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| Mulberry by the Airstream |
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| Mulberry fruit |
I have tried planting pears, peaches, nectarines, apples, plums, and I
have never had a single fruit off any of them. One nectarine survives,
bent and crippled, and all its fruit end up as dried black mummified
corpses. All the others have been ravaged by deer and especially goats. I
used to make individual cages, then enclosed a whole orchard field, but
every time the goats etc would find a way in and eat them down. The
only solution is to spend the time and money and do the fencing
properly.
Meanwhile another story is emerging. Randall
has pointed out to me one mulberry tree, and one plum tree. Both are
probably wild, and the birds and squirrels think they belong to them,
but they are there, established, and bearing fruit. (The real exception is an old German pear tree that I have had plenty of pears from.) I have also seen but never
tasted paw-paw fruit - again the squirrels get them first. Here are
images of two existing fruit trees that have been here all the time,
unbeknownst to me. Only massive nets will preserve their fruit for us two-leggeds.
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| Plum tree |
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| Plums |
