re: #221 ObserverArt

Do people grow fruit trees anymore? Back when I was a kid in my northern part of Ohio, people all had at least one type of fruit tree in their yard.

We had great little peach trees and one apple tree. There were apple and cherry trees all up and down the street.

My father also fought the birds and neighborhood kids over his strawberry patch.

Had to run the kids away from the peaches too. Yard wasn’t fenced in. Those peaches were the bomb. Little dark red skinned and bright orange red fruit. Tough trees to grow though, very prone to frost.

Pie material galore. So yes, there were pies! My mom was a hell of a pastry, pie, cake and cookie master.

In a way, I’m a little glad to not have that much of that stuff around…I’d be 250 lbs. But growing up it was great.

I did not know peaches grew in that zone. We have had three pear trees but they haven’t survived. The city planted one on their property along the side of our property. It is marginally surviving (we water the shit out of it trying to keep it alive).

I don’t grow it in my yard, it is way too cold (I am north of you about an hour outside of Detroit). I got a sapling and have had it now for about four years. It’s beautiful now…not huge or anything. We bring it inside every fall and leave it outside during the summer. Lemon trees like hot weather. Our biggest deal with it is managing to keep it alive through the winters as it is really finicky. This year, it looked beautiful until like April…then we let it get just a tiny bit too dry and poof! no more leaves. It came back beautifully but we were very bummed. No lemons this year.