37. The Orchard

If you’ve followed this blog with any regularity, you know that I have a small, permaculture orchard that grows a little bit with each season, and with the close of this main growing season, I wanted to give a quick update on what’s going on in that space.

I’m winning at orcharding, and I’m losing at it.

Some quick background: um, fruit trees with no chemicals is not easy. There’s a lot to learn, as far as management — pest mitigation, disease and fungal identification, not to mention when and how to prune. Also, like people loving fruit, bugs do, too. My first full year keeping an orchard has introduced me to all kinds of new information, which has been a little overwhelming. I guess I take for granted just how much there is to know about growing food when the market garden part of that equation seems so intuitive to me, as though there was never a time when I didn’t know what kinds of bugs liked brassicas, or how to rotate a crop to take advantage of gifts plants leave in the soil for other plants.

I have apple scab, rust, and probably a host of other issues that need to be addressed as I continue to learn more about orchard husbandry. Wifery?

Either way, the small orchard has expanded to cover about an acre, with different 25 varieties of fruits and nuts. This year, I was able to harvest three fruits: peaches, pears, and apples. Next year, I expect to be able to actually eat and sell some of those fruits, and the year after that, I should be able to add cherries, almonds, and plums to the list of marketable fruits. Also, I’ve killed a bunch of trees: two pears, an apple, two cherries, two plums, and two peaches (one of which was an oopsie with the mower — small trees and tall clover do not mix).

So what do I have?

Well…

Pears — Keiffer, Ayers, Anjou, Moonglow, Chojuro, and Bartlett

Peaches — Early Elberta and Belle of Georgia

Apples — Winesap, Pink Lady, Gala, Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Franklin Cider, Cortland, Arkansas Black, Fuji, Cox’s Antique Orange Pippin

Cherries — Bing Sweet, Antique Giant Sweet, Montmorency Pie

Plum — Methley and Santa Rosa

Almond — Hall’s Hardy

Hazelnut — American Hazelnut

The above, in addition to the blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, feels like a win, though. If I can learn more and do more in the late winter/early spring to support healthy growth and battle the fungus and bugs, then the orchard in 2022 should be a thing to behold.