Update on my "Orchard"

It is sad to say, but we did a bit of research and discovered that the lovely little trees that we are growing are not going to grow into "pink lady" apple trees. Granted, I am not much of a horticulturist, farmer or gardener, so I wouldn't have known this, but your favorite brand of apple does not grow your favorite apples on the trees grown from their seeds. Boo, hiss! This is the way the GMO people make money, I guess. The seeds will grow into apple trees, but the apples turn out rather inedible. The tasty-flavored apples are cultivated by grafting. I still don't exactly get how they turn out such great-tasting fruit, and the seeds from that fruit turns out to be squirrel food, but I suppose we have a real topic to look into for our science experiment here. As it is we have a Fuji apple tree and a pink lady tree growing in our back yard. To date we have harvested a total of 2 apples. One last year, and one this year. Turns out they flower on opposite years, so they don't cross-pollinate, so it looks like we must plant at least two more trees in our yard to actually get them flowering and cross-pollinating on the same schedule. 

Like I said, I'm not much of a gardener...but our little woods out back has some places that need filling in and we have deer and squirrels in abundance, so I'll plant the little trees back there and help to feed the wildlife and give the honeybees something to do.