I think one of the main purposes of your post was to try and drum up traffic for your blog, but I’m not sure insulting all Americans - or at least those who don’t plant flowers under their trees- by saying they have ugly orchards is the best way to do that. This very thread has a large and varied number of reasons why many people don’t do under-story plantings, so part of the answer to your question of why some Americans don’t do it is that they believe it’s not a wise horticultural thing to do. I respect your opinion that fruit trees look better with plants and flowers under them. But as a person who loves the clean look of an orchard with freshly mulched circles around the trees and nice short grass in the areas between them, it feels like you aren’t affording me and others the same respect for our preferences when you say they are all “ugly”. I hate to be the 4th post here to say it, but beauty IS in the eye of the beholder. I would never say you and your countrymen have ugly gardens because they don’t look like mine or what I consider attractive. Your style is just different from mine, and that’s ok. One of the most fun things about this web site is seeing the DIFFERENCES in how others do things. It wouldn’t be much fun if everyone here thought that trees needed to be a certain size and have certain things planted under and around them and so on. I personally am not even a big fan of espalier trees or I’d try to do some, but I love the passion of those who do, I enjoy seeing how different they look from my own, and really and truly would want to encourage you and others who like that look to have fun pursuing it. I just wish you could feel the same about how I grow my trees in my orchard. Whether it is your style or not, I don’t think it is ugly.
Anyway, your post certainly generated a lot of discussion and got us some good photographs to look at and I enjoyed a lot of the comments here. If I haven’t said it before, I do welcome you to this site. Its always nice having different members with different points of view…I just wanted to express mine after you expressed your. Thanks!
i plant herbs and flowers in our orchard but nothing around the base of my trees. doing so would give pests and disease a place to harbor and would lenghthen my inspection times. anyone have a favorite lavende variety? looking for a variety that will flower and release a nice fragrant odor.
Naomi it would be interesting to see some photos from your home orchard and some photos of what it common in your country. It would also be good to know what country it is. Gardening practices do reflect culture, but also both gardening practices and culture reflect climate. One of my all time favorite vegan athlete in Arizona. I suspect that you would appreciate his approach to gardening as well. However, there are many things he does that would be a bad idea to try in Georgia because he lives in a desert and I live a natural sauna. He actually needs to grow things that over top his fruit trees to protect them from the sun, and he needs to over crowd things to hold in humidity. I don’t have to worry so much about desiccation or even plants being scorched as much as he does. My biggest issue is fungal and bacterial diseases that take advantage of the heat and humidity.
Another thing that’s beginning to become popular in some parts of the US and Vegan Athlete’s video blog is an example of this are edible forests. Climates have a lot to do with how far one can go with this. I doubt it would work as well to have a dense edible forest in Georgia as it does in the Arizona desert. But when my orchard is more mature it will be forest like in some ways. The main foresty component I have is that my huckleberries ( Vaccinium elliottii) actually like some even though they do just fine in the sun as well. I have two big pecan trees in my yard. To take full advantage of the space I have about 30 huckleberry bushes planted under them. Here is a photo with the huckleberries in bloom. God bless.
I guess it’s kinda offensive to me to think someone would call another person’s orchard or yard ugly.
Perhaps it is best to assume it is the best they can do given their physical or financial or time constraints and let it go at that.
I had to laugh when I read about American Orchards being ugly, I have one of the ugliest orchards that can exist. I am happy to get fruit, any fruit let alone the ground or landscape around my trees look nice. 90 percent of my yard was bulldozed 30 years ago when my house was built which means I am dealing with hard clay soil. It takes a jack hammer to dig more than a foot deep in most of my yard. Thank you very much but I will take a good looking fruit tree preferably loaded with fruit vs a nice landscape any day of the week. If you got the land, the money and the time more power to ya’ unfortunately I lack all of the above.
I’m not really offended. And I’m dyslexic, talk about a spelling nightmare, that’s me! Typing that sentence out I misspelled dyslexic and nightmare, but I can tell when I look at it, so correct it.Grammar, well no hope there at all. We all have different skills.
Even though I’m not offended some are, so a poor choice of words for sure, maybe suggest ways to beautify your orchard, or a title like “simple ways to make your orchard standout.” I use strawberries for ground cover under one of my trees, but agree in general it doesn’t work for me either, my dog for one, would kick them out when he does his duty under my trees. I’m constantly putting the mulch back he kicked all over!
I think that making your garden, not just orchard beautiful has multiple benefits. You attract not only beneficial insects, but animals too, like humming birds which can eat thousands of insects a day. I for one, need them in my garden as it saves time and money. Certain plants work very well, and they should be talked about like sedums which are succulents so require little to no care yet attract bees more than many flowers. The only care I give it is to head the first flowers. They grow back with shorter stems and do not fall over.
Gardening can be a problem, like here, my wife trying to get her car in the garage. Houston we have a problem!
My back pretty much hurts all the time, I use a dolly for anything over 15 gallons.
Yeah I was in a head on crash, my discs all exploded. I cannot stand for more than 2 hours, still I’m not giving in, not stopping, just suck it up and move on. At least while I still can. I’m 60, so it’s not getting any easier! I still can do everything, just in shorter bursts. I’ll be roofing my cottage this spring. By myself, no help of any sort. I’m going to get some fishing done while I’m there too!! Look out walleyes!
LOL! I’m not sure how I got my wife to agree to that? Mostly figs, in the center is an African Blue Basil plant, a hybrid that can be kept alive, it’s under lights now. I think it’s 4 years old? To the far right is strawberries in window box type planters.
The basil is a pain, it has to be above 60F to bring out. It will die if below 50F. I lost a thyme plant, and A Mexican bush oregano plant this winter, I over watered the oregano. Not sure why the Thyme plant died? I don’t need it I have a Mexican oregano plant (not bush), and it’s better tasting, and easier to manage, under lights too.
