I am also planting trees together in the “wrong way” only using another method. I am planting trees and bushes close to each other and hoping one outgrows the other. A example being a walnut over a standard size cherry over a dwarf plum over a ground cover. I am hoping to achieve a forest like appearance of food trees and resources by doing this.
If you notice in the initial pic closely there is alot of deer hair scattered everywhere. I asked each of my hunting buddies for their capes and hooves and whatever else scraps they had. My dogs scattered it everywhere and had a really good time with it. I was told by an old timer that this repels deer… so far so good. I have a fence and my dogs absolutely love this area so i think i am ok for now without cages. Time will tell.
Spacing is 10ft give or take.
The far right fence is full of black raspberries.
The far left fence is full of elderberries, raspberries and blackberries along with some boysens.
The far front of the fencing has honeyberries along with wild plums and persimmons.
There is a garlic bed at one corner of this area and a row of raspberries. Red and Yellow.
Concrete blocks are temporary… i had them anyways. I plan on enclosing this in wood after i harvest… wasnt sure it would work so this is my attempt at growing some garlic. I ended up putting in 3 other raised beds in other locations. So will fine tune my garlic growing after this.
The onions are Walking Onions. I was given 2 starts by hillbillyhort and they really enjoy my litttle box. I propagated them to fill in the area.
I really doubt that they will fail—unless it’s due to circumstances unrelated to the planting method. Any wrong way that works is right.
Being myself a wrongheaded fellow, I often do something very similar to this:
1.) Remove sod.
2.) Flip sod and arrange in a ring around hole left by sod removal.
3.) Place plant in hole. (I build a little cone of dirt in the center to place the plant on and arrange the roots around, careful to keep the crown well above surrounding ground level).
4.) Pile on garden soil, water in, add more soil as needed.
5.) Add mulch (often including cardboard, paper, etc. to kill out sod over a wider perimeter).
If I’ve got a big root system I’ll dig the hole out a little bit. With a small plant, no further digging; I never dig a hole much bigger than necessary for the root system in question—though I might extend trenches out into the surrounding sod (which will be killed in any event by sheet mulching) to accommodate overlong roots. I end up with a mound planting—and the crown will be above the surrounding ground, even with settling. I believe in always planting a little high.
In wet ground or with something like a peach, I may plant a little higher still, and lay down a surrounding square of cardboard (at least 4’ X 4’), on which I’ll pile more dirt to build a bigger berm.
Has worked well the past few years I’ve done it, and I see no reason why it won’t continue to work well.
Good luck with your project! I believe you will succeed.
Thank you! I am calling it ‘wrong’ because if i posted this on the FB group there would be a plethora of folks telling me how i did it wrong and why… i know with this group we all understand that sometimes there is a different way of doing things and usually are positive about how folks grow things.
Mostly i started this post to record it for myself… will be exciting to see the before and after regardless.
This is my front yard and i and my family have mowed it for nearly 40 years. My dad and I planted a peach seed and an apple seed where that Golden Delicious is living… and i remember they were the worst apples and peaches that i ever tasted. The trees eventually died.
I decided not to mow and have a front yard, side yards, or backyards anymore… i just grow things to eat in them.
Upcoming additions will be bird houses and feeders once the trees get bigger… i already have bluebirds that perch on that powerline and survey the area… im really really happy they want to hunt here.
I totally feel you! I’m trying to destroy my yard, one fruiting plant or vegetable planting at a time. If I end up never having to operate a lawnmower ever again, that’ll be fine by me!
I am trying garlic this year too. I looked up a video once they sprouted. Apparently I was supposed to separate the cloves. Oh well. See how not separating the cloves affects it I suppose.
Unfortunately, in my experience, even a stinky, decomposing deer carcass next next to my trees didn’t save it from bambi’s rampage. The only tactic in my experience that worked is 3D electric fencing (and even then small deer can sneak in).
im fudging a little bit… i still ‘mow’ sometimes. I bought a bagger mower and i put the clippings on the edges of my berry plants…
I grew tomatoes a couple of years ago and spread grass clippings at the bases of them and they grew out of control… i had a bad harvest but the plants went insane.
I plan on putting my grass clippings on corn this year… i also throw some to my worm pile once it cools down.
I high mowed this orchard last week in order to give the white clover a running start… it usually fills out the whole area with pure white clover.
I wouldn’t have said it was wrong, but I could see where perhaps some FB groups might.
I’ve done something similar to what you did, multiple times with peach trees. At the house where there aren’t terraces to plant on top of, I just bring it dirt from the farm in 5 gal buckets. About 15 buckets of dirt is about enough. I don’t even flip the grass over. I just dump the dirt on top of the sod, and plant in the dirt. The loose soil accelerates the growth of the trees.
Done the same thing at the farm. When a terrace is a bit low, I’ve just simply cut down the peach tree (rather than pull it out). Then set the new peach tree right on top of the fresh cut stump, then arrange dirt around the new tree, and water it in (if the dirt is dry).
I remember when I first started growing trees, I read lots of books about it. Many of them often repeated the old saw, “Dig a 10 dollar hole for a 5 dollar tree.” I started out following that advice by digging these huge holes to plant trees. Way bigger than what was required. Finally I figured out it has little impact on on tree growth. It does help some if the soil is loose a small diameter around the roots, but most of the time, it isn’t a big enough advantage to make it worth the effort, unless the soil in the root zone is super hard clay. Then I’d probably recommend running a tiller around the area for the new plantings.
For peaches, we dig the smallest hole we can get away with, and then prune the roots to fit. Just about every book would advise against this, but we’ve planted hundreds of peach trees this way, and they still grow fast. Though I probably wouldn’t advise this for most other fruit trees (i.e. apples pears, etc.).
The Facebook group I am in started out as people who knew what they were doing and devolved into out of state people giving horrible advice. It was warm for a week or 2 here in April and we had people posting about starting annuals like sunflowers and people were just saying go for it. We will have freezes here until May and they will all die but these out of state people don’t realize that. That is the same Facebook group that taught me how to grow lettuce from seed in CO a few years ago. In other words I would say the advice depends on the Facebook group. Even here some of us are more experimental. Just some of us have done the experiments before and failed.
“Pond”
It is currently full of tadpoles. Dug last fall. This area is for pollinators. It has everything but the kitchen sink sown or planted in it. Frogs will eat bugs etc.
Strawberry bed version 3.0
The plan is to have the cross section in woodchips. I want to be able to sit on a milk crate and pick berries. Fence is for my dogs… they ‘help’ way too much when im planting things.
I would be concerned that large apple and pear trees would not be anchored well enough in heavy winds. Maybe it’s not a problem depending on the rootstock used.
Actually the problem I have with apples and pears is that they have a flush of growth in the early spring, then they don’t grow much. Whereas peaches grow more like a weed all summer.
So, if roots are trimmed during planting on apples/pears, they just sit there. They don’t get much of the initial flush of growth and pretty much just sit there all summer, so that a year of growth is lost.
However peaches can be root pruned at planting. Peach trees operate more like a weed here. More like a wild lettuce.
The dog in the picture is Gertie… she is a Blue Heeler. 3 of my neighbors have gotten Heelers after seeing her in action. Only recommend getting one if you have alot of land and spend alot of time outdoors. Also family or someone at home at all times… they do not do well without people unless you start them off that way. Super smart and she knows everything about everything. She is a killer and has killed snakes, rabbits, squirrels, possums and coons. At first i had issue with it… but the other dogs took it to another level.
I also have two Australian Shepherds that are sisters. Fancy and Jolene. They are as close to having a wolf as you can get. They howl at night like wolves and its creepy as you can imagine. They hunt as a team and are cold blooded killers. They have killed everything that my heeler has with the exception of fawns. Last spring they drug 3 fawns home and ate them in the yard. They were only a year old so i imagine this year will be more. They also like to hunt moles… i have watched them listen at the ground and scratch up holes…they are relentless. They need more land than a heeler does and do not really protect me like Gertie does. They are always on duty and love to run and play and hunt all night long. Fantastic outside dogs… they are very good natured and family oriented. They are also very social with my heeler but not vice versa. Heelers like people not other animals.
I have fences around everything that i own that is food related… i found out the hard way that every fence needs a passage for my dogs… once they know their passages nothing is allowed in its perimeter or near the fences… they walk the fencelines and go in and out of the passages so regular that there are paths all along them.
Without dogs or fences i would have nothing but grass to mow. My deer even eat multiflora rose.
I am still a nature lover. But i now understand why Yellowstone needs wolves…
Perhaps it is wrong but like i said earlier i dont think i will need to cage my trees or bag my fruit. I think if any fool tries in my orchard they will be met with sharp teeth. I will be honest and say so if i get decimated.
