Posted on 10/14/2012 9:00:22 AM PDT by Donkey Odious
Consider it a modern take on the legendary tale of Johnny Appleseed. Vancouver, B.C., has announced plans to plant 150,000 fruit and nut trees on city streets, in parks, and on city-owned lands in the next eight years, reports the Vancouver Sun.
At the moment, the city has about 600 fruit and nut trees on city streets, and another 425 can be found in the city's parks, community gardens, and pocket orchards.
"Street trees play an important role in helping Vancouver adapt to climate change, manage stormwater run-off, support biodiversity, and even provide food," Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a statement to the city's council last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at takepart.com ...
It would also multiply 10X the pests and blight that produce farmers have to contend with.
Unless agreed to in advance that the trees would be sprayed, this is STUPID writ large in neon lights!
“Anyone that says what Serve Man said is ignorant of the cattle business. Cattle being fed free range is tough and stringy.”
Like dairy cows getting into wild onions make the milk practically undrinkable.
“Reminds me of the old story about a farmer getting mad over his watermelons getting stolen so he posted a sign that one of the melons was poisoned.”
You left out the rest of the story:
The would be thief added his own sign. “I poisoned one too, so now there are two”.
What a wonderful idea! Was this herb garden in the front yard, or on the parking strip?
As a one-time pecan orchard manager, I can assure you that, if these trees are not maintained properly -- and that means, at a minimum, fertilizing and spraying -- they will never produce any meaningful fruit. And the birds will get whatever there is before any humans do.
With some fruits, that means pruning and thinning, as well.
For example, has anybody ever found any edible fruit on a wild cherry tree? Or a wild hickory? In the woods, they're relatively common.
If Vancouver believes they're ever going to have "a crop", they're dreaming.
Idiots. Having lived in So Cal for years and having citrus and stone fruit trees which I inherited from previous home owners, I can tell you that fruit trees require lots of attention.
Citrus need to be fertilized and iron added. Otherwise, they get chlorosis and the leaves turn yellow and fall of.
Stone fruits - peaches, apricots, etc., and other fruits like cherries all ripen and need to be picked within a couple of weeks. Otherwise, they ripen and fall off leaving a mess.
Fruit and nut trees attract skunks, squirrels, rats, etc., especially if the fruit is not removed when ripened. What a mess these trees will become. All fruit trees require regular maintenance. That is quite different from evergreen and broad leaf trees which only require occasional trimming.
They should plant mulberries. The pigeons will thank them.
For every one of you (us) that might make good use of such a “plan” there would be hundreds who would watch the fruit drop and rot and bemoan the fact that no one delivered it to them in a reuseable box or bag. The “feed a man a fish...” story holds.
And thanks for mentioning your mulberry tree. I used to have one across the back fence where I grew up! Pretty good....
anybody see the affect fermented fruits have on wild life-
This graphic isn't new but it tickles my funny bone, so pardon me if you've seen it before:
I hear ya.
My family were cattle owners at one point. We raised Simmental. My deceased boss was a Longhorn cattle owner. There is a difference.
I agree with you there is a difference in taste - I don’t dispute your opinion. I said something funny and it went over your head and humor limit...... sorry to disturbe you. Eat in peace.
“Anybody see any potential problems with this??”
Oh yeah, lots and lots of problems. First thoughts were this will be messy with all that falling fruit all over the place. Second thoughts were bees, lots and lots of bees, not just for pollinating but swarming for their share of the bounty. Third thought lots of greedy folks gathering the best fruits and not wanting to share with others just as needy or needier. Oh yeah, public funds going to maintain a public orchard and I’m sure there are a numerous more problems that I haven’t thought of, let’s see, wildlife wanting there share and bears drunk on too much apple mash, and so on and so forth.....It will be interesting to see what happens.
agree. but your post was not funny. Btw, we were one of the first families to bring the Simmental cattle to North America and my boss longhorn was the logo for Neiman Marcus. He was also responsible for bringing the association of longhorn breeders together.
Our Simmental bull, Verdi, was one of the top bulls in North America. We coowned him with a another man and a man from Canada.
While Mayor Robinson is Canada’s answer to California’s Governor Moonbeam; IMHO, there are some good things about this project. This project will please more than just the granola voters (fruits, nuts, flakes).
The article doesn’t mention that one of the main objectives is to create canopies over most of the residential streets. Canopies make nearly any street-scape look much better.
I’m not too sure about the fruit trees; but, nut trees have been used as canopy trees in many cities for many years. They’ve proven themselves. As for the fruit trees; a canopy tree is too tall to allow harvesting.
It was a spice and herb garden in my front yard, along the lawn edge, and up the driveway on either side.. I had about 20 varieties, with the most popular plants IE: various types of Basil, Rosemary, Sage, multiple types of Mints, Parsley variables, and Oregano, in vast supplies..
I also had varieties of Berries with a sign “HEY KIDS, PICK A SNACK” with a warning to wash first in my garage.. Our home was in the center of the neighborhood schools, where most of the kids would walk by to and from..
That didn’t last as long because it was more popular and run out sometime before it even ripened.. I would sometimes supplement this with the aid of the local Farmers Market, that would discount to me the leftovers at the end of the weekend sale.. Hahaha
Fruit that rots on the tree because people are too lazy to pick it. Slippery sidewalks from fallen fruit. Flies attracted to the rotting fruit.
Plus people need to maintain the trees to get good fruit production by trimming off some bad limbs, and knocking less than desirable green fruit off so as to make the other fruit on the branch larger.
Then there is insect and fungus control.
Ya got me - LOL Your a big shot over my lowly existance. You got more big shot in your line than I do. Shame on me for living on your planet...I’ll go hide in my cave now as you have some big time things to do I am sure, me I’ll go relax and smile at the world - LOL
“I dont see any problem with it. In fact, I have thought of thing like this myself, along with having unemployed people on unemployment doing the harvesting as a condition of getting benefits. It would be unattractive work, but it would do something productive.”
Unattractive work? Not many decades ago, most people would object to that characterization.
ess than two decades ago, “work for welfare” won bipartisan support.
We’ve only gone nuts for a few years, by a few percent, and it is one faction of one party.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.