Did you ever see a rich person's orchard?

[BobVance]

@TNHunter

If I had 10M more

Having 10M doesn’t necessarily mean a ton of money to spend. It just means more money to invest. I think even at 20M I would still be investing most cashflow. Though in my case, investing more means buying more rental properties, which then means more space for trees, something I am always looking for, And it also doesn’t mean I wouldn’t spend more when seeing additional cashflow. As it is, I no longer think twice about buying as much fruit as I think we’ll eat. Even spending ~$10 a pound on cherries at the start of the season when they were most expensive. I did pass on some $23/lb strawberries, as it just felt like a waste. But I would have bought them if I really really wanted them. 25 years ago, I would have been more restrained.

Given unlimited money I’d have a very large greenhouse. No more farming outside for me . I have to imagine that most things are easier indoors, aside from having to water all the time. Actually, I suspect I’d still have some outdoor orchards, as well as a nice industrially sized (1/4 acre?) greenhouse. But the outdoor orchards would be much less densely packed than what I have now. It makes things a lot easier to maintain.

@alan

Yes I’ve seen and managed scores of them. Most of my customers are high double digit or triple digit millionaires- but my orchard is the coolest by my reckoning. A dedicated hobbyist whose in their orchard every day can have a better orchard than the ones I’m paid thousands to manage.

I think there are two aspects- the sheer variety and utility vs the orderly spacious beauty. I’ve seen both Alan’s orchard and some of his clients and while both are great, I’m most jealous of one of his clients. Not that I wouldn’t want to plant a ton of different things there, but just having wide open rolling lawns (100% full sun!) with widely spaced fruit trees is just a beautiful sight.

This thread has pics of both Alan’s trees and several of the orchards that he has planted. The link will bring you to some pics of the spacious park-like one I was so impressed with.

Orchard Visit with Alan

I may be over-saturating the group with pics, but here are a few more from Alan very kindly allowing me to tag along with him in one of the nicest orchards I’ve been in. It is extremely low density, almost like a park. I counted ~35 trees in approximately 3/4 of an acre (measured with a ruler from Google’s terrain view). I told my daughter about it and she correctly noted that they have less than half the trees as me in more than twice the space. I want to cram everything in, but doing it th…

At the rentals, I tend to space trees at least 10-12 feet, which really helps keep things open and is the closest I’ve come to replicating the park-like effect. Maybe 20’ would be even better, but I can’t bring myself to waste so much space. Here’s example pics from 3 different properties:
5 Jujubes in front:

3 jujubes, a persimmon and a watermelon patch:

4 newly planted Chinese chestnuts (and a spot where an ornamental tree was removed to make space):