WHY JUST PLANT A TREE?
By Kathy Borreson, a local fruit gardener

A move to a yard with almost no landscaping ten years ago gave me the chance to follow my garden planting motto: "If I'm going to rake the leaves, I want to be able to eat the fruit."

Since then the planting on our 60' by 150' lot in Bon Accord, just north of Edmonton, has multiplied and grown more fruitful each year.

An established patch of Boyne raspberries in the back yard was joined the first spring to my basic orchard of two apples, two pears and two plums. They were planted along the south side of a fence to hide the view of my neighbor's garage. Five Saskatoons soon followed along the north side of backyard fence and now feed family, goldfinches and Eureka the Alaskan malamute each summer.

Five grapevines, of four varieties with Valiant being the most reliable for this area, now grow in a bed two feet wide along the south side of the house. In the fall of 1995 I picked 20 pounds of grapes and will be turning most of them into jelly.

In the front yard, cherries and apples act as ornamentals for both hedging and shade. A Nanking and six Mongolian cherries make up a very low maintenance informal hedge along the property line and the neighbor's driveway. The Mongolian cherry has shiny green leaves and tart fruit that can be eaten fresh but usually get added to the grapes for great tasting jelly.

A Kerr applecrab tree, planted about seven years ago, is a pretty shade tree that provides long keeping fruit for eating fresh or for canning. When picking the fruit I always leave a gallon or two on the tree for the flock of grosbeaks that visit in late winter. A flowering crab and a native apple also provide shade.

A Meteor cherry tree was planted last spring in the front yard. It will eventually reach about 15 feet high with easy to pick semi-sweet fruit that will hang in clusters.

On my wish list for spring of 1996 is a highbush cranberry for the one spare corner by the backyard orchard. As new varieties of grapes become available, I plan to plant them along the base of the deck and also up the stucco wire cross fence by the vegetable garden. Then I hope to add...

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