Tough Choices in Gardening...

We wanted to plant some little fruit trees in our backyard (e.g. apples, pears, cherries). While I would like to say that this idea would be to better the environment, to promote green-ness in our societies, yada, yada, I unfortunately have to say that it's because my mom thought we could get a good return on our investment in terms of free fruit. Our current yield: two small apples (about the size of a big cherry each), and one small pear (about the size of a small cherry). It may be a while.

Planting trees is not so easy, though.

MamaTang: So, what would this kind of fertilizer be good for our trees? *gesturing at bag*
PlantGuy: You don't want that one -- it's chemical fertilizer. After all, you're going to eat the fruits. What's in the fertilizer goes into your body!
MamaTang: Oh, okay.
PlantGuy: Yeah, you want this bag of manure.