@Katie_didnt_Z4b and maybe one more tree.
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Getting my first real successes from my apricot, plum, and fig. I havenât gotten anything really worth the effort anywhere else. Birds steal all the blueberries and gooseberries, and you can buy pretty decent ones. The cherries donât yield well, the currants barely live, and plum curc annihilated almost every apple.
But those were probably the best fresh apricots I ever had, the plums were really good, and figs from Cali are just bad by the time they get to the East Coast.
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My home garden is still quite young, but it was an excellent year for my two baby figs (Texas White Everbearing and LSU Gold), the Prime Ark Freedom blackberries and tomatoes. My peach trees were savaged by deer, however, so I plan to move them this winter.
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All four of the whip and tongue grafts that I did on my âprojectâ apple tree took, even the ones that I thought wouldnât because of size mismatch.
Also, the two fruit trees I planted in my Japanese-style garden (Red Baron peach and Weeping Santa Rosa plum) bore fruit for the first time this year and it was delicious. And I am really pleased too with the ornamental qualities of the trees, the shape and blossoms. I chose these in favor of the more traditional flowering cherries because I have a small lot with no room for a traditional fruit orchard.
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I like your attitude regarding the ornamental qualities of certain fruit trees. Some of my relatives have come to realize they can enjoy both nice flowers and fruit from the same tree. Theyâve started replacing their flowering trees with fruit bearing ones.
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Solutions for me were first caging the individual plants, then fencing the entire area, and finally mulching yearly with about a foot of oak leaves and pine straw all around them. After 3-4 years of no deer and no weeds and consistently moist soil, blueberries exploded!
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I mentioned in another forum that I started out with a few trees and now have 43. To your statement âI think I have filled all of the fillable spaces in my yard with fruit treesâ Im there with you 
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I thought I had posted this story about Rambo apples before, but I donât see it, and this looks like a good place for it.
In late September I picked more than a bushel of Rambos (winter, not summer) from three young trees. This was the first season we got more than two apples, and in the previous two years, all the apples had dropped prematurely.
The apples told me they were ready to be picked, but the real reason I picked them that day was a phone call. Several phone calls, actually.
Last spring, before we knew what kind of harvest we might expect, a women in California called to ask if we sold Rambo apples. I told her we only sold produce locally, and it was unclear at that point in time whether or not we would have any Rambo apples at all. She explained that she wanted one for her sonâs wedding. It would be used during the ceremony.
She had tracked me down through the internet, and Sage Hen Farm was not the first place she had contacted, but nobody else had been at all helpful. I suggested some contacts for possible help, and wished her luck.
In early September, the woman called again as we were getting ready for farmers market. She sounded desperate, but my wife convinced her to call back that night after 8 pm in our time zone. She called, and I got to hear her long sad story of not finding a supplier of Rambo apples. All she wanted, she said, was one Rambo apple. She was desperate. The bride and groom wanted to exchange bites of the apple as part of their ceremony. I calmly explained that, as it turned out, for the first time ever, we had had a good crop, and I would be happy to help out with more than one small apple.
She was dumbfounded. She was expecting rejection again and interrupted herself from pleading with me, when it sunk in what I told her. Fortunately the wedding would take place in Philadelphia, not California. The wedding would be in early October. Could I mail the apples by overnight express once they were ripe enough to pick? Could I send four apples, not just one?
We also talked about genealogy, so it was not a short conversation. I havenât told you why she wanted a Rambo apple. As am I, she is a descendent of Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, an original colonist of New Sweden, which included the future Delaware and greater Philadelphia. Her son was proud of his heritage, she said, and when he learned that the Rambo apple was connected to the Rambo family, he wanted to incorporate the apple into his wedding ceremony.
Feeling generous, I boxed up 12 apples and sent them to an address in Philadelphia by overnight express mail. It cost slightly more than $40. A few days later I received a check from the woman for substantially more than that for postage and handling, plus for my effort and kindness, and to help me in my work in heritage apple preservation.
I heard from her son that the apples arrived, but I didnât hear back from his mother until a month after the wedding. I was concerned, but, as it turned out, both she and her son were overjoyed â I hope the bride was, too. She called the apples wonderful â âhuge and beautiful and tasty too.â She sent pictures of the part of the ceremony with the bride sand groom exchanging bites.
That had to be my favorite orchard success of 2019, and maybe of ever.
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Love that story @Lodidian It is a very cool thing that you are a descendant of him and grow hisnapples as well! The fact that you also helped another descendant of his is very awesome as well 
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