I hope my children become interested in the farm as they get older and they manage after I’m gone. If not I will have enjoyed them during my lifetime.
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I think about it too. I’m surprised that so many others have the same impulses and thoughts.
Apricot trees are long-lived landscape trees around here, so they will survive. Peach trees are just not that long-lived, so no.
The pears I wonder about. All that time I bent the “Summercrisp” pear to the horizontal, in my mind’s eye I visualized a toddler grandchild picking fruit from it. It’s a nice looking tree, so maybe it would survive me.
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I have thought about that a lot of times. That is why sharing is very important, that is why exploring is very important. The Altoona, IA pear mentioned on this thread could have easily not been discovered or rescued if the events of Phil’s life had been different. a lot of people would have never looked at such an area of land let along considered getting cuttings. The better the fruit is the more likely the variety will stay around a very long time if it’s well enough distributed.
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Out of curiosity, I went back to my old house that I sold years ago.
I left the new owner over 50 exhibition rose bushes, all perfectly arranged
and manicured, as he wanted. Guess what!! Every rose bush was gone
and was replaced by of all things, grass. There wasn’t one plant or tree in
the entire yard. There was grass all the way from the street up to the
front door. But it’s his house now and he has the right to do whatever he
wants. But I fear that’s what’s going to happen to each and everyone of us.
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Ray,
That happened at my childhood home and I’ve got to admit I was offended even though we sold it. Not their problem it was mine so I have not sold a place since we sold that one my parents owned.
I have found you might as well just assume the new owners will destroy your orchard and yard, either purposely or by neglect. I’ve seen it happen too often. It’s just a fact of life, so just plant for yourself. If you have a favorite bush or plant, try to dig it and take it with you if you move to a different property.
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I went through a phase where I knew I just didn’t have free time, and the free time I did have, I wanted to spend relaxing, not tending the garden.
So I mowed the grass, the hedges got trimmed once a year, and we planted some annuals and hardy mums. No big deal.
The people that really annoy me, though, are people who buy all these plants and trees without doing any research and then get annoyed when they need care! People are so divorced from the concepts of gardening and growing that they think they shouldn’t have to do anything.
The one that still cracks me up is a guy who told me he’d never plant a Pear tree agIn. When I asked him why (thinking it was fireblight) he told me the pears dropped all over the ground, and if you didn’t pick them up, they’d attract yellow jackets.
As Jeff Foxworthy would say, “Here’s your sign…”
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I have 18 fruit trees on a standard 80 x 150 ft suburban lot. My wife and I off-and-on talking about moving in the next few years to change our commute.
I suspect if we actually decide to move I will take whatever trees are small enough to move with me, and cut down many of the others to replace them with grass, or at least offer some money to do that as a condition of sale. Maybe I’d probably leave the initial 4 apple trees I planted because they span the season as well as a cherry, and a peach. I can’t imagine anyone less crazy than myself wanting a Brown’s Apple, Dabinett, or Harry Masters Jersey cider apple tree.
That is my experience with a lot of my wife’s family and their suburban friends. They would rather spend time doing something else, which is fair. Not everyone wants to go to the trouble to plant and maintain an apple tree when you can get perfectly fine apples from the store. (Though if they could get a tree-ripened peach they might change their mind.) Most of those type of people would tell me I’m going to have 1) mow around all those trees, and 2) pick up the fallen fruit. Number 1 is a fair assessment, as it does probably add 30-45 min to my mowing job, but most of that time is me standing gazing at my trees. Ha!
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I never really gave it much thought, till now.
I suspect that, as with everything else on the farm, they will probably get old, rusted and gnarly along with me 
.
After that, I hope that they get missed or forgotten by the new owners, the orchard is in a place where that scenario is likely. At least that way some may survive and become the next hunting ground for a yet unknown young fruit enthusiast who will be excited to explore and identify what remains. By then, some of the varieties I grow will be old indeed, and all the joy that grafting and growing an old heirloom variety brings will live on. Everything old becomes new again.
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I think about this all the time … we are on 3/4 acre and have now about 70 trees: apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, persimmon, etc.
However, we will have to go to a ranch and ‘downsize’ in the next coming years so as to have our bedroom on the ground floor, and not trip and fall down stairs. {and start a new orchard somewhere} So like @ILParadiseFarm, I also worry that the next owner will chop down all our babies and make a golf course, and somehow be happy lookin at grass. I must admit, pruning, spraying, bagging and puttering around in the orchard consumes allot of time. But it beats just plan old grass.
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I would remove everything that bears fruit…probably plant a nice oak tree as a yard tree…maybe leave a few of my conifers.
I know a guy…he was debating upgrading some old wiring in an old farm house…he told me that he wasn’t doing it because that doesn’t sell a house…only thing that matters these days is granite counter tops. I just shook my head.
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One word Rob: Shiplap. Whatever that is.
Eh, as long as the old wiring is still functional and there isn’t an active problem, I probably wouldn’t replace it either. I’d have an electrician give it a look over, maybe install some GFCIs in the bathrooms and kitchens, but as long as the circuit breakers or fuses continue to work and the wiring is still intact, I don’t see why it should be replaced just to replace it. Especially since a job like that might cost $12,000. And while it might be nice for the seller to know the electrical wiring has all been redone, I’m thinking you’d be lucky to get half of that money back when you go to sell it.
The walls were all open /// i would have upgraded it all… i think they would have done most of it themselves (running wire/electrical panel/etc)…maybe get an electrician out there to look it over and finish it…not sure (farm house out in the sticks). End of the day he chose the granite 
A lot of buyers though will only see those counter tops and that will sell it…as the house burns to the ground because of faulty wiring.
Not a big fan of shiplap…i’ve watched enough fixxer upper to know its the only thing that matters…along with those sliding doors …not a fan of either. My brother (and his family) built a cabin and put a bunch of shiplap up…you can already see the joints shrinking…i didn’t ask, but i really hope the whole vapor barrier thing was done correctly…this is Minnesota where the nights get cold and moisture needs to be dealt with correctly.
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You know Clark, I think about this kind of stuff a lot & i’m only 33.
My project of coarse is here, History of where my Orchard is planted (being planted).
I bet all those years ago that guy wondered who would take care of his when he was gone too. We have 3 left standing, I don’t spray them or trim them, I just enjoy the old relics they are and they’ll likely cross pollinate with my orchard trees before they finally succumb to age. I have offspring of all 3 of them grafted but for now I’m enjoying his work.
My kids are very young, I hope in 5-10 years when I have tons of fruit they will eat some and enjoy it enough to at least want to carry the torch when i’m an old man.
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I have done the same thing with all my fruit trees. I am glad I am not the only one that has thought to do that.
I had some fruit trees at another house I lived in years ago. I made a map of the trees, no metal tags, for the new owner. One of the first things he did was to tear out all the fruit trees and all my flower beds I had made. I was sick when I saw what he did. I know, his place, he can do what he wants to do with it.
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I take refuge in knowing my attitude was shaped by raising excellent children. The trees out back have been carefully thought over, tended seasonally and spoken of highly. Both are testimonies to the man I am becoming, and the good fruit will outlive me in both cases.
One of my sons is a Honeycrisp fan; doesn’t like fruit with “too much” flavor or character. He is in many ways the reverse of his father, who raves about tasting Karmijn de Sonnaville. That’s an apple with flavor that grabs you by the tonsils and doesn’t let go. For that reason I grafted Lamb Abbey Pearmain, which may have a better chance of fruiting well here than KdS, which requires more humidity than obtains in Spokane. Maybe my youngest son will like Court Pendu Rose and Edelborsdorfer if they both fruit here, which are being tried for a variety of reasons, even if they might be milder.
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Since KdS seems to require a fair amount of humidity (those I’ve tasted were grown on the bank of Columbia River) I do not consider it worth trying in my very dry spot. Neither will I try Golden Harvey, unless it does supremely well in a spot higher upcountry where I grafted it this season. Suntan (Cox Orange Pippin x Court Pendu Plat) is very tasty - got a sample from Scott Farm, VT last winter. I grafted Lamb Abbey Pearmain last month in hope it proves durable in my conditions. It is Zeke Goodband’s favorite and reputed strongly flavored. Zeke is chief orchardist at Scott Farm.
Oh, and I grafted Brownlee’s Russet next to Golden Harvey because it compares favorably with Ashmead’s Kernel. BR is self fertile, precocious, highly flavored and Nick Botner wrote in Fruit, Nut & Berry Inventory “best of the russets.”
If you’ve ever eaten Goldrush, I have to say KdS has MORE taste than even that. It’s not as hard nor will it keep as long as Goldrush.
My daughter has started finding acorns and other seeds in my grandsons pockets, he is five and has learned that those seeds will grow into plants. I hope he inherits my trees…
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That’s a really good sign. Let’s hope they don’t tax us all out of our land and someone can inherit it.
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