Plotting the Orchard

Mostly pictures, post too long for email

We finally had a 40F+ day, April 08! I can’t drive into the property at the access, so I’m snowshoeing in from the road. There is a wetland on the other side of those trees in the upper left; on the other side of the wetland is where the orchard will be. *

Simple tools: some 5ft rebar for posts, a hand maul, a 300ft measuring tape, about 750 ft of mason’s line, a shovel I probably don’t need, water bottles, a sled and snowshoes.

Facing NE. That dark vegetation in the middle is willow, roughly in the center of the wetland. The wetland extends north, through that alley in the woods in the upper left, to a more expansive wetland where there is an old WPA ditch running through the far NW corner of the property. There is standing water in the wetland in wet years, none late in summer in dry years. The orchard will be in that corner beyond the willow and that small patch of paper birch trees. The next few years a lot of the soil of that wetland will be moved to the orchard. That is ten thousand years of compost.

Facing north. East-West wood line, wetland and shadow of the birch patch to the left

The view from the woods in the corner where the woods meets the wetland. The trailer and old homestead site is upper right just beyond that gentle rise.

About 20inches of snow here in the corner. There is 30+ elsewhere. Trudging around in this wet heavy snow with snowshoes is a workout. Occasionally the snow resting on heavy grass collapses, the snowshoe cuts in and I face-plant. It is not easy standing back up without ski poles. I might have waited for the snow to melt, but I needed to get outside and do something.

Setting the corner post.

Walking the mason’s line and tape east along the wood line on average about 35ft from the woodland edge, 150ft. I’m not using a compass, just working according to the wood line, but also my memory of where the sun sets on the solstices, and the property lines.

I tried to set the third post, 120 ft straight south of the second post, by guessing. The tape is closer to 90deg. I was about 15ft off target.

This is a simple way to set a 90deg corner, I learned in construction. I set a post on the north south line 30ft from the second post, another on the east west line 40ft out. Fifty feet is the distance between the posts. This method works for 30-40-50ft, 3-4-5ft, or 3-4-5in, or I suppose for international readers, 3-4-5meters. In this case it is exact enough.

Facing SE. That terminus of trails center left is where I thought corner #3 would be. Dog is where it is. Those trees upper right is the old homestead.

Facing east. Post number four heading back west toward the wetland, 110ft, using the 3-4-5 method again from post three, also measuring 120ft from the woods edge line.

For the fifth post I started again at the first, corner post, using the 3-4-5 method, coming out 80ft.

Facing NW and the corner where the woods meet the wetland, the main wetland to our left, post number four in the front, facing the fifth and first corner post and the sled by the first corner post, upper right. It is a 150x120 rectangle with the SW corner cut off, where a gate will be, facing the wetland.

Facing NW and SE post #3, center right at the end of that winding snowshoe path. As you can see it is a very gentle slope right to left towards the birch patch and the wetland. The NE corner #2 far right is the high point, where later this summer I will set a sand point well with a pump and an elevated 275 gallon tote, attached to a drip irrigation system.

Someone asked me recently, why are you building an orchard? Because I can, I said. In my city lot I planted more than a dozen fruit trees and let another five mulberry volunteers mature. The last year there, I had 450 peaches from two different trees. It was a long-time dream to pick a peach from my own tree. Best peaches ever. It will be 4-5 years or more before I pick another such peach. If I ever do here it will be because I have created a great deal of soil in this orchard, a combination of moving soil from the wetland and composting field and forest material. This soil is very sandy and it is very hard to grow stone fruit - peaches, plums, apricots, cherries - this far north in sand hills; the soil is simply not rich enough. I will have to make it so.

The woods will also act as a wind break, from the worst of the north winter wind.

Call this orchard too, an investment on a healthy future.

The outline is where a fence would be, but I am wrapping each tree with a grow-tube, 6ft tall, protecting the trees from deer the first two years at least, while growing a nice straight trunk. I will have to fence the shrubs, vines and canes more immediately.

The company I am getting most of the trees from was going to mail them on the 11th of April. I asked them to put that off please. Bulk of the trees arrive around May 08. I want to have the holes ready, and the bed for the vines, canes, shrubs prepared. Four straight days in the fifties-sixties this week, maybe some rain. Hopefully by next weekend, I can start digging.

* For the record, and for those who are new here, this is the family 80 acres, about 30 minutes north of where we live, my father purchased in 1978 for $8,000. It is a kind of forgotten place, very low population density, marginal farm land, extensive bogs and lots of mosquitos. If not for fossil inputs most of the land for many miles around would revert to wild. I plan on spending the next decade transforming this 80 much like I did my city lot with it’s 20 fruit trees and 200+ species of plants and fungi.