[SustainableTompkins] Backyards, Beware: An Orchard Wants Your Spot

[Elan Shapiro]

HOME & GARDEN   | March 13, 2008
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/garden/13orchyarding.html?ex=1206072000&en=9656e734407b62b9&ei=5070&emc=eta1>Backyards, 
Beware: An Orchard Wants Your Spot
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/garden/13orchyarding.html?ex=1206072000&en=9656e734407b62b9&ei=5070&emc=eta1

By STEVEN KURUTZ
In an era of local food, an increasing number of Americans are 
turning their yards into mini orchards, even in dense urban areas.

GERRY GRUNSFELD, a genial 32-year-old lawyer who grew up in England 
and now lives in a narrow two-story house in Midwood, Brooklyn, has 
the kind of backyard you're not sure whether to envy or pity. True, 
it's green space, a rare and precious commodity for a city dweller. 
But it's not much bigger than a putting green and it's hemmed in by 
buildings that partially block the sun. "The growing conditions are 
far from ideal," Mr. Grunsfeld said, standing on his porch on a 
recent afternoon.

Nevertheless, since he bought the place four years ago, Mr. Grunsfeld 
has transformed his 150-square-foot garden into a little orchard, 
cramming it with fruit trees along with fruit-bearing vines and 
bushes. He has two cherry trees and two apples, including a Cox's 
Orange Pippin in a planter ("I used to eat them in England"). There's 
also a Santa Rosa plum ("I saw it in a nursery and couldn't resist"); 
and a Concord grapevine in a tall frame in a barrel on a tree stump 
("I don't have an inch of space left so I'm trying to make it grow 
vertical").

Three varieties of blackberries grow behind his children's swing set, 
a fig tree occupies a far corner, and a litchi and two tangerine 
trees, part of a recent foray into citrus, wait for spring in a 
basement grow-room.

In the summertime, when everything is in bloom and fruiting, the yard 
calls to mind a scruffy Garden of Eden. "My wife thinks I've gone 
crazy," Mr. Grunsfeld said, "but there's something magical about 
seeing fruit develop."

In the last few years, an increasing number of Americans have turned 
their yards over to such mini orchards, planting them with dwarf and 
semi-dwarf fruit trees, even in dense urban areas. Suppliers around 
the country have seen significant increases in fruit tree sales, like 
the 12 to 15 percent annual sales growth reported by the Dave Wilson 
Nursery in Hickman, Calif., which has one of the country's largest 
selection of fruit trees (more than 1,300 varieties)......

-- 
Elan Shapiro
Sustainable Tompkins Community Partnership Coordinator
Sustainable Living Associates, Principal
Frog's Way B&B
211 Rachel Carson Way
Ithaca, NY 14850
607-275-0249    607-592-8402 Cell

"We must be the change we want to see in the world"
	          Mohandas Gandhi