Fall                                                            Samhain Moon

Gardening has become more straight forward, better results over the last couple of years.  Now, it’s time to turn attention to the orchard.  Here, the trees have just reached their bearing years and began producing multiple fruits.  Up to now, aside from the guild of plants around their base, installed by ecological gardens as a permaculture method for caring for them, I’ve done little except bag the apples.

The permaculture stuff, which has worked well in the vegetable garden, for whatever set of reasons has not worked so well in the orchard.  To get better results I turned this year to International Ag Labs, doing a soil test for the orchard separate from the vegetable garden. I have recommendations.  And today we began the work of implementing.

Only thing is, I had this bright idea last year, lay down landscape cloth, the really good kind, put mulch on top and keep down the grass and weeds that drove Kate nuts over the last couple of years.  Worked great for that purpose.  Turns out though that when I lay down fertilizer and soil drenches for the trees I have to work where their root system extends.  Makes sense, right?

(this graph looks about right to me.  In the orchard I’m at comprehension.)

Tree’s root systems extend out about as far as its canopy is wide.  Javier did not lay landscape cloth on the mounds around each tree, but he did put it down under the canopy proper.  I asked him to do that.  Oops.  Now I have to rake the mulch off, back to the canopy’s edge and figure out a way to suppress weeds and grass while leaving open space for the treatments of the soil that I will do throughout the year.  Sigh.

Still not sure what I’m going to do in that exposed ground, but I have a season to consider it.