Fruit trees do not have to be high-maintenance. Here are 12 easy fruit trees you can grow, complete with growing and location information.

Fruit trees can be easier to grow than you think, discover the five easiest fruit trees which you can grow in your own garden.

Growing fruit trees can be a difficult task. This is especially true for those who are living in small spaces with limited gardening space. We…

Fast growing fruit trees mean that you get fruit in just a year or two instead of four or five. Check out these seven trees and start eating homegrown fruit

You won’t get a fruit harvest the first year you plant a tree, but if you pick a fast-growing fruit tree, you'll get fruit sooner.

Find the Best Fruit Trees to Grow in Louisiana with this ultimate guide! You'll even learn why you should grow them and how to grow them in Louisiana!

Most fruit trees take a long time to start bearing fruit, but there are some varieties that will give you fruit in just a few years.

Keep reading to learn more about the strange-looking but curiously cool dragon fruit tree, a member of the cactus family.

"Improved" Meyer Lemon fruit and bloom check out the recipes on fourwindsgrowers.com

I hope you all had a fabulous Easter! We did a little egg hunting before heading to church. Afterwards we TOTALLY nailed the perfect Easter morning family photo… Yep. Anywho, so over the past couple of days I have been obsessing over fruit trees. It started when we ran into a guy selling different fruit trees...

You can grow just about any kind of fruit tree in a five-gallon bucket, but the best fruit trees for bucket gardening are dwarf varieties.

Lovely, below, excepting why is the guild missing? Before learning what a guild is, I would have thought this garden, below, 'complete'. . Do you know what a guild is? . No? Parlay what you know a guild to be, in secular life, into the orchard. Pic, above, here. . From Google: "guild ɡild/ noun noun: guild; plural noun: guilds; noun: gild; plural noun: gilds a medieval association of craftsmen or merchants, often having considerable power. an association of people for mutual aid or the pursuit of a common goal. synonyms: association, society, union, league, organization, company, cooperative, fellowship, club, order, lodge, brotherhood, fraternity, sisterhood, sorority "the copper craftsmen have formed a guild" ECOLOGY a group of species that have similar requirements and play a similar role within a community. Origin late Old English: probably from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch gilde, of Germanic origin; related to yield." . Obvious now, what a guild is? No, at the front end, I still would not have understood what an orchard guild is. . Orchard guild, below . Pic, above, Long Barn, here. . Seeing the orchard guild, above, can you describe what the guild is doing? . No, I couldn't either at the front end. . An orchard guild is a mix of plantings, blooming at the same time the fruit trees are blooming, increasing pollination. Increasing fruit tree yields by 80%. . Do the math. . By weight & lucre, a fruit tree guild is your best employee. . Looking at the Google definition of guild, above, the mention, "related to yield." . So. moving along, knowing what a guild is, seeing this orchard, below. I would like to see this orchard in bloom, trees & guilds. The guilds, below, seem more appropriate to pleasure gardening not agriculture. What percentage of the guilds are flowers blooming before/after the fruit trees, not providing support, pollinators, to fruit tree yield? Pic, above, here. . Guilds in an orchard are a symbiotic wilding. Excepting the skills/knowledge of fruit tree guilds has become re-wilding. . Pic, above, here. . Nice sentiment, above. Excepting we're more than 1 generation past agrarian & pastoral knowledge in the macro. . Zenobia Barlow, has created a system of ecoliteracy. Actively educating about ecoliteracy. Rewilding knowledge. What are the bridges needed in Ecoliteracy? Barlow has been drawing the map, aiming for territory. Fabulous start. Dozens more strategic voices needed. We don't know, what we don't know. More, Barlow's map covers myriad disparate layers, she knows she doesn't know & creates space for unknowing to become knowing, on the map to territorial knowledge. . Decades I've been teaching at the local college, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Extension Service classes and Master Gardener's training. Never a day passes I don't learn something important about gardening ornamentally or agriculturally. More, much of the learning is counterintuitive. What a ride ! . I add, below, for anyone interested in working with schools and ecoliteracy. Learning from what they've already done, and adding to their knowledge. A system designed with stewardship. Another arrow for your quiver. . Why you must know what a fruit tree guild is? Ecoliteracy. Know this, get significantly more fruit for less money, less effort. . From, The Center for Ecoliteracy, below. "The first guiding principle of the Center for Ecoliteracy's framework for schooling for sustainability — Smart by Nature™ — is "nature is our teacher." 25140 reads 1488 The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. --W.B. Yeats 7 Lessons For Leaders --by Michael K. Stone, Zenobia Barlow, syndicated from ecoliteracy.org, Dec 12, 2013 The first guiding principle of the Center for Ecoliteracy's framework for schooling for sustainability — Smart by Nature™ — is "nature is our teacher." Taking nature as our teacher requires thinking in terms of systems, one of nature's basic patterns. Systems can be incredibly complex, but the concept is quite straightforward. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, for example, defines a "system" as "any collection of things that have some influence on one another." Individual things — like plants, people, schools, communities, and watersheds — are all systems of interrelated elements. At the same time, they can't be fully understood apart from the larger systems in which they exist. Living systems have their own dynamics. Observing systems reveals recurring properties and processes. They resist change, but they also develop, adapt, and evolve. Understanding how systems maintain themselves and how they change has very practical consequences that go to the heart of education for sustainable living. Much of the Center's work over the past two decades could be thought of as applied systems thinking. As an offering for leaders engaged in systems change, we report in this piece on seven important lessons we've learned. While the work of the Center has been profoundly affected by the insights of our cofounder, systems theorist Fritjof Capra, as well as by other notable thinkers including Margaret Wheatley, Joanna Macy, and Donella Meadows, we will touch only briefly here on their important theoretical work. At the end of this report, we've listed a few sources for readers who want to pursue these ideas more deeply. Seven Lessons for Leaders For educators and change agents who are tackling the challenge of changing systems, some of them deeply entrenched, we are pleased to offer these lessons, based on our work with thousands of leaders. Lesson #1: To promote systems change, foster community and cultivate networks. Most of the qualities of a living system, notes Fritjof Capra, are aspects of a single fundamental network pattern: nature sustains life by creating and nurturing communities. Lasting change frequently requires a critical mass or density of interrelationships within a community. For instance, we've seen from research and our experience that curricular innovation at a school usually becomes sustainable only when at least a third of the faculty are engaged and committed. "If nothing exists in isolation," writes famed essayist Wendell Berry, "then all problems are circumstantial; no problem resides, or can be solved, in anybody's department." Even if problems defy solution by a single department, school districts are often structured so that responsibilities are assigned to isolated and unconnected divisions. Nutrition services may report to the business manager, while academic concerns lie within the domain of the director of curriculum. To achieve systems change, leaders must cross department boundaries and bring people addressing parts of the problem around the same table. For example, we're currently coordinating a feasibility study with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). It requires looking simultaneously at ten aspects of school food operations (from teaching and learning to finance and facilities) identified in our Rethinking School Lunch framework. In the push to make decisions and produce results quickly, it's easy to bypass people — often the very people, such as food service staff and custodians, who will have the task of implementing changes and whose cooperation is key to success. It's necessary to keep asking: "Who's being left out?" and "Who should be in the room?" Lesson #2: Work at multiple levels of scale. "Nested systems" is a core ecological principle. Like Russian "matryoshka" dolls that fit one into the other, most systems contain other systems and are contained within larger systems: cells within organs within individuals within communities; classes within schools within districts within counties, states, and the nation. Changing a system affects both the systems within it and the systems in which it is nested. The challenge for change agents is choosing the right level, or levels, of scale for the changes they seek. The answer is often working at multiple levels: top down, bottom up, outside in, and inside out. The Center for Ecoliteracy is applying this strategy in Oakland. We're supporting a pilot school, Cleveland Elementary, on garden and classroom projects that can be accomplished on a single campus. We're helping to facilitate the Oakland Food Web, which is a network of teachers, parents, and staff members from several Oakland schools, the district's food service, and the County Department of Public Health. The OUSD feasibility study, meanwhile, is taking on changes that depend on centralized administration, facilities, economies of scale, and coordination possible only at the district level. Lesson #3: Make space for self-organization. Fritjof Capra writes, "Perhaps the central concept in the systems view of life" is that the pattern favored by life "is a network pattern capable of self-organization." He adds, "Life constantly reaches out into novelty, and this property of all living systems is the origin of development, learning, and evolution." Networks that can effect systems change will sometimes self-organize if you set up the right conditions. Our seminars and institutes are designed for teams representing schools and districts rather than for individuals. Parents, teachers, administrators, and community volunteers — sometimes including people who had not met before the seminar — have organized themselves into effective ongoing collaborations, such as the Oakland Food Web, which still continue. Lesson #4: Seize breakthrough opportunities when they arise. Living systems generally remain in a stable state. That's a good thing; otherwise, we'd be living in chaos. But it's also why systems change can be so difficult. From time to time, however, a system encounters a point of instability where it is confronted by new circumstances or information that it can't absorb without giving up some of its old structures, behaviors, or beliefs. That instability can precipitate either a breakdown or — due to systems' capacities for self-organization — a breakthrough to new possibilities. Remember the adage of former White House Chief of Staff (now Chicago Mayor) Rahm Emanuel: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." Take the epidemic of obesity and nutrition-related disease. It's a serious crisis that could precipitate a public health breakdown. At the same time, authorities who once viewed school food reform as a frivolous issue being promoted by foodies have now become more willing to look at the role that school food plays in an array of related problems ranging from rising health care costs to disparities in academic achievement. And that willingness in turn has created opportunities to use food as an entree for introducing a variety of sustainability topics into the curriculum, as we addressed in our book Big Ideas: Linking Food, Culture, Health, and the Environment. Lesson #5: Facilitate — but give up the illusion that you can direct — change. "We never succeed in directing or telling people how they must change," observes Margaret Wheatley. "We don't succeed by handing them a plan, or pestering them with our interpretations, or relentlessly pressing forward with our agenda, believing that volume and intensity will convince them to see it our way." So what can you do? In the provocative maxim of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, "You can never direct a living system. You can only disturb it." How do you disturb a system? By introducing information that contradicts old assumptions. By demonstrating that things people believe they can't do are already being accomplished somewhere (one of the objectives of our book Smart by Nature: Schooling for Sustainability). By inviting new people into the conversation. By rearranging structures so that people relate in ways they're not used to. By presenting issues from different perspectives. Meanwhile, you can create conditions that take advantage of the system's capacity for generating creative solutions. Nurture networks of connection and communication, create climates of trust and mutual support, encourage questioning, and reward innovation. Effective leaders recognize emergent novelty, articulate it, and incorporate it into organizations' designs. Leaders sometimes lead best when they loosen control and take the risk of dispersing authority and responsibility. Lesson #6: Assume that change is going to take time. "Quick fixes are an oxymoron," says Margaret Wheatley. "If leaders would learn anything from the past many years, it's that there are no quick fixes. For most organizations, meaningful change is at least a three- to five-year process — though this seems impossibly long. Yet multiyear change efforts are the hard reality we must face." Anticipate that you'll need time for the education and training required for people to change attitudes, adopt new practices, or use new tools. Set high goals, but take manageable steps. Look for intermediate achievements that allow people to experience — and celebrate — success and to receive recognition on the way to the ultimate goal. Taking time for stakeholders to understand each other's concerns and learn to trust each other's motivations and intentions can be time well spent. OUSD has one of the most comprehensive wellness policies we've seen. Writing that policy began with scores of community members meeting in a process marked by debate and often disagreement. When the policy was finally formulated, though, it received buy-in throughout the community. Lesson #7: Be prepared to be surprised. Change in living systems is nonlinear. As they develop and evolve, living systems generate phenomena that are not predictable from the properties of their individual parts, much as the wetness of water cannot be forecast by adding together the properties of hydrogen and oxygen. Systems theorists call these "emergent properties." In the late 1990s, we convened a disparate community of activists with a variety of complaints about school meals in Berkeley. A year later, the first district school food policy in the nation emerged. The coherence of the policy, which has had a worldwide impact, was an expression of the group rather than the vision of any single individual. The art and science of systems change are continually evolving. We encourage people to experiment with these seven lessons — and to expect surprises. Frequently it's the unanticipated consequences that are the most rewarding and effective results of immersion in dynamic systems. Some good resources: Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems (New York: Anchor Books, 1996); The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living (New York: Anchor Books, 2002). Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Ourselves, Our World (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1998). Humberto M. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela, The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding (Boston: Shambhala, 1992). Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (White River, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008). Margaret Wheatley, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time (San Francisco: Barrett-Kohler Publishers, 2005, 2007); Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006). The Center for Ecoliteracy where this article originally appeared supports and advances education for sustainable living. You can follow its work at www.twitter.com/ecoliteracy; he has also written for the Toronto Star and The New York Times, among other publications. Zenobia Barlow, executive director of the Center for Ecoliteracy (www.ecoliteracy.org), coauthored Ecoliterate: How Educators Are Cultivating Emotional, Social, and Ecological Intelligence (Jossey-Bass, 2012) and coedited Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World (Sierra Club Books, 2005) and Ecoliteracy: Mapping the Terrain (Learning in the Real World, 1999), in addition to her role leading the Center’s grant-making, educational, and publishing programs. " Print Loved This? Pass It On! 1488 Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

9 Dwarf Trees With High Yield Great For Small Areas! When it comes to gardening in small spaces, dwarf trees are a fantastic choice. These compact beauties not only add aesthetic appeal but also provide

Techniques for better fruit production (and health); Fruit Tree Pruning...

The Belle of Georgia Peach Trees is more than just a fruit-producing tree - this southern belle proves that edibles can be ornamental and delicious! Imagine having a tree that produces wonderfully scented flowers in the spring but gives you sweet delicious fruit in late summer. With their pleasing color and delicate scent, the flowers are a draw to butterflies and other pollinators. If you love peaches but only have room for one tree this self-pollinating tree is the one for you! The Belle of Georgia peach is a delicious white peach that is perfect for colder areas of the country. Belle of Georgia peaches will begin to ripen in mid-August just in time for mid-summer picnics.

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The best fruit trees for small gardens

Share this...What is a fruit tree guild? A fruit tree guild is an ancient technique where mutually beneficial species are planted around a fruit tree to create a thriving, supportive mini-ecosystem. Fruit tree guilds consist of several layers that can be made up of...

How to treat fruit trees organically, because let's be honest, not many of us want little worms in our apples and some diseases if left unchecked can damage a tree and the harvest. I don't

Cherry trees produce huge bounties of sweet, delicious fruit. Learn to grow your own and enjoy the freshest fruit with our guide to growing cherry trees.

If you love apples, you're going to love learning how to grow an apple tree! Apples are not only super delicious fresh, but they also make great desserts (apple pie anyone?), and once you plant them, you'll have apples for years and years to come! Learn how to grow an apple tree, care for it, and harvest it the right way! How to Grow an Apple Tree in Your Garden Growing an apple tree doesn't mean you have to have acres and acres of land. You can plant a hedge of dwarf apple trees or even just one apple tree

In order to stay healthy and grow, all plants need to absorb certain chemical elements from the soil.

This is the first long weekend of the summer season here in Canada. Yippee! Diehard enthusiasts like myself have already been gardening for a while, but for many Canadians the Victoria Day long weekend is the traditional time to finally get digging. The danger of killing frosts have passed and it is usually safe to begin planting tender annuals and tomatoes. So for those of you heading to the nursery or garden centres for the first time this season, here are a few ideas to get you inspired: Plant something pretty: Bee Balm, Monarda 'Marshall's Delight' My favourite new plant of last summer: Dwarf Calamint, Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta Plant something fragrant: Thyme or Lavender (below) Create something whimsical Think outside the box when it comes to container plantings Plant a fruit tree... even if you have a small yard. Add some interest to the edges of your flowerbeds. This gardener neatly edged the grass and then she added a trough of pea gravel. Stones mark and elevate the permitter of the flowerbeds and... low growing succulents keep the whole thing looking tidy. Don't forget to think about adding some late season color with ornamental grasses and late flowering perennials like sedum, phlox and rudabeckia. Plant some old fashioned annuals that nobody else in the neighbourhood has thought off. Snapdragons Lavatera Don't forget to plant some Morning Glories and maybe some Cosmos. Some sunflowers would be nice too. Have a great weekend!