Sandra comes into Atmore Farm & Garden regularly.
She is rail-thin and spritely, with curly white hair and crystal blue eyes, and if I were to take the dangerous course of guessing her age, I would say she’s at least 80. She’s also one of the best gardeners I’ve met.
A few weeks ago she showed up with a bag of huge sweet figs to share. Then about a week and a half ago, she showed up with some homegrown peaches.
She told me this tree is a seedling of a seedling of a seedling. That the variety has been replanted for who knows how long, just from seed. The fruits are sweet and clingstone, with pale flesh.
She also says she does nothing to keep the tree growing. These grow without help.
“A guy was doing some work in my yard one day,” Sandra said, “And I told him he could have some peaches. He ate one and said, ‘That’s great! I really want to plant a peach tree,” then threw the pit on the ground.
“You just threw your peach tree on the ground!” she replied.
Good seedling peaches are more common than you might think.
Peaches are one of the easiest trees to grow from seed. Just eat some peaches, save the pits, crack them open, take the kernels and put them in some slightly moist soil in a closed baggie in the fridge, then wait a couple of months. They’ll grow roots in the fridge. Once they do, plant them in a pot or in the ground. They often fruit in just a couple of years. The seedling peaches we’ve grown have been more vigorous than any grafted peach we’ve grown and the fruit has been good on all but one of them so far – and we’ve grown many dozens!
God is quite generous, if you just know how to use the bounty He provides.
And yes, we saved the pits.