Cider # 4 - Prototype Orchard

Not strictly cider related but on the subject of fruit trees anyway.  I'm in the process of clearing an area against the South face of the hay barn to create a mini fruit plot.  If I paint the wall white I thought it would hopefully create a warm, sunny and neat-looking spot to experiment with fruit trees.  The barn is 24 ft long, and the rubbish-filled area which I'm clearing extends about 10 ft out from the barn, giving 240sq.ft of potential growing space.


The Site!

In order to clear the site I've been clearing some steel A-Frames from a long-forgotten project, partially completed and for the last 10 years or so slowly becoming part of nature again.  Its mostly been a case of angle-grinding them into wheel-barrowable sections (say 100kg) and then Polo'ing them to the scrap yard.

Taking down the A-Frame on the left of the picture above was an interesting experience.  It was attached to the main frame of the barn by two U-bolts which are normally used to hold leaf-springs onto commercial vehicle axles.  On the other end the frame was literally balanced (not attached in any way) onto a steel upright which, not having been placed correctly in the first place, had been extended with a flat plate bolted to the top.


"Old Tymawr" Engineering!

I'm quite glad that I never had a picnic underneath it!

Anyway, after angle-grinding the lower U-bolt through and leaving the frame supported by the top U-bolt and the flate plate above, I knocked the frame off the plate with a sledge hammer, leaving the whole frame (250kg) pivoting off the top U-bolt.

A final angle-grind through the top U-bolt dropped the whole frame fairly neatly onto the ground.

Frame on the ground

Ex U-Bolt

I've been reading Sepp Holzers's "Permaculture" http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sepp-Holzers-Permaculture-1-Holzer/dp/1856230597/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358629337&sr=8-1.  He has some really interesting techniques for fruit tree growing which I'll try to emulate here.  Main points are:

1. Grow green-manure crops around the base of the trees before and after planting.  Grass is too strong a competitor for the shallow part of a fruit-tree root system (see also http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agricultural-Testament-Sir-Albert-Howard/dp/8185569185/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358629637&sr=1-1 for a full explanation of this phenomenon).
2. Place large rocks around the planting area to absorb and slowly radiate heat.  These have the added benefit of encouraging worms to congregate underneath them.
3. Use pigs to turn over, plough in the green manure and add their own manure to the area prior to planting.
4. Use pomace left over from cider making to seed the area to produce root-stocks for subsequent grafting (a good idea I had which might improve this further would be to feed the pigs the pomace and let them manure and seed the area simultaneously!).

If possible I'd like to grow soft-fruit bushes around the fruit trees and amongst the green manure crops (peas? beans? mustard?) to maximise the use of the space.  Finally, we've got plenty of mistletoe around the farm at the moment, it would be great to deliberately encourage it into the fruit trees too.


So, once we're cleared up I think I'll put the chickens on that area to scratch it up, then spread compost and sow some green manure.  This will start the slow process of preparing the area for tree-planting this time next year.