Mapping Out the Orchard
Now that the irrigation, fencing, and paths are in, it is so amazing to see what I drew on graph paper turn into reality! Using wooden stacks and string, Andy and I started mapping out the rows for our future orchard. Having the irrigation helped immensely as we used it to determine the location of each row. Things shifted a little bit from the drawing as we expected they would. It took us a couple of false starts to finally get the mapping mojo going. But, once we found our rhythm, it was easy to make the needed adjustments.
As was in the drawing, we will have three rows of trees. Each tree is spaciously placed within the rows. The rows themselves have a good deal of room between them, so much so that if we wanted to add more trees later, we could plant two additional rows! For now, we are going to stick with our original plan as I will be the one managing the orchard and harvesting the fruit. We did, however, add two more peach trees, as there was room at the end of two rows to do so. Given that Palisade is known for its peaches this small addition felt like the right choice!
Luckily, I was able to add the trees to my current order and so come April, I will have a total of 13 fruit trees delivered to Posh Gardens! The orchard will be home to:
Three Apple trees (Honey Crisp, Ambrosia and Roxbury Russet (aka the Putnam apple)
Two Pear trees (D’Anjour and Flemish Beauty)
Two Cherry trees (Bing and Rainer)
Two Apricot trees (Goldrich and Goldcot)
Four Peach trees (Redhaven and Cresthaven – two each)
Prior to ordering the trees, I mapped out the different harvest times for each variety to ensure I wasn’t harvesting everything at the same time. So, in about three years, I should have continuous fruit produce starting around the end of June with Bing cherries and continuing through the end of September with Flemish Beauty Pears! I enjoyed working out the schedule and the folks at Van Wells Nursery in Washington state were impressed that I did my homework prior to ordering. I might be a novice farmer/market gardener, but I do know how to research. I can thank my Art History degree for that!
Once we finished staking the rows, we also marked where the observation benches will go as well as Andy’s beehives and the storage shed for his bee equipment. One section mapped, next up the Vegetable beds!