First(?) Forest Garden Consultation

[George Collins]

While we were planting walnuts, my consultee came to the field and informed me that about 11:00 today his trees from Willis Orchards arrived via Fed Ex. Looks as if Sunday will be tied up helping him with his forest garden.

Once more, it's go-time.

Guy,

The recommendation you made re: the spacing of the apple trees will be the one we are going with so thanks for your advice.

[George Collins]

Guy, the spacing we ultimately went with was 35' between apples and 30' between an apple and a pear.

I arrived at my friend's house at first light and he was up and ready to go. We were placing marking flags shortly thereafter. Once all the flags were in the ground, we unwrapped the trees and started digging holes. We planted all 24 of the trees that he had ordered from Willis Orchards plus an Owari Satsuma that he had gotten from a local nursery. All trees were mulched and caged and looked happy in their new homes. I'm excited for him and am glad to have been a part of it. Helping him gave me the change to do those things that I would have done differently, differently.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Great job George. I really do like those heavy metal cages to protect the new trees. They are so much heavier than what I used. What a great idea.

[George Collins]

First, there was much more that I wanted to say in that previous post but when I got home, because of a level of fatigue not felt in quite some time, the memory failed. After a nap, everything feels much better . . . Except the legs. They've been caring everything else through this sprint for 14 days straight now and are now at the point of rebellion.

Next: Thanks Guy, but I can take no credit. Youngblood taught me to use the concrete reenforcement wire, my friend had the idea to use the rebar and Ruth Stout taught me to mulch is deep.

One thing I did invent today (and surely this isn't the only time this tool has been invented) is a premarked marking string. We cut two strings 35' long and tied knots at the 20', 25', 30' and 35' marks. We started with the two apples at 35' apart on the northernmost part of the yard. Next we placed the Asain pears 35' apart in the Far Eastern aspect which appears in the photo above as being on right side of the big hickory that dominates that part of their yard.

Next, using two strings, we formed an equilateral triangle using the two apples as the base. The sides of the triangle measured 30' as denoted by proper knot. There we placed our first European pear.

For the next pear, we anchored one string to the spot for the apple and one to the spot for the pear and placed a flag at the point where the strings met 30' from the apple and 25' from the pear.

To place the next pear, we anchored to string to the site for first pear and the newly marked spot for the second and where the knots representing 25' intersected, we dropped a flag.

Flagging the rest of the yard was merely an extrapolation of this technique.

Using this method, we were assured of never having trees spaced too closely together and the layout of the garden was dictated by math rather than emotion.

Things ran very smoothly throughout the entire process. We finished mulching the last tree at about 4:00.

[matt walker]

I'm not at all surprised to hear you are feeling the push. You have done a LOT of planting lately! This project is looking excellent George, it's inspiring how quickly it all came together. I am definitely going to use your spacing technique, thank you for that.

[George Collins]

My neighbor and I hooked up again this afternoon and on the southern aspect of their yard, planted:
- 4 black walnuts
- 3 live oaks
- about 10 chinquapins

We have at least one more black walnuts to go before we call the job done.

[George Collins]

We planted that final walnut and an arbequina olive in my neighbor's yard today. The only thing left now is the Warren pear he has on order.

[Lollykoko]

You have been busy, George.

[George Collins]

Yes ma'am, I have been. And enjoying every moment. I was so stoked as planting season approached. The money was right, the job cooperated, my knowledge was at a new apex . . . it all has just fit together so nicely thus far.

[George Collins]

After a long day at work, my friend and I hooked up for what will likely be the last bit of tree planting that we will do together this year. I gifted him a few left-over nitrogen fixing species and as a thank you, he let me help plant them. The trees placed in his forest garden today included:
- 2 Siberian pea shrubs
- 3 Autumn olives
- 3 Goumis
- 3 Sea buckthorns

As his garden's layout is based on a series of triangles, the 2 Siberian pea shrubs were placed equidistance between three other trees, each of which represents one of the three points of a triangle. Around each pea shrub and equidistance between the pea shrub and one of the points of the triangle, one of the other specimens were placed. The end result was a triangle within a triangle with a pea shrub as the focal point.