Aronia are definitely not for fresh eating. They do process into excellent jelly, juice, wine, etc. Most apples would not meet your requirements for carefree, but some crabapples are very disease and pest resistant, very compact and produce edible fruits. Jujube is something to consider, as most are hardy and they don't have natural pests around. Cornelian cherry, Cornus mas is another one to consider. Figs and pomegranates would not qualify as easy, as both would require considerable winter protection in 6a MA. Asian persimmons would also be very marginal. You may find one that will survive, but it may not ripen fruit. Pawpaw would be another possibility for something easy. Currants are not trees, but would do great and are easy, although I'm not sure if its legal to grow them in MA.

Thanks Defrost, I find that I have to really want reseeding to take on a plant that has to be deadheaded to prevent it. Never fails, that my good intentions of deadheading get sidetracked. [g] I was looking at one of my nasturtium plants today that is just thriving. Huge, healthy looking, blooming. Didn't do that well all season. I hope I can collect seed for next year before a freeze gets them, because this one plant seems exceptional. I see seed heads, but they're still green. Mine are in my vegetable beds in the corners or along the edge in the middle of a long bed. My vegetable plot gets 6 or 7 hrs tops in summer and less in Fall, so maybe they prefer the shadier conditions of Fall.

I visited a potager or ornamental vegtable garden at Stonecrop garden in Cold Spring, NY this past summer. I was much impressed by one bed consisting solely of cole crops: purple, red, black and green kale, purple and green kohlrabi, red and green cabbages, Brussels sprouts (do you know you can get these in red?), cauliflower. The kale was used in the center of the bed with the lower growing veggies around it. But they also had beds with red and yellow beets, frilly mustard greens and collards, red flowered, purple flowered and pink flowered runner beans on teepees, purple, yellow and green bush beans - and rows of many colored lettuce. One of the students was setting out rows of lettuce plants to replace the ones already harvested and she had flats in several colors. Dill and parsley are also very ornamental. And there were red and green scallions along with several kinds of onions. You can visit the garden and the potager at www.stonecrop.org

Ants & fruits were around a long time before people were---ants don't need people touching fruit to make them hang around. The ques is, what kind of ants? Are they sucking on sweet juice made available by broken skin of fruits? Are they hunting other insects that live on that tree? Are they carrying aphids around to let them suck on the tender shoots, and eating the "honeydew" (aphid pee) produced by the aphids? Or is your neighbor just freaky about ants?