How to Plant These Trees?

Friday morning we decided to gather materials for tree planting, so that whenever we get the backhoe or other machinery, we’ll be ready to backfill. Sadly, the thick layer of leaves that fell in October appears to have gone with the wind, as there is now a 1” layer of leaves, with about ½” layer of leaf mold underneath. Then red clay soil. How many acres of ½” leaf mold would we have to scrape clean in order to get 12 to 18 cubic feet of muck per tree? The equation staggers the mind.

We reassessed. I should say, I shut down and began to read to the boys, while Phil looked again at different tree planting methods. He realized that Michael Phillips in The Apple Grower recommends a 3’ diameter hole, dug down to 16 inches, then backfilled with the same dirt. So whether we follow the super-awesome-lot-of-work method of tree planting, or the standard tree planting, we’ll have to dig a 3’ diameter hole. But we like the idea of pipe in the bottom of the hole in order to introduce air into the hole (change the barometric pressure?), and we like the layer of rocks in order to increase the magnetic pull on the roots. (See the full planting method here .) So even if we backfill with the same dirt, we think it’s worth it to dig the hole deeper.

And maybe we’ll buy in compost. Or maybe a mix. I read somewhere that a chestnut grove calculated their costs at about $30 per planted tree. It could be that we get to that eventually.

That made me a bit upset—how long will it be before this orchard pays for itself? Well, I found some figures on approximate yields for the different trees we bought. I calculated we have the potential to grow about 38K pounds of apples; 12K pounds of cherries; and about 6K pounds mixed between peaches, plums, pears, and apricots. That’s a lot of fruit we’ll have to figure out how to sell.

But first we have to grow it, and before that we have to plant the trees, so we’ll take it a step at a time.

After the leaf mold/how to plant lengthy discussion, Phil went to measure the perimeter of our land, in order to calculate how many cattle panels and T-posts we need for perimeter fencing on this side of Hog Creek. It’ll be about 3500 linear feet. It took Phil about three hours to hack through some of the brambles along the creek, but he was thrilled to actually walk the perimeter of our property. Isaiah stuck with him, holding the measuring line.

I started out measuring the line, but the baby woke up in the trailer, so I went back. As I returned to the house, though, I realized that the sheep AND the goats were bleating at me very insistently. Now the animals don’t usually call to me, so I stopped and tried to pay attention to them and their needs. The mineral bucket hadn’t been refilled since we returned, so I got some minerals for them.

They ate 9 cupfuls between the seven of them. I couldn’t believe it. I held minerals in my hand, and they licked them off. I gave the goats their minerals and the sheep looked on enviously. I gave the sheep their minerals (similar to goat minerals, but without the copper that’s toxic to sheep) and the goats charged the sheep. I put minerals in the bucket and the Babydoll sheep knocked it over to get to them. They all seemed happier after their glut, though.

While feeding the minerals, all the birds vanished into their house. I looked up to spot five raptors circling slowly overhead. Phil found four dead birds around their house (the children were playing in the house and came across one—blech!). I wonder, though, if the other five or ten missing birds vanished to the predators in the sky.

The other noteworthy thing today was that Abigail sat on my lap and listened to the entire book The Light at Tern Rock. It’s 62 pages about a lighthouse, and we saw and climbed a lighthouse on our trip at Thanksgiving. I was amazed, though; when Abigail first came, she listened to board books and picture books. And yesterday she just made a dramatic jump in her listening ability. Hooray!