Eden's Rise, the tentative first steps

How does one go about planning an orchard? If you are clever and forward thinking you would probably start by taking soil samples on your piece of land. You would send these away for analysis and based on the results amend your soil for the right pH and nutrient balance required by the trees you want. Then if you find you have some waterlogged areas, you could consider getting in some tile drainage. For ease of planting the next step is determining the size of tree you want to plant and order enough for the whole acre.

If you are more of a scatterbrain you would probably do it like I have, which is not at all forward thinking nor clever.

But much more fun!

First, I measured the size of my field, noticed the direction of the slope, and then went ahead and let my imagination run wild. I’ve ordered 12 pomme fruit trees, 11 stone fruit trees, 9 grapes vines, 3 kiwi vines, 5 berry canes, 34 berry bushes, 2 rhubarb crowns, 40 asparagus crowns, and 75 strawberry plants  from a few different sources. Not many of those are the same full-grown size between varieties either. Because I’ve ordered so many different species it means I will have to treat every single tree like an individual. Soil that will be pleasing to my blueberries will not make my plums terribly happy, for example. The spacing between each tree is not as simple as it would have been if they were all trees of the same size either.

After ordering the plants, I went to the field and did my best to patch up an old fence that had fallen over. This will in no way stop a determined deer, but a new fence would put me back several thousand dollars  and would not be any better at deterring the determined deer. Apparently deer prefer to walk around obstacles rather than jump over them, so I am hopeful that despite being rusty and a little unstable, my fence will at least make the deer pause long enough to smell the blood meal or human hair that I plan to use as a secondary deterrent. If anyone has a dog, feel free to come walk it around the perimeter too!

With my brother’s help I installed posts that will serve for my grape and kiwi trellises (yet to be completed and summer is closing in!), and thanks to my step-father’s source of old pallets I’ve been building boxes for raised beds that will house my 75 strawberry plants (also woefully behind in this project!).

Winter’s cold hands are finally releasing their tight grip and it looks like spring is ready to run in and take its place. The trees could arrive any day now. This week I will be digging the holes where the trees will eventually stand. I have used coconut coir from a local greenhouse that I will be using to add organic matter to my heavy clay soil, and this will hopefully help to improve the drainage. I dug also dug a little ditch in the lower half of the field which should help drain excess water away from the young roots and allow for a better air/water ratio in the soil. Anyone who has ever drowned a house plant should have some idea how important this is!

The advantage of choosing so many species of plants is that at least something should flourish. And whatever that something is, I’ll plant more of it next year. The risk is at least spread out over different species and varieties. 

Here ends the dull planning and speculation of winter- here comes the work of spring!