As orchards mature maintenance becomes easier. We settle into a certain routine that works for us. Grasses, trees, and wildlife are established and working in harmony. Here are a few pictures from today of the pond and floor of the orchard . A storm is on the way now. The ground has drastically improved since I bought it many years ago! The water is the life blood of the new orchard. The leaves continue to make the soil more rich all the time.
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This is part of the orchard this summer and as you can tell once pears are established they are hard to beat. The leaves fall every year and enrich the soil while the roots continue to loosen and decompact the clay 
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My electric fences are proving effective at keeping deer, groundhogs, and coons out of my gardens. Three wires on the home orchard, woven electric fence backed up with low 1/2" chicken wire on the vegetable garden out at our rural land. Ground squirrels of some sort are still an issue in the vegetables, as they burrow under the fence, but with the bumper crops this summer they weren’t that much of an issue. Most fruit items at the rural acreage are doing well, whereas the ones at home struggle in our sandy, poor soil with watering issues due to steep terrain and poor well pressure. Buying that piece of fertile rural land was a great blessing. We now have a well there, and I can access the items with my pick-up truck to put free municipal mulch around them. At home I have to carry mulch by hand up a steep hillside with steps in it, so you can imagine how much of that gets done! Shade is also an issue at home. The main disadvantage with the rural acreage is the 13 mile drive to get there, but it is a scenic relaxing drive at least.
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