Happiness is a fruit tree

A life without love is like a tree without fruit ~ Kahlil Gibran

Originally published June, 2014

So tonight friends a piece about my garden, specifically my fruit trees.  You see I’m incredibly excited about the fact that I have plums ripening on the tree in the picture above.  To brag just a bit, I also have lemons ripening and seven, that’s right SEVEN golden delicious apples on the tree.  I have been a gardener since I was very young, my mother had me in the garden growing vegetables when I was about five years old.  I love vegetable gardening and seem to have an inherit knack for it, something that brings me great happiness.  There is nothing better than eating food you have grown and even more so, my absolute favorite, home grown tomatoes.

My grandpa Kane

My grandfather, pictured above, also played a pivotal role in my love of gardening.  He loved growing tomatoes and roses, a love he shared and passed on to me.  He was a brilliant teacher, the way he got me to help plant roses was by pointing out that the first thing you do when growing roses is to go fishing.  As a kid I loved to fish, so he had me absolutely hooked.  We would put the fish we caught in the hole to fertilize the roses.  As a result I’ve become pretty successful at growing both roses and tomatoes, a couple examples of my work below.

As successful as me and my grandfather were, we had one huge failure that has always haunted me.  I must have been seven or eight years old when my grandfather said to me, hey, let’s plant an apple tree.  I was thoroughly excited, I love apples and was already into gardening so the idea of growing fruit was over the top wonderful.  We planted the tree and it grew a bit that summer.  The next summer it grew some more, by the third summer it sort of stopped growing.  The tree never flowered, never grew any fruit and was a horrible disappointment for a little kid who was trying ever so hard to be patient for his apples.

At various times in my life I’ve planted fruit trees in yards and pots and all of them fizzled out for one reason or another.  At my current home I nearly killed my lemon and mandarin trees by putting them in the ground and finally acquiesced and put them in pots where they have done much better.  Little tiny lemons are growing as we speak, my mandarins flowered by set no fruit.  I’ve also killed a peach and a pomegranate tree over the last couple of years.  But friends, my patience has paid off and now after a mere forty year wait, I will have plums, lemons AND FINALLY APPLES!!!

So the next time you have a piece of fruit my friends, think about my grandfather, our failed apple tree and my recent success, give a little smile and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane