Have begun work on my 3-C orchard [View all]

[Kaleva]

3-C

Covid-19
Climate Change
CWII

I have marked out and tilled up 3 rows for raspberries, blueberries and haskap. The row for the raspberries is 2'X42' long, the row for the blueberries is 2'X40' long and the row for the haskap is 2'X30' long. The rows are 8' part from each other and other parts of the orchard and garden. The rasberry and blueberry rows run north and south while the haskap row is to the south of them and runs east and west.

To the east of these rows I have marked out 5 9'X10' plots where I plan to plant 3 plum trees in one plot, 3 peach trees in the next plot, 3 pear trees in the following plot and in the remaining two plots, 3 apple trees each and I'll be using backyard orchard culture techniques with the fruit trees. To the north of the house in a spot that gets plenty of sun, I'll plant a stand alone Russian Quince tree. As the raspberry, blueberry and haskap plants will cost me a pretty penny next spring, I probably won't get the fruit trees till the following year which would be 2022.

As the part of the yard where the orchard is located remains wet and soggy till early summer, I bought 6 cubic yards of screened topsoil for $156.00 delivered which I paid for with money earned babysitting. This should be enough topsoil to build up the raspberry, blueberry and haskap rows to a height of 7 inches. I do not need to build up the soil for where the Quince tree will be. I'll be getting unscreened topsoil from a friend of my wife's for free and which I have to get myself. That topsoil will be used for berms for the fruit trees an they'll be 4' wide X 4' deep X 1' high each. About 3 cubic yards.

Considering that this project is a considerable investment of my time and money, I bought a soil test kit from Lowe's to test the soil so i know if I need to make adjustments that would help increase the chance of success.