NATCHEZ — The sun was out, the weather was pleasant, and it was time for Ron and Roseminette Gaude, their 9-year-old grandson Nathan and their cousin Daisy Watson to get out and work on their wild plum trees.

When The Dart found them Sunday on a lot near Liberty Road, the group was digging around the trees and placing bricks in a circle around the base of the tree to hold in mulch they would be putting on later.

The trees were transplanted volunteers from the Gaude’s South Union Street backyard, and had been approximately three feet tall when they were transplanted two years ago, Ron Gaude said.

The trees, now approximately 5 feet tall, are in bloom, their branches sprinkled with little white flowers.

“They’ll give us fruit this year,” Ron said. “They’ll give fruit when they bloom like that.”

The plums the trees will produce are slightly bitter, but delicious nonetheless, Roseminette Gaude said.

“It makes a very good jelly and very good syrup,” she said.

The trees will eventually grow to be so large that their branches intertwine, Ron said.

The good thing about the trees is that while they give a tasty product, they don’t require a lot of labor on the part of the growers.

“(Ron) might trim the lower branches back, but other than that it’s not a lot of work,” Watson said.

The land the trees were planted on was briefly a croquet court that Ron and a partner had built, but that dream had fallen long to the wayside.

“People just weren’t that into it, and you had to cut the grass every time you wanted to play,” he said. “It was high maintenance and low interest.”

But the group had plans for more of that space Sunday, and they planted two fig trees at the end of the row of plum trees.

“After these, that’ll be enough fruit for anybody,” Ron said.