Permaculture and Orchard Layout

After our late night at the airport, I got up to more rain on Friday morning. I went in to see the sheep, and a babydoll came up to me and let me scratch her head briefly. First time on our farm I’ve been able to touch a babydoll! Yippee!

Then she promptly shook herself like a dog, and the other two lambs joined her.

I thought about the reactions of our farm animals. The sheep warily avoid me (usually). The chicks and guineas flee from me, squawking loudly. During the rain, the goats ignore me (as if I’m responsible for the weather). The pigs, however, stalk me. If I so much as step outside the barn and into their line of sight, no matter where they are, they come running, snorting with glee.

Such enthusiasm would delight me more if they didn’t bite my pant legs when I go in to get the slop bucket and bring it back. I actually try to let Phil do it: stepping over the electric fence with two over eager animals salivating for me—I me, the slops—is not an adrenaline rush I enjoy.

I understand why farmers used to build troughs just inside the fence and pour the slops over the top.

In the early afternoon, FedEx brought me 405 rodent guards for the little trees. As the driver backed out our drive, he bottomed out and was thoroughly stuck. (In placing a hydrant at the northwest corner of our land, Phil and Butch cut a trench across the driveway. That trench appeared to be properly filled, until we got five or six inches of rain in a couple of days. Then the trench became treacherous.) I was thankful that the driver hadn’t made the delivery the day before, when Phil was still out of town! Phil was able to get our truck and tow him out and send him on his way.

With our trees shipping early next week, Phil and I tried to lay out the orchard on paper. It was not a happy task. Uncharacteristically, when I ordered the trees, I just assuming they would all fit, rather than actually checking the specifics. After all, I had charts that claimed that, with proper spacing, an orchard could fit 300 or 400 trees to the acre, and I knew we had over an acre. I neglected to thoroughly research the various rootstocks I ordered, though; small trees with dwarfing rootstocks fit many to the acre; as trees get larger and rootstocks more vigorous, the number of trees per acre decreases dramatically.

Besides that, what I didn’t realize until this last week was that, while the 300+ apple trees probably will fit, more or less, in our upper meadow, the 40 cherries and the 40 peaches, the ten plums and ten pears (and three apricots) I ordered all have different, larger spacing needs. It could be that our entire cleared area becomes dedicated to fruit trees, which is not what I envisioned, nor what I hoped for.

I fell asleep frustrated.

I woke up energized to try to get the orchard to work. And, really, I shouldn’t be too bummed about fruit trees. There’s a lovely philosophy of homesteading called “permaculture,” which seeks to make all things on a farm have multiple uses. For example, the humble laying hen. She provides eggs for food, and, eventually, her body for stewing. If allowed on pasture, she sanitizes the pasture by scratching through manure and eating the worms and eggs. She fertilizes the land herself with her manure.

Furthermore, permaculture seeks to “stack” the land. They might have nut trees growing tallest, with fruit trees under them, and berry bushes below the fruit trees. Then sheep can graze around the berries and maybe chickens run through after the sheep.

Although I have not read extensively about permaculture, I think it an elegant (and invigorating!) way to farm. And an orchard is a good thing to stack. We’ll have the trees, with the sheep running underneath. Then maybe we can plant raspberries between the trees, or, for the first few years anyway, a garden in the center of the rows. I have heard that peas and potatoes work well.

I spent much of the day figuring apple tree spacing. What rootstocks I have; what ideal spacing they need; what the harvest dates should be. And although I don’t think I have accomplished all I wish, I think it’s better than I feared yesterday night.

Besides Phil towing the van out of its muddy trap, the other thing worth mentioning today is that this is the start of hunting season. About 7:30am we heard a shot nearby, and Phil said, “Sounds like Dennis is up.” Shortly after, we got a call from a very pleased Dennis, who had shot an 8-point buck. (He considered stuffing the head until he had a quote for $450. The triumph will live in his memory, but not on his wall.)

All day long we heard shots, and trucks with dog kennels in their beds drove slowly up and down our road all day.

For my part, I hope the deer population is quickly reduced: they are eating down the oats intended for my sheep!