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Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Be nice


The above is a very badly drawn orchard, my orchard.

My father is going less frequently to the VA, so yesterday we went and wondered around the farm store. We ended up buying a pear tree {no partridge} and 2 more apples, as well as a blueberry, blackberry and 2 more grapes. Now I need to figure out were they should go. I don't want to put anything on the bottom of my drawing, under the waterway. The apple in the above scene might not be able to stay there due to the new house. The green and yellow represent open field, there is were we want to keep live stock, all this is on about 2 acres of my 5.

decisions decisions. . .

9 comments:

Tim Appleton (Applehead) said...

I'm jealous.

e4 said...

You might consider stealing some ideas from permaculture - "stacking" or "alley cropping" to let you use the same land for both livestock and fruit trees/shrubs/brambles. (But depending on your livestock, you may have to wait until it's established or plan carefully. Goats love blackberry and raspberry brambles...)

Here are a couple articles, if you're interested: one, two

Also (and please excuse if you know these things already - neophyte is a relative term) many fruit trees are not self-fertile, so you'd need at least two different varieties to get fruit. (Regular apples and crabs can pollinate each other.) And blueberries are super-picky about soil pH. They like very acidic soil, so you may need to add a bunch of peat moss or something similar. Somebody I work with just dug a trench and filled it with peat moss, with good success.

One more thing - I lost quite a few new fruit trees last winter due to mice and rabbits gnawing the bark all the way around. If you have furry wildlings that get peckish over winter, you may need some bark protection...

Sorry for the extra long comment. Just want to keep you from some of my mistakes. You get a clean slate every year in the veggie garden. Planting trees, not so much...

Crunchy Chicken said...

Ditto on the jealousy. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Tim, But see you already have all those trees, the one thing I dislike about prairie life, few trees.

e4, thank you. The drawing is what has been established and doing well. We have pirs that need pairs and so forth { this drawing is of only 2 acres, the matching apple is in front of my house, well within the proper range} I will look into those articles soon, thanks again for all the info. :)

Sorry, CC.

The Fool said...

Orhard...orchard...darn it, I thought you said "orchid." I was going to comment about your funny drawing of a flower...and then I find out it's my synapses...

:)

Billy said...

I really want to come out and visit when I am not so busy at work. I would love to see your place in the summer. I bet it's awesome. Wait, I just totally invited myself. Perhaps we should meet somewhere first? Do you like coffee?

Phelan said...

oh my wonderful F, you left yourself open for so many witty little jabs, but no, I will be nice as this is a family blog :)

Abba, I have invited you out before, it's all good. And I love coffee, remember I am a 90's city girl, grunde and coffee shops ruled my world at one point ;)

Tim Appleton (Applehead) said...

I guess I can't complain too much. I do have a couple trees here and there. some of them bear fruit, and mushrooms are a nice by-product.

April said...

I thought is was orchid when I first glanced at it too.

I want an orchard. Dang it.

I remember that grain elevator explosion, I have several friends that live in and around Haysville

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