Backyard farmer

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Manny Howard
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OK, this is funny, but there's more truth to it than you might think. The past four or five years, I've been growing fruit in my backyard - apples, apricots, pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots, cherries, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, strawberries, and grapes - and I think it would have been cheaper just to buy fruit, especially since I give most of it away.

And that's even considering my labor to be free. Let me tell you, it's been a lot of work. I figured that you could just plant a fruit tree and then pick the fruit when it ripened. What could be easier than that? Ha! There is always work I need to do, and I'm always behind in it.

True, I haven't cut off any fingers, but maybe that's because I rarely use power tools. (I'm usually scratched, cut, or otherwise dinged up in some way or another.) And although I haven't beaten any rabbits to death, one did die of heat stroke after I chased it around my yard for awhile one hot and humid day. Yeah, it was him or me. (Luckily, I wasn't the one wearing a fur coat.)

I must admit that my fruit tends to be much better tasting than what I can buy in the grocery store. But after growing my own, I'm just astonished at how cheap fruit and vegetables really are. I really don't understand how they do it....

Anyway, as long as I'm on the subject, let me give any prospective fruit-growers here a few tips. Note that this is my experience in Lincoln, Nebraska. Your results in other locations may vary, depending on your climate and different insect and disease problems. But I've found that some fruit is a lot easier and less time-consuming to grow than others.

Rhubarb - sort of an honorary fruit, I guess - is by far the easiest thing I grow. Heck, it was here when I bought the house 25 years ago, and I've never done anything but pick it. But it's way too sour to eat fresh, so I just give it all away. (I don't cook, or not much.)

My black raspberries have been pretty easy, too. The birds planted them - actually, they planted one raspberry, which soon grew to two long rows - and they need pruning a couple of times a year, but that's about it. Squirrels generally leave them alone, and although the birds love them, there's usually enough for all of us. (Mulberries would be the same way, but I've actually had trouble growing them.)

Strawberries and grapes are almost as easy. They need care - pruning the grapevines and managing the strawberry patch - only once a year, and I never have to spray them for anything (your mileage may vary). However, they must be netted when they start to get ripe or the birds will get the whole crop. And although the squirrels never bother my grapes, I've had to set up an electric wire (which I rub with strawberry juice) to keep them out of my strawberries.

Currants and gooseberries are both very easy, and they'll grow in places that don't get much sun. In fact, here in Nebraska, they really need some shade. The currants don't need spraying, but they must be netted to keep the birds out (luckily, currants don't have thorns), while one annual spray of Bt keeps the worms out of my gooseberries, and the birds and squirrels don't bother them at all.

The currants are even easy to pick, since they grow in bunches, like grapes, and they all ripen at the same time. (The gooseberries, which are low to the ground and very thorny, are easily the worst fruit to pick, as far as I'm concerned.) Unfortunately, they're both better suited for cooking than to eat fresh. I do like the Poorman variety of gooseberry - they're very tasty when almost ripe - and the Black Velvet variety isn't bad, either. But for fresh-eating, most of my gooseberries are too sour when green and too bland when ripe. (They all make great pie, though!)

Then we get to the tree fruits. Unfortunately, they generally need a lot of spraying - in fact, more than they get from me. Invading insects and diseases from all over the world keep up a never-ending assault on them. They also need a lot of work pruning and training the branches, at least when you're trying to keep them small (since I'm just a backyard fruit-grower, I've crowded everything severely).

And every bird and mammal in the world will seemingly be after your fruit. Birds will peck holes in one fruit after another, if they can't eat the whole thing. Squirrels will gorge on them and carry off everything they can. (My squirrels even like little green - and very sour - apples. They'll completely strip a small tree months before the apples get ripe, if you let them.)

It's really a lot of work. From spring through fall, I seem to be working in the yard almost constantly, and I rarely get caught up. Heck, even picking the fruit is a lot of work. Really! Since my mother was in the hospital last week, I'm even further behind than usual. So this blog has taken the short end of the stick, for now. OK, time to get to work.