There are few pleasures in life quite as sweet as picking a soft peach from your tree, biting into it still warmed from the sun, and feeling a taste explosion of sweetness and juice! Having your own mini orchard can provide you with shade trees and of course with great harvestable fruit every year. The great part about the fruit that your trees will yield is that it can be enjoyed fresh and can be preserved to provide you with orchard-fresh goodies throughout the year. Who can’t appreciate the sweetest peach jams on warm scones
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The low plains of southeastern Idaho where I grew up were marked by fierce winds year-round and blowing snow in the winter. Most farmers planted some sort of wind break around their property. Wind breaks offer protection from the wind and blowing snow. Houses stay warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, cutting energy costs by as much as 20 to 40 percent, according to the University of Missouri Extension. If you live near a busy farm road, windbreaks can reduce traffic noise. The windbreak growing behind my home on the eastern plains
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When serious storms like Hurricane Sandy slams into coastal cities and towns, many worry about lives and property. Fallen trees, widespread flooding, power outages, and other damage are a given, and it comes as no surprise that garden beds often bear the brunt of weather events like this one. Severe weather of any kind, including
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It can be difficult to embody the practices that are important to you in terms of producing your own food if you have a small plot of land or simply face logistical constraints due to pre-existing infrastructure on your land. Many times, fruit trees have the potential to consume too much of the available arable
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As the temperatures start to dip, especially at night, and the days become shorter, you may be noticing that autumn is on its way. Depending upon your location, leaves may be just beginning to change color, preparing to transform the landscape into a scene of fiery beauty. While the colors of fall are gorgeous and stunning, you may also mourn the loss of the hues of your summer garden. Fortunately, there are many ways in which you can extend the colors of your garden well into the fall and even add some in now so
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In planning your homestead garden, you may not have considered growing fruit. To the inexperienced, it may seem like a challenging task, but growing fruit trees is not as difficult as you may think. And the return on your efforts will be vast. From a single tree, you can expect to get hundreds of fruits each year for up to twenty years. Depending upon the number and types of trees that you plant in your home orchard, you can have fresh fruit up to eight months out of the year. By growing your own fruit,
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Arbor Day was established on April 10, 1872, by J. Sterling Morton, Secretary of Agriculture under President Grover Cleveland. He was also at one time the governor of Nebraska, and it was there that he created Arbor Day to encourage the planting of and care for trees. On that first Arbor Day, around one million trees were planted. Morton loved trees and wanted others to feel the same way. Through his roles in government, he taught others about good forestry techniques and helped establish national forest reservations. Today, Arbor Day is a global holiday, and
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