We may have to sell the house in the distant future as we move back either to the UK or India & I can’t help but think of what will happen to my little backyard orchard.
Were any of you in a similar position? What happened to your old orchard? Did the new owner keep it going, did they cut it down?
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I know of two recent cases where the new homeowner was interested in preserving and maintaining the orchard (I helped one person in my area try to get a handle on their new trees for one example). I’ve also heard of many cases where they are either abandoned or chopped down. So, 1/3 odds they will maintain it, 1/3 they will let it go, 1/3 they will chop it down is a wild guess.
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The new owners – a young family of engineers – hired a landscape services company to maintain it.
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What trees did you leave behind?
I have seen many houses sale in my neighborhood. If you get attached to the look of your house never go back because everyone changes the house to suit them after they buy it. In fairness in most houses in America they have the right to do so.
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The last time I drove past my old place I noticed that the apples and pears that could be seen from the road were all gone. I don’t know about the majority of them as they can’t be seen from the road. I’m guessing they’re gone as well.
The few dozen apple trees I planted at my folks’ old place have all been destroyed by deer and rabbits. The new owner thought the wire cages were “ugly”.
Enjoy your trees while you can. The next owners may or may not give two hoots about them.
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Backyard fruit trees are not really and orchard. They are a fun hobby to us.
My 3 peach trees produce 1200-1500 peaches each year IF I’m lucky and do all the work. We can a little but most go to friends, family and food pantries.
Without the work part, you just have an unkempt mess.
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Because of the need to fence all fruit here, I assume any future owners will not maintain anything I plant. Few people will bother with weeding or spraying, etc. They consider fallen fruit unsightly and are too lazy to can or freeze produce. I just plant for my own enjoyment.
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You could put a deed restriction on your sale that the orchard gets preserved. But, that might reduce the number of interested parties considerably?
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I’ve seen many a social media post of “We just bought a home and we have fruit trees! Discovered X apple and Y pear trees so far. No idea what [cultivars] they are.”
It is on the other hand nice to see similar posts where instead of “no idea” it’s “the previous owner left us a map/list of what all is growing here”.
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At our old house they killed grapes, apples, peaches etc…
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I did not know one could do that! Thank you!
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The architect in me likes that idea very much!
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What/who would be responsible for checking on the orchard/trees annually?
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I have also seen people in gardening forums ask about taking their plants with them in the deed in recent years. That is an option too. Of course you would have to do a give/take in that situation more than likely
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It depends on the people. I know on the peony forum, people paid hundreds of dollars for these peonies and when they moved, the new owner ripped everything off.
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Eh fruit trees are even more expensive. I and likely many others here have likely put in over 1k in plants here. It is something I worry about because someone could easily take a truck and load up on 1 or 2k worth of trees overnight with me just having them in pots. I do agree with you though that cost is not a factor. Some people don’t like that fruit trees can attract insects and animals. My mom volunteered to work on the trees for her school thinking because I talk to her about my trees she would know what she was doing. Her supervisor wants her to buy trees from the arbor foundation which are small cheap trees, the district wants her to buy big established trees and the teachers do not want fruit trees because kids throw the fruit at the school. Everyone has their idea on what a good tree is or will be and that is the tricky part. When buying the home they may just want to plant flowers, they may want a different kind of fruit tree or they may just want grass for the kids to play in. No one knows with the buyers and like blueberry said unless you put it in the deed and routinely check you cannot control it. Even if they did put it in the deed and the deed was broken then you have to take them to court over it.
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Almost 25 years ago we lived in town on a 1.3 acre lot… which had a nice big creek bottom garden spot… which i grew a nice big garden in.
I had one peach tree and started a reliance pink grape… which was 5-6 years old and just produing nicely when we sold the place.
The guy that bought the place never did a thing to the nicely trellesed grape vine and the peach either died or he justcut it down… it is no longer there…
My grape vine spot slowly over the years grew up with seedling trees, bushes, vines and became a big thicket in the back yard.
This house is on the way to my wife’s mothers home… and we pass by there regular.
I wonder if somewhere in the midst of that thicket… my reliance grape is still living… i doubt it.
No one has grown a garden in that nice creek bottom garden spot since we sold it.
TNHunter
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The rule is usually if you cared about it you should have or did take it with you.
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I had to leave my trees two times. First they been taken down, every single one. Second, I am not sure yet, at least they started from installing the fence, not from cutting the trees. I also have experience with situation when the large orchard owner died, and his wife and kids sold the land in pieces for development. That was very sad.
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