 |
| Red Solo Cups with labels on them identifying peach/apple/pear |
Southern Belle allowed me to lay-out a tentative orchard on their new property.
Design is an iterative process and it is MUCH more productive to have a visual plan and then to move stuff around, grow-or-shrink it, adjust the content from that starting point. It is much easier to edit an existing plan than it is to create one from a blank sheet of paper. That first step is always the hardest.
The Phase-Zero plan is two rows of five trees. The rows have 20 feet between them and a 20 foot-wide buffer between them and the lawn and the farmer's field which is downwind...always a consideration because of herbicide drift. The plan has 12' between trees within the row.
The planting is 75 yards from the house and is shoe-horned into a bit of elevation (4') above the drainage feature that diagonally bisects their property.
Two peach trees, four apple trees and four pear trees are penciled in with the peaches at the (microscopically) higher end and the pears at the lower end. My expectation is that SB and HH will want six apples and only two pear trees. No worries. It is their orchard. I am just giving the toboggan a little starting nudge at the top of the hill.
The existing woody vegetation in the vicinity includes lots of Asian Honeysuckle, Staghorn Sumac, Blackberries, Hawthorn and one seedling apple tree of unknown quality.
I agree with a couple peaches to start with. They are a quick growing short lived tree, and will produce fruit a few years earlier than the apple or pear. They can be replaced later. I believe that commercial peach farmers replace their trees every 10 to 15 years, depending on the area and variety.
ReplyDeleteStarting with a plan is a good thing!
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of putting berries colinear with the five trees in a row? Medium height blackberries, blueberries, raspberries thick enough to create a hedge. Mowing made easier.
ReplyDeleteI like the way your initial plan sprang into a real life layout. Thanks, Joe.
Milton
Colinear as in connecting-the-dots or colinear as in parallel?
DeleteI like the idea of connecting-the-dots. There will be a lot of sunlight falling on the ground as the trees develop their canopies.
Quicksilver adores red raspberries and Polka looks like a good choice.
Thanks for the idea!