I am NOT a fan of being cold so I am constantly looking for things to be happy about in the winter.  One of my extreme pleasures is that citrus is ‘in season’ or ripe from November until I finish picking it in the spring.  Unlike peaches, citrus stores very nicely on the tree.

My foray into fruit trees started in ernest when I bought the Urban Farm in 1989, but I primarily planted stone fruit (any fruit with a pit in the middle) and pome fruit (apples and pears.)  Then about 5 years ago I got the citrus bug and started planting oranges like a madman.  I believe that fruit trees are like art.  You don’t buy art you don’t like, so why should you plant a fruit tree that you don’t like.  Using this theory I planted 14 navel orange trees in my front yard.  Well in reality they are not trees, they are more like a shrub standing no taller than 6 feet tall and I use them on the perimeter of my front yard as a fence.  It actually works really well.

One might ask why the heck I would plant so many navel oranges?  I love navels and in any given week when they are in season I can eat 20 or 30 pounds and THAT is a lot of oranges.  The nice thing about this particular winter is that my production is almost keeping up with my desire for them.  That makes me a very happy camper especially with the price of fruit these days.

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Twenty years ago I started planting fruit trees here at the Urban Farm and I have to tell you it has gotten…well not out of hand, but productive.  I have just over 80 fruit trees planted on the 1/3 acre.  Included in the mix of fruit trees is citrus (Cara Cara and Washington navel, Trovita and AZ Sweet oranges, Limequats, Meyer lemons,) eight different varieties of peaches, four different varieties of apples, apricot, plum, fig, quince, pomegranate, Asian pear and loquat.  A bit extreme perhaps, but my goal is to have ripe fruit growing in my yard every month of the year.

Have you ever thought about growing your own fruit trees but the prospect just seemed to daunting? With a new concept called “Backyard Orchard Culture,” planting and managing a large orchard of small trees is a piece of cake. The key to such high density plantings is to keep the trees small; most of the trees here at the Urban Farm are not over 10 feet tall plus I use the edges of the yard leaving the middle open for play.

The concept of Backyard Orchard Culture allows for fresh fruit to be harvested throughout the entire growing season. By planting an early season, mid season and late season peach varieties I am blessed with peaches in April, May, June and July.

A while back I cowrote an article on Backyard Orchard Culture with my friend Maura Yates where I dive in deeper to the whole concept.  Check it out and enjoy.

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