Ever since we knew we were moving to Arizona we knew that we wanted fruit trees in our yard. Andrew has been particularly excited about it and he's been doing a lot of research about fruit trees in Arizona, etc. On Saturday we went to the Nursery to pick out some fruit trees for our backyard. We asked all our questions and walked around and thought about it for a while and decided to pick out the trees we wanted. We ended up picking out: Lemon, Tangelo, Red Grapefruit, White Peach and Asian Pear trees. The trees are all dwarf except the Asian Pear tree; we chose to do this because we didn't want to have to climb really high to get our fruit. They are also all self pollinating which is nice because we didn't have to buy two of the same kind of tree to get fruit. In fact the Lemon tree and the Grapefruit tree already have fruit on them, they're not ripe but should be in 4 months or so as long as the trees don't drop the fruit. Citrus trees will do that but other fruit trees won't.
The trees were delivered yesterday (a down fall of not having a pickup truck) and Andrew came home and went out in his work clothes and started digging a hole. We needed to go grocery shopping and I knew that if we didn't go right away he would get too into digging the holes and planting the trees that we would never make it to the store. I forget how early it gets dark since it's fall and we don't do day light savings time down here (personally I think we should spring forward and then stop changing the time). Anyway it was dusk when we got home but Andrew was determined to plant at least one tree last night and he did. One thing you need to know about digging in Arizona is it's very difficult because the ground is very hard. Our backyard has about 6 inches of "digable" dirt until we get down to the hard pack, which Andrew discovered. Someone commented to us that if you want to dig a hole in Arizona you do it during the monsoon season other wise you're not really digging you're chipping and hacking. To cure the digging issue Andrew soaked the ground and then planted the Tangelo tree. The hole for the Lemon tree was a little different he started digging that hole when he was done planting the Tangelo tree and soaked it in water and then he had me fill the hole with water before he got home today so it would be easier to dig.
He will probably get the Grapefruit tree into the ground tomorrow and the peach and pear trees on Saturday.
All Our Fruit Trees & Fertilizer
Andrew Digging in His Work Clothes
Andrew Watering the Tangelo Tree
The Tangelo Tree in the Ground
Andrew Starting to Dig the Hole for the Lemon Tree with a Flashlight in his Mouth
The Lemon Tree in the Ground
Funny story; Andrew came home from work today and asked if I had blogged about the fruit trees yet. I said no, why don't you do it? His response? You do it so much better, and if you do it, it will actually get done. I think it's funny, and so here is Andrew's exciting news as told by me. :)
