Pictures of your orchard today

Just checked, out of curiosity . . . and Ison’s has Granada, Afganski and Salavatski - also Wonderful. They are sold out for this season - but I’m sure you can get them in the fall.
Planting Justice has 56 varieties!!! And here is one that I am not familiar with - supposedly disease resistant. Screen Shot 2022-06-28 at 10.45.07 PM

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I’ve got herds of deer. My initial attempt at shading was a really dumb idea. I planted field peas in the same spot with the pawpaw seeds. Simple and cheap right? We’ll… turns out deer really like bean plants. So in addition to mowing down the shading, they probably would have nipped the pawpaw sprouts as well. So out went the beans and in went the elaborate cages.

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Getting some of the landscape fabric down finally.

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Just spent the day with @PomGranny in Chesapeake and her fabulous orchard. I was amazed by the amount of fruit she has in her backyard.
In addition to being a wonderful hostess, she is a dear dear friend. I think the pics are of some enormous Belle of Ga peaches and a Grimes golden tree.

Thank you Karen!!

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Fabulous!

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Wonderful looking fruit trees!

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I have garden/orchard/food forest areas on 3 sides of my house. This one is on the north side.

It finally rained some this evening and after I walked down our driveway to get the mail and took this picture. Something nice about the view of garden area after a rain.

On the far right past the okra… my compost piles and a new young persimmon tree i found just recently.

On the right my veggie garden growing mostly okra and tomatoes (so far) this year… then past that my illini blackberries… and past them my early mc apple.

Center… a bed with some young blueberry bushes and strawberries growing together. Past that… my mulberry graft… still growing like crazy… past that a 2 in one planting of eu plums… then my seedless concord grapevine.

Left… my older blueberry bushes… and past them a V-trellis of raspberries.

Lots of good stuf to eat on that side of the house.

TNHunter
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So neat. Everything smells good in the garden after a rain!

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2 new additions New Zealand lemonade trees 1 grafted to a Ne Zealand lemonade roots and 1 grafted to sour orange roots



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Steve, how many of that variety are you growing? 9 ? Looking good.

My large inground NZL died this spring leaving me with 2 trees on sour orange and 1 grafted on an NZL seedling. If these 2 grow I will have 1 more on sour and NZL roots.

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@TNHunter what’s your arrangement on the two. Do you find they do well together? Since you mulch heavily, how do you work around the strawberries, or do you find they push through?

@Rosdonald — I have strawberries planted that bed on the north side of my house, and in that really long bed I made on the south side of my house. The ones on the north side that bed has been mulched with pine bark mulch (fine or chunky) over the years, and they have done well in either (both the strawberries and blueberries).

On the south side, they were originally mulched with deep hay, but this year that was changed over to pine bark mulch, and they have worked fine either way.

You would think that pine bark mulch especially the larger bark pieces might stop runners from rooting, but NOPE… they still root just fine. I still have to pull runners to keep them from getting too thick.

The blueberry bushes in that one bed are small, and I probably should have not let them try to fruit for a few years… but i did not… and they have grown very little. The strawberries are about to overtake them.

At our Lowes you can get regular pine bark nuggets (larger chunks) and also Fine Pine Bark mulch, much smaller pieces. I really like the fine ones… but they usually run out of them pretty quick. Others must like them too.

I think they are ideal for mulching something like blueberries or strawberries.

Now I have a HUGE pile of wood chips, provided my my local HWY dept… so I will be trying that on them next spring.

ps… when I planted those strawberries and young blueberry together in that bed… I thought in a few years the blueberries may shade them out… but that has not been a problem at all yet.

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Thanks so much for the information @TNHunter my strawberries are in need of a better home and I was interested in your companion plan.

I have been working consistently on my berry patch conversion. Digging, mulching, compost, making use of some plants I already have. Working on pH, soil quality. Coming up with a short term trellis plan using ,t bars (actually v bars)

Hope to have fall pictures. Feeling productive when I can get out in the heat.

Thanks again!
Regina

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@Rosdonald … on the south side i have a long food forest bed… 90 ft long…and on the south east end of it i have a seedless che planted.

And… have strawberries planted all around it and they have done very well.

The che has no limbs for like 2 or 3 ft… and then the limbs that do come out sort of arch up. The strawberries have done particularly well in this location on all sides of that che.

This bed has a north side and south side… and the strawberries do best on the sunny south side.

In sections of the bed where i have goumi and raspberry planted… in the middle of the bed… i originally started strawberries on the north and south sides of the bed… but they did not get enough sun on the north side. I eventually moved all strawberries to the south side

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me too.
Seems like the large ones get all nasty and full of termites and ants ‘in no time’.

This is good information to know

Nadia Cherry Plum, with no thinning, spraying, or pruning this year. Minimal watering:

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There is so much fruit to eat! Its beautiful!

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