Importance of Fruit Trees-10 Things You Need to Know
One of my favorite aspects of gardening is growing fruit trees. Growing vegetables or flowers are great, but having a tree that continually produces year after year just can’t be beat. If you’re on the fence about adding that fruit tree, here are some things that’ll inspire you to start digging that hole.
Why do we need to plant fruit trees? Fruit trees provide us with healthy food to eat, while creating beauty in our yards. Adding fruit trees to our landscape improves the values of our properties, while helping to support an eco-friendly environment. Let’s take a closer look at the importance of planting fruit trees.
Provides Food for Family
One full grown standard size fruit tree can produce a lot of fruit. Here are a few commonly grown fruit trees and the average amount of fruit the produce per tree.
- Peach Tree up to 100lbs
- Plum Tree up to 150lbs
- Apple Tree 150-300lbs
- Cherry Tree up to 100lbs
- Orange Tree up to 100lbs
As you can see, one tree can produce a huge amount of fruit for a family. This can help alleviate some of the cost of groceries throughout the year.
Creates Self-Reliance
We’ve been a bit spoiled in modern times with all the conveniences of having food brought right to us or just going to the grocery store to get whatever we need. Natural disasters or various things can happen at any given moment. There have been instances of E.coli, droughts, or diseases that have affected our ability to purchase various produces we enjoy. Having a backyard fruit orchard can help us to have some sustainability if food isn’t readily available. With the extra fruit produced from your trees you can do various things like canning, freezing, drying or other means to store excess for when you may need it.
Chemical Free
When you grow things in your backyard you know exactly what is going on or into the trees. For all the concerns with GMO or pesticides, you can have the comfort of growing organically, with fruits that are in its purist form. It ensures that you are reaping all the maximum health benefits from your fruits without any possible harmful additives.
Tastes Better
Grocery store fruit is often picked premature to allow for shipping which can take away from some of the flavor. As fruit is allowed to fully ripen on the tree, they’re able to build up the maximum sugar levels for optimal flavor. Plus, there may be a psychological taste advantage with putting all that time and work into maintaining the fruit tree. It’s always going to taste better when you put in the effort to care for it.
Rewarding
Growing fruit trees in your backyard gives the gardener a sense of pride. There is a lot of work involved in caring for your fruit tree and fruit doesn’t magically appear overnight. Fruit trees can take several years to start fruiting and require ongoing maintenance by watering, feeding, pruning, etc. See my post: Maintaining Healthy Fruit Trees. With all the love you put into caring for your tree, it feels good to be rewarded by all your hard work with tasty fruit.
Fun for Kids
As a father of four kids, I’m all-in on activities that incorporate the entire family. With the demands of our schedules, it’s becoming more difficult to make time for our kids, so anytime I can incorporate something I enjoy doing with the kids, it’s a win-win. My kids have taken pride in learning some of the basics of gardening and growing a few things on their own. They all have their favorite fruit trees that they anxiously await harvesting from.
Helps the Environment
Trees can have an immensely positive impact on the environment. Adding trees can aid in improving the overall air quality through oxygen production. In a hot climate, trees can help regulate some of the temperatures by providing shade and condensation through foliage. Hot concrete and things can radiate a lot of heat that can be mitigated by shade from trees. The leaves on trees help take in harmful pollutants to clean the air.
Beautify the Yard
Seeing a fruit tree in full bloom is often a beautiful site. It can literally look like popcorn popping on the tree. Pomegranates have magnificent crimson blossoms that can help provide aesthetics to our naturally brown desert landscape. Adding various fruit trees just brings more natural beauty in the yard that makes you want to spend more time there. A vegetative landscape tends to help create a tranquil environment. Trees tend to have a calming effect that can help reduce stress we face in our daily lives.
Financial Benefits
Some studies have indicated that having mature trees in your yard can increase the value of your property from 7-19%. Not only does adding fruit trees increase property value but can help reduce energy bills when properly placed. For larger fruit trees placed to shade the house from the west facing sun, it can help keep your house cooler, thus saving on A/C costs. More foliage in general tends to keep your yard cooler. Selling excess fruit to farmers markets or local restaurants can provide some extra financial rewards.
Community Connection
Having a fruit tree in your backyard can be a talking point with your neighbors. Where I reside in the Phoenix, Arizona area, it’s common to have citrus in your yard. As your strolling around the neighborhood, it’s one thing that you can do to strike up a friendly conversation with others. I write a post on Building Relationships through a Gardening Community, that looks at ways gardening can build impactful relationships. Your neighbors will appreciate any fruit you’d like to share with them. Many people allow their neighbors to have any fruits that hang off the tree in their yard. Not only do trees add value to your property, but it helps increase the appearance of the neighborhood.
To sum it up, even though fruit trees do produce amazing fruit, they provide us with so much more. My hope is that after discovering the many ways fruit trees can be an important part of our lives, you’ll join me in adding a magnificent fruit tree to your landscape.
Please comment below on anything you’ve enjoyed from this post.