Here at Whispering Oaks Farm the land is mostly a big blank slate. Sure, we have acres of woods, but as far as the cleared land is concerned, we just have to use our imagination and decide how we would best like to use this land. One of the very first things we have decided to put in is an orchard as it will take a few years for the trees to produce any fruit for us. And we really want to get started growing our own food.
By chance I met one of our neighbors just over a mile down the road who used to have a thriving nursery business but had to close it due to a back injury. Art still has dozens of trees and was happy to sell them to us at quite a discount. But he asked us to wait until the severe cold weather was over so he could assess the buds on the trees to determine which trees were in the best condition before we came over to his place to buy them.
Jeremy came along with us and helped to load 13 young trees into the trailer behind Joel's truck.
Now comes the fun part....ha! While I laid out the orchard, Joel and Jeremy started digging....
....and digging.....
......and finally, planting. Joel is putting in a plum tree here. We were excited to see that it is already in bloom with pretty white flowers up and down each branch.
We decided to put the orchard up near the road where the large grape arbor is already established. The old granddaddy pear tree is there as well, so it just seemed to make sense to arrange the new trees around what already existed.
It's difficult to see in this pic but we arranged the trees by variety in staggered rows, 5 different kinds of apples, 1 crabapple, 1 plum, 2 more pears, 3 peaches, and a sour cherry tree.
.....and we're still digging and digging....this is the last row planted and it was the peach tree row. The guys did all the heavy digging and I got down on my hands and knees to position each tree and pat in the dirt around each root ball. Roots don't like air pockets around them, so we wanted to make sure that there weren't any.
After moving to the farm in the dead of the coldest winter in ages, we are really thrilled to have warm sunny weather. And we appreciate seeing trees with buds and flowers starting to bloom.
Now that all the trees are staked up it's easier to see them, isn't it? Yup, that's my Tahoe doing double duty as a farm truck. We had to make a separate trip into town to the co-op to buy the fence posts and twine to stake the trees, so, I just pulled right on into the field to unload everything.
So now we have 2 rows of fruit trees on either side of the grape arbor. We ended up spraying the trees with the most vile smelling spray I've ever encountered. It's supposed to smell and taste so horrible that the deer won't want to nibble on our newly planted trees. Hmmmm, I'll have to let you know if it works as we watch the trees over the next year.
The first year or so is when the trees are vulnerable because the deer can just reach out and eat them down to a nub. If the trees get a chance to grow a bit taller, then the deer can only nibble on the lower branches. Fortunately these trees already have a pretty good head start as they are already a few years old and most are well over 5 feet.
On my way up to the house I spotted a shot of yellow in the front flower bed. Low and behold, our first tulip is blooming! It beat the daffodils and lone hyacinth out back by a day. The very next day the hyacinth finally bloomed white.
It was actually 76 degrees here yesterday and is supposed to be even warmer today. The breeze is almost constant and I enjoyed a tall glass of iced coffee out under the pavilion and read my book while lounging in one of the adirondack chairs. Yes, I'm glad winter is over.....looks like Spring is here to stay. Yippee! Let the outdoor festivities begin!
Muddy knees,
Debbie
