I've planted a fruit forest!

 Never thought I would see the day I could hide in a fruit forest that I've phantom planted!

Last night it just struck me as I was walking around The Phantom Planters HQ that one day about 6 years ago this place was all an open field.

Today it is packed with hundreds of fruit trees buzzing with life and you can get lost in it.

Was down last night checking for windfall fruit, there was some but not as much as I thought. All the trees were holding up well getting battered with the storm. Just one plum tree branch I seen broke but looked like this was about to snap anyway with the weight of plums on it.

Had my first beauty of bath apple which is an early ripening variety and tasted amazing. There's something special about picking an apple from a tree and eating it. Especially when the tree has been phantom planted. Always taste better when theres that element of rascality involved. 

You know my advice which many people dont seem to like about tree planting, is just get out and do it and learn as you go. Never mind looking into it too much, buy a tree and stick it in the ground the right way up and see how it goes. 

Nature won't be long letting you know if it's in the right place or not. 

Many people hate this advice from me but for me way back at the start when I knew nothing about trees, I talked to one tree planter and he said you can't plant potted trees in summer, they die. Another said no you can if you water it. One other said they need staked and another said no your better letting the tree strengthen themselves. 

Then some started to speak to me in Latin and rootstock codes like mm106. My head was mangled with these dudes. Then another woman who said she was an ecologist tortured me with a whole new level of constipated BS. Everyone has way too many opinions on nature.

Even the RHS the royal horticulture society has recently changed their advice on tree planting. Before they adviced adding feed in with the tree planting now they say don't as you want the roots to go and look for food and this will help anchor the tree more. Even the experts don't get it right first time. 

And as for the ones who get their knickers in a twist about native and non native. This is something you want yo be taking up with the customs and excise and not the little man who just bought a tree in good faith in the garden centre down the road. 

Go buy a tree guys and just stick it in the ground the right way up. Give it as much water as you want for the first couple of years and observe and use your own intuition. And one day you might have a fruit forest like me. 

I challenge you to phantom plant a tree!

Peace and love 

The Phantom Planter