Starting our orchard
We have (finally) begun to plant our little orchard which is the first step to our building an edible-food-forest-based space at the back or our property. We have planted 4 varieties of semi-dwarf apples, 3 varieties of semi-dwarf pears, 2 dwarf cherry trees, 2 female and 1 male hardy kiwi vines, and 3 currant bushes. These have been caged to, hopefully, prevent our ever-present deer population from munching on them.
Getting ready. The bareroot trees are lying on the ground waiting patiently.
The newly planted orchard! Those are our top bar bee hives in the centre.
The first cherry blossom!
We still have an everbearing mulberry, 3 gooseberry bushes, male and female sea buckthorn bushes, a gogi berry, 2 yellow raspberries and several red raspberry canes (thanks Dad!), and 2 paw paws to plant. We'll plant the paw paws next to the chicken coop as they are pollinated by flies. All these trees and bushes were purchased from Whiffletree Nursery (http://www.whiffletreefarmandnursery.ca) after several great conversations and a long on-farm consultation with Steve Leroux (formerly of Green Barn Nursery in Quebec) who is working to spread the word about edible landscaping (http://www.treehustler.ca).