The orchard is now open

As I sit here typing this, I can remember few times being as tired and completely satisfied as I am now. This weekend we managed to plant 9 fruit, nut and berry trees, numerous edible bushes, two ornamental trees (for fun), and a handful of edible herbs. It's a food forest in 24 hours or less!

The past two years I've measured, sketched, erased and re-sketched the food forest of my dreams. The plans are the result of many influences, including the Permaculture class I took last year taught by Toby Hemenway, and numerous books including Gaia's Garden by Toby, How to Make a Food Forest by Patrick Whitefield and the Raintree Nursery catalog and their helpful staff.

You may remember the story of our driveway removal project from last year. After the removal of 32 tons of concrete, we had finally exposed 1500 sq. feet of "dirt". Not the kind of dirt you could plant in, but dirt nonetheless. From there, we set to work building boxes, hauling in soil, and building up the area in preparation for our food forest. Today, we're finally seeing the plan come to life with the installation of cherries, apples, pears, almonds, apricots, peaches, figs, currants, hops, mulberries, kiwi, blueberries, tea and various other plants I'm probably forgetting to mention. In 3-5 years time, our effort will being paying off with bountiful harvests.

Here are a few photos. It's hard to get a good picture since most of the plants are still dormant. I'll be uploading more pictures as they come out of dormancy.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

The project is far from complete. This year, we're under planting our orchard with many annual vegetables because we lack the space to put them elsewhere. Starting next year, the portager, which I'm building on the other half of the land salvaged from the driveway should be finished which will allow us to add many more understory bushes and ground covers in the orchard.

Enjoy ~