Cherries: Food of the Gods (and the Birds)

Finally got around to replacing the two maple trees in our front parking I cut down a couple of years ago, as they threatened to shade my garden in the coming years. The parking, as we call it in this dialect area, is the patch of city-owned property between the sidewalk and the street. The city prefers shade trees (non-fruit bearing) because they're boring that way, but I wanted something that provided fruit and wouldn't grow too tall. I settled on three varieties of cherry tree which I picked up at the local high school horticulture program's annual plant sale. This planting increases the total number of fruit trees on our small property to eleven trees: four heirloom apple trees, two peach trees, two cherry trees from a previous planting, and these three new cherry trees. And just let me say, cherries are the absolute best fruit this side of peaches.

They had several varieties from which to choose. The North Star cherry tree is on dwarf root stock and will get from 8 to 10 feet tall.

The Meteor cherry is a semi-dwarf tree with tart fruit, good for pies and canning. It will get to 10 to 14 feet.

The last tree is a naturally dwarfed tree (not grafted to dwarf stock) but is the tallest of the tree and will range in height from 15 to 20 feet.

I didn't expect to see lush top soil over a foot deep between the sidewalk and the street, and few residual roots from the maples and hackberry which preceded the maples. Made planting a snap.

The tubs were waterlogged and quite heavy. Luckily, I was doing this by myself.

Planting complete, next was the mulch.

Mulching completed, I also needed to protect the trunks of these saplings. It's not unheard of for deer or other animals to chew on the bark.

I usually cut my sapling guards to size out of hardware clothing tie them up with twist ties. The hardware cloth allows for needed ventilation, but keeps the varmints at bay. 

Three ties per cage.

I also connect 5-gallon food grade buckets to each tree for watering. Just first drill two 7/64 holes an inch or two apart on the edge of the bucket and place that side close to the trunk. Provides a nice slow release of water straight to the roots.

My other two cherry trees are the wonderfully tart Montmorency variety.