An orchard arrived in the mail a few weeks ago. Every time I think we've planted our last tree for the season, more arrive.
We can't complain though, we are after all the ones who order them, but it does leave me wondering when enough will be enough. Our insatiable desire to 'grow our own' leaves us continually caving in to our own self-imposed limits. The rational conversation "Ok, that's enough young trees to tend until next season" goes completely out the window as soon as the next Diggers catalogue arrives in the mail. And, well, as a result of the last catalogue we now have a whole host of new home grown delights to look forward too.
Our latest editions are mostly heirloom varieties of apple and pear, which we will grow using the espalier technique. Not that we necessarily need to maximize space but we want to, and I think aesthetically, espalier fruit trees look particularly lovely. There is also a self pollinating almond tree, a couple of varieties of blueberries, a cinnamon myrtle (which you make a form of cinnamon out of), a raspberry bush, purple asparagus and the star or the order, the absolute cutest thing I have ever seen - a pine nut tree!
At present the only organic pine nuts we're able to source are from China (no thanks), so having a giant pine tree full of them will be a little bit of a dream. We recently had our back boundary surveyed (thank you parentals!) and we wanted to plant something quite massive next to one of the pegs to one day become a visual boundary marker. It was initially to be a silky oak, but why? They don't produce anything. So we chose a stone pine instead, because they grow both pine cones (fun!) and pine nuts (yum!).
In fact, that's the whole Diggers philosophy in a nut shell - trading strictly ornamental plants for productive ones, and it's a philosophy I am finding myself a passionate advocate of.
