Apple Tree

When we got here last May, there was a lot to consider.

I brought many many daylilies with me, some roses, some butterfly bushes, lots of daffodils and narcissus, some crepe myrtles. Some things will grow here, some things folks didn't know - had never tried. But what the heck - bring as much as you can, and what fails, fails, I told myself. So I had a tarp stuffed full of my plants in the back of my pickup.

I had to find spots for everything of course. Where could the crepe myrtles go and be protected from the wind? Where could the star lilies go and spread? Could I get everything planted so that it would have time to get established by snowtime in October, or the first frost the end of September?

When we arrived, there was this little apple tree out front, in between the maples by the porch and the sycamore tree by the road. It was sad. It was only two feet high, but had lots of little branches, and a few healthy leaves. It was blooming, too... tiny and brave, shaded far too much for a good apple tree. The owner told me that it had taken three years to get that high!

So, well, I moved it. I knew better. I did. You don't move an apple tree in June unless you only want firewood. But bless its heart - it had produced two little tiny apples. It was making an effort. It needed sun. So I bought a cherry tree (another no-no) and put them both out by the gate into the corral. I incarcerated my thorncovered blackberries in a huge old flowerpot made from a tire nearby. My theory was that, when we build the greenhouse, the fruit producers will be right next to the gate to go into the garden and greenhouse - lovely shade and a flowery introduction to the greenhouse in the spring. Most importantly, there is lots of sun right there - and the north side, the dangerous-snow-and-wind side, is protected by a pole barn.

Lord, it has been hot and dry this July. But I put them in deep cozy holes, spread out their roots gently as far as they would go, with old horse manure from the corral, and my intensive organic fruit tree fertilizer - and then, just to be encouraging, found and pounded in a couple of fruit tree spikes buried in the fertilizer box (marked "poop" by a TIC packer). Watered them every other day. Mulched them heavily. And waited.

The leaves on the apple tree and half of the cherry tree dried up, fell off. The two apples on the apple tree withered. And still I watered. I thought about pruning but didn't have the heart. It has been in the high 90's most of the week; today it hit 100 with 16% humidity. And then tonight... tonight there are fresh leaves bursting out of the branches on both. And if the leaf buds are any indication, there will be more. Ta-Da! Those leaves should be hardened off by the end of August; pulling in the sunshine for the roots, giving them strength for the winter.

I put the crepe myrtles in the old spot the apple tree left behind; protected from the wind and snow by the porch and maples and in the shade of the sycamore, their microclimate should suit them if anything can. Around the repaired and now cheerfully bubbling pond, down the fence line in front by the sidewalk, and up by the front porch on both sides, are all the daylilies and amaryllis, roses and butterfly bushes, bulbs and corms. Everything is manured and mulched, greening up nicely, and some of it is even bodaciously blooming.

But that apple tree is a fulfilled promise of what I have audaciously planned, and what is to come. Anything cared for can root anywhere, given attention and fed properly, protected from the harsher elements, and allowed to reach up at last into the sun.