Got Dirt Under my Fingernails Again.

First sign of spring? Dragging the nail brush out from the farthest flung corner of the bathroom cabinet. Today I dug up the last of the Jerusalem Artichokes and dug over the artichoke bed with some bokashi compost then I transferred the somewhat overshadowed clump of chives from the back to the front garden.

Also, I have something rather foolish to confess. After drawing up my carefully thought out list of what to grow this year, I noticed that Lidl had fruit trees on special offer - two year old trees at £5 each - so what do I do? Buy a plum and a pear tree. Do I have space to grow them? Clearly I do not. It's the Butternut Squash all over again.

To compound the error further I forgot to look up which varieties would be best suited to my garden so I just grabbed the ones with the nicest pictures (blush) when I was in store. Back home I check out my haul. I've got an Opal Plum which has a superior, gage like, flavour, easy to manage but the buds are attractive to birds. OK, sounds reasonable, I can manage birds til the blossom comes out. And I have a Doyenne Du Comice, texture and taste outstanding (hoorah) but a poor choice if you want a reliable crop. And it needs a pollination partner. Oh. Bugger. So that means I need to house a third tree? And even then it's likely it won't fruit very well? *Scream!*

My plan was always to plant the trees temporarily in pots in the garden for maybe a season or so until I get this theoretical allotment and then I'd transfer them permanently over there. The problem is my small, high fenced garden is rather shady so not well suited to fruit trees, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't get any fruit while they're here. Plus there really is no room for a third tree.

I'm wondering if the solution could be to find someone, maybe via Landshare or Freecycle, who would be willing to let my potted trees sit in a sunny spot in their garden in return for a share of the crop/some wild fruit/my rather lovely jam, depending on how well the tetchy Comice crops. Or there's guerrilla gardening, I could sneak out under the cover of darkness and surreptitiously add my trees to the row of recently planted council trees just down the road. No-one would notice - would they???