and one already has kids of their own.

The happy looks on my grandkids faces this year as we picked fruit off the trees was awesome.