Winters_Lackey wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in news:ljcikg$htm$1
@news.albasani.net:

Winters_Lackey wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in news:ljc6nc$d60$1
@news.albasani.net:

One way to avoid dropped fruit
is to plant only dwarf or semi-dwarf trees. These two apple trees
are perfect because they are semi-dwarf, and resistant to cedar
rust, which is a huge problem around here. They are good
pollinators for each other, and the apples ripen 3-4 weeks apart.

How does having semi-dwarf trees avoid dropped fruit?

People can reach to pick the fruit before it falls.


So this community will have the equipment and energy to manage the
fruit trees through the year ( watering, fertilising, spraying and
pruning as required) but cannot find a ladder at harvest time.
Seems odd.

David, the members of the community garden will water and fertilize,
and the cultivars suggested shouldn't require spraying. These trees
are intended to be browsed by anyone using the park. The concept is
expansive. Families with young children can lift their little ones up
to pluck a fruit. My wife is upset by the fact that our raised bed
gardens are enclosed by a fence, but the fruit trees will be for
everyone. What a joy for a child to eat fruit directly from the tree.


No doubt about that. The trouble is that the children (and many adults) are
not in a position to decide when this might be appropriate. Biting into
green fruit is not going to give them that wow sensation a tree-ripened
fruit will. It is likely to send them back to the mediocrity of the
supermarket. As I did with the children, so I will do with the
grandchildren, I decide when they can have fruit off the tree not them.
Then they pick and enjoy. Full size trees out of reach of little ones is a
benefit not a problem.

I had a neighbour who battled with the local council to have a vege garden
on the public land along the road in front of his house. He wanted to do it
as a demonstration and as a public service. He wanted people to help
themselves and build community and he wasn't asking for anything from
anybody. He was heartbroken when one night ALL the tomatos vanished. Not
because he begrudged the taking but because most were quite immature, green
and hard, down to the size of marbles, and because the takers broke half the
plants in their greedy rush. It was just a total waste of a good thing.

Urban agriculture builds community. We grow flowers in our front
yards, and that's not only for our own enjoyment, but to beautify the
experience of anyone who walks past. It's not just about prestige,
but about sharing beauty.


Nice ideals. If you don't have any existing community feeling to modify bad
behaviour to start with the selfish or vandal minority will wreck your
scheme. This is the problem with cities nobody knows their neighbours and
so they retreat into the anonymity that cloaks antisocial actions. If they
are guilty they feel likely to get away with it, if they are innocent they
"don't see" the perp in the name of minding their own business and avoiding
trouble. By itself a few fruit trees is not going to fix that.

Ideally, these fruit trees should be a place where neighbors meet
neighbors that they wouldn't otherwise speak to. It's easy to share
a smile with a stranger when you're both munching on apples picked
fron the same tree.


Good luck. Really I hope it works but I fear it won't.

D