Start Gardening with Kids Now to Inspire Green Thumbs Early
Gardening with kids is stressful, but when I was a child, my mom used to trust me with all sorts of garden chores. I would take care of her tomatoes, …
apple trees
How to Create a Food Forest of Flowering Fruit Trees
Flowering fruit trees have an enchanting beauty that captivates nature enthusiasts and admirers alike. Whether you possess an expert's knowledge of these magnificent trees or simply revel in their aesthetic …
From Johnny Appleseed to Your Backyard
Once upon a time—well, more like the early 1800s—a curious, barefoot man wearing a tin pot on his head wandered across the American frontier, tossing apple seeds with joyful abandon. …
Planning a Backyard Orchard You Can Harvest Year-Round
Whether spring or fall, both are great times to start your backyard orchard! If you've been following along for some time, you know that when we bought our house, it …
5 Fast-Growing Fruit Trees for a Beginner’s Backyard Orchard
Fresh fruit, plucked from a tree, is magical. Picking that sun-ripened, juicy peach right off the branch and biting into the soft, fuzzy fruit is the essence of a hot …
The Garden’s Chutes and Ladders
Living in Northern California means embracing the fluidity of seasons, where both people and plants learn to go with the flow. Growing up gardening in Massachusetts, I had no idea …
Watering Fruit Trees: When to Do it, and When to Avoid it
So you want to start growing your own fruit trees. You have picked out one or two you want to try, but you still have some questions. Do you have …
7 Tips for Cloning Fruit Trees to Expand Your Orchard for Free
When I hear the word “clone” I either think of Dolly the sheep or binge-watching Battlestar Gallactica. But cloning fruit trees is neither of those things and it shouldn’t be …
The 10 Most Beautiful Flowering Fruit Trees
Fruit trees are the high-school overachiever of the garden. They’re the “4.0 GPA, flawless skin, all AP classes, volunteers at a nursing home” type. Flowering fruit trees are the darling …
God’s Fruit or the Devil’s? The Sordid History of the Apple
Depending upon the person you ask, the fruit of the gods could be the pomegranate, grapes, pears, persimmons, or oranges. There may be more fruits that I've missed, but there's …
