Over the past few years I have tried to grow dwarf fruit trees. My first year we lived in our “starter” home, out by the coal plant. We had a dwarf peach tree and the very first year it set fruit! I was amazed that I could do this, in this dirty little suburban neighborhood, by the dirty creek. Of course the tree succumbed to the problems peach trees face in the area: blight, fungus, and pests (I would not spray). I had one peach and the rest were gobbled by the birds. I thought “wow, when we move to the country, with good soil and cleaner air, this will be easy! I’ll have lots of fruit!” Yeah, I was very wrong.
We moved here and I started over with apple trees…4 of them. Every year they flower and then the flowers fall off and they appear to look like they have tiny fruit forming. Then there is nothing. I kept thinking disease must be the reason. Bugs. Not enough fertilizer. I have been taking a course, with my dear friends, on beekeeping, from our local Beekeepers Guild. Now I feel completely silly as I should have known the reason for my failing fruit trees, as well as why my garden bore hardly any vegetables last year. No pollen. Without pollen there is no fruit, veggies, flowers, anything living. I have seen only a few bees here. If I am to have any kind of garden, at all, I need them!
My garden in the starter home was beautiful! I now know why…there were bees. We were surrounded by trees ( perfect natural hives) and many in our neighborhood had tiny backyard gardens and flowers attracting these bees.
Garden entrance 2008
Our little man, @ age 3
Now in the country here it is flat and open due to commercial Monsanto farms and developers. The developers have gone wild out here making homes with no trees or flowers, on acreage that goes unused by their occupants. People like the “idea” of country life but don’t want to or have time to do the work. They love their big open patches of green turf that go unused except by the lawn mower and lawn chemicals. So now my nearest neighbor’s garden is 1/2 mile down the road. The only flowers that are seen are pansies in pots in the spring and mums in the fall. The whole situation is very sad. We are killing our own food supply, one green lawn at a time, because they do nothing to attract pollinators. (You might as well turn it into a landing strip.) The fields across the street are heavily doused with pesticides and herbicides sprayed by truck and plane. Mosquito control comes out as well.
Love learning with friends!
This class has been so much fun and we still have our Field Day! I need to go get my bee suit but no hive yet. I will probably just use this year to educate myself and plant lots of flowers around the house. I am not sure how well my bees will survive when I get them, if at all. I have to try. I have visions of bottles of honey, jars of creamed honey, my own beeswax for my hand & lipbalms, candles, and mead (yum!). But the biggest reason is for my garden or I will continue to have very little produce. The point of the homestead is to be as self sufficient as possible but I’m going to need some help from the bees.
