We still need to decide the fruit and nut trees, and fruit bushes and brambles to get. Obviously we won't purchase until we have the property, have moved in, and marked where things can go. Meanwhile, I can look, right? Here's the plan for nut trees:
-1 heartnut
-1 butternut
-3 pecans (2 of 1 kind and 1 of another)
-3 english walnuts (1 of 3 dif kinds)
-3 almonds (2 of 1 kind and 1 of another)
-3 chestnuts (2 of 1 kind plus a pollinator)
-3 filberts (2 of 1 kind and 1 of another)
We want the "orchard" in the front of the house ... along the driveway. There's about an acre, but still... sure hope we have room! Some of these trees get 30-40 feet tall. PLUS we need to fit in the following fruit trees:
-4 5-in-1 dwarf apple trees
-4 apple trees (2 yellow delicious, 2 other)
-3 5-in-1 dwarf pear trees
-3 pear trees (2 bartlett, 1 other)
-3 fruit-cocktail (plum, nectarine, peach, apricot)
Fruit from the fruit cocktail tree is pictured.
Then there's the columnar "colonnade" trees that I have had good experience with. These are very narrow 8-10' trees with full-size fruit. Because they don't get wide and can be planted about 4 feet apart. These will go closer to the house for easy picking! From Starkbros.com...
-2 crimson spire apple (red skin w/white flesh)
-2 emerald spire apple (green skin w/golden blush)
-2 ultra spire apple (tart red)
-2 crimson rocket peach (yellow flesh)
Can you tell we love fruit? I'll be making a lot of applesauce, plus we'll put lots in cold storage for livestock fodder. The pears will be canned as my kid could eat several a day! We decided on the fruit cocktail trees because those are fruits that we eat sparingly - after we eat our fill of fresh and bake/can them, they'll be dehydrated for winter-cooking! (We'll also dehydrate some pears and apples.)
The house that we have the offer on faces the west, with the driveway from west to east. We'll plant the taller trees along the north-side of each side of the driveway, and the shorter (probably fruit trees) beside them on the south side. We also want to line the outer edges (perimeter) of our property with elderberry bushes (which can grow up to 8-10 feet tall) and cherry bushes. Gonna have to figure this out because at the moment, I can't remember how much room is on each side of the driveway.
Then, we still need to find room for 2 weeping willow trees, which grow VERY tall. My plan is to use them to shade the workshop and house (which divide the front and back yards) and also so I can weave the willow slips into baskets.
I have a separate place for the fruit bushes and brambles and vines, like grapes, blueberries, kiwi, raspberry, blackberry, cranberry and... ok, I know I'm forgetting something!
Nope, still no news on house. Hopefully, any day now!
3 comments:
a piece of free advice: Don't plant trees that shade your driveway, or anywhere else you need to remove snow (sidewalk, ...)
I keep hoping my neighbors evergreen will die, but no luck so far, so my ice chipping tool is still kept busy here in Denver.
And another thought: fruit that is not picked (windfalls) are just as messy as dog-poo, if you step on them. I think you should do some calculations to check if your harvest is going to be too big to handle.
Good thinking about shading the driveway. We could put the taller trees completely on the north side of the driveway (there's enough room where it won't shade the neighbor) and the dwarf trees and berry and holly bushes on the southside.
No, we won't have too much of a harvest to use. We'll have plenty of animals who will eat the windfall, and what is rotten will go into the compost pile. Good idea, tho, as will have to add to Kid's chore list to check daily (during appropriate times) for windfall to gather.
Thanks! Vikki
You might want to reconsider planting on the south side of the driveway - the sun is lower in the winter. Even a 6 foot bush will shade a significant portion of your driveway, and a 12 foot dwarf will block even more. Just go outside around noon, and see what I mean. If you have a row of plants (going east-west), the noon sunshine will be the best case for the ice-free zone.
You could put short trees in front of tall trees on the north side of the driveway. If you really need those trees planted on the south side, well, I find a certain mindless satisfaction in the process of chipping the driveway ice and compacted snow. I don't enjoy it, exactly, but it does provide me with the illusion of having accomplished something.
I guess I've beat on this long enough - bring on the next dead horse.
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