The Problem With Fruit Trees
In many suburban streets throughout Greater London, gardens at the front of a house have been replaced over time by off road parking. Often the entire area adjacent to the road, which was previously home to flowers, shrubs and trees are now just drives made of blocks, concrete or gravel. All of which is due to the increase in car ownership per household, over the last five decades. The rectitude of which I shall not discuss here. However, not all drives comprehensively obliterate all traces of previous front gardens. Next door to my own home, the neighbouring house has a third of its front garden remaining. This includes a rose bush, a lot of brambles and a fruit bearing tree, that I recently found out was some species of plum. The neighbours themselves are hampered in conducting garden maintenance by the terms of their lease. As a result the garden is left unmaintained by their landlord.
Trees, like most other forms of flora, are not respectful of property boundaries. The one in our neighbours garden is approximately 18 feet high and unfortunately right next to the wall separating houses. After some cursory research I think it may be a Mirabelle Plum tree. Currently, the fruit it bears are ripe and falling onto both properties. Over the last few days, I’ve had to go outside each morning and sweep up the windfall fruit and deposit them into our garden recycling waste. If I don’t do this, the fruit is crushed under foot and inevitably trodden into the house. There is also scope for the fruit to cause an accident such as a twisted ankle. They also attract a lot of insects, such as flies and wasps. Due to the sheer volume of fruit, it can sometimes take a week or two for it all to fall. In the meantime it is effectively a nuisance and it creates work.
If you take the time to walk around the local area, there are quite a few fruit bearing trees and bushes located in vestigial gardens. A hangover from the days when people didn’t plant such things for cosmetic reasons but actively cultivated fruit. As a child neighbours up and down my street would exchange homemade jams, marmalades, chutneys and relishes. During the seventies there was a time when home winemaking was popular and fruit trees were a great source of free ingredients. I remember going on excursions via local alleyways and side streets with my father, collecting fruit from trees and bushes which he then used for winemaking or homemade desserts. Apple crumble, stewed plums and raspberries and cream were common seasonal dishes during my youth. The notion of letting such a commodity go to waste was unheard of.
Sadly, such days have gone. No one knocks on your door and asks if they can pick your fruit crop anymore and hence it is left to waste, across various drives, and pavements in boroughs such as mine. Something that was once of a practical benefit is now just seen as an inconvenience. I have spoken to our neighbours and will try to liaise with their landlord so that the plum tree in question can be either cut back substantially or at least pollarded. It may even be more cost effective to have the entire tree removed, although that does seem somewhat drastic. I’m sure it does offer environmental benefits, just not to humans. And that is the problem in a nutshell. It is another example of how humans want the environment that they live in to accommodate their needs. Anything that doesn’t becomes a problem to be fixed, irrespective of its impact elsewhere in the ecosystem.
Roger Edwards