It has been three years since I have planted our small backyard home orchard. Today, I am sharing home orchard tips, ideas & four mistakes we made along the way so you can avoid making them.
Our mini home orchard has grown to a total of 12 fruit trees containing varieties of apple, pear, plum, fig, cherry & peach.
Table of Contents
Home Orchard Update & Ideas & 4 Mistakes I Made
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Home Orchard Mistake ONE- Expecting this to be easy!
I admit that I have been blessed with a green thumb & taking care of my houseplants & perennial gardens have come fairly easy to me over the years.
Not so with fruit trees!
I really did think that if I planted a few fruit trees, our home orchard would be swimming in fruit & no longer have to buy any from the grocery store…. I am def still buying fruit from the grocery store.
What I am learning…
I need to be patient & learn from my mistakes.
I also need to be willing to spend more time trouble shooting what works & what it doesn’t with my home orchard trees.
This summer, I chose to shrink & eliminate a few of my perennial beds so I had more time to work in our fruit orchard & raised vegetable gardens.
Home Orchard Mistake TWO- Not Planning for Pests & Deer!
I don’t know what it is but my fruit trees have had way more problems with pests that any other tree I have planted over the years (And I have planted many).
Unfortunately, last year I lost an apple tree to an apple borer & have since planted a new apple tree to replace it.
One spring, I lost almost all my apple blossoms to deer meaning zero apples that year.
What I am doing now to Keep Deer & Pests out of my Home Orchard
I found a very simple solution for the deer (you can read more about that here) & this year no deer ate from any of our fruit trees!
I may eventually spray our trees with an organic fertilizer but my plan for pests this year is CHICKENS!!! (you can read more about our chickens here)
Our 3 girls have been happily eating all the bugs & grubs they find under our fruit trees & I am hoping for a lot less bug problems next year!
Mistake THREE- Not Fertilizing Enough!
Fruit trees need a lot more than just mulch to help the fruit grow & I definitely did not give them enough early on.
My plan for Fertilizer in the Home Orchard
The last 2 years, I have been adding horse manure from a farm in our neighborhood to add to our fruit trees & this year I am adding chicken manure.
We even started a compost bin (DIY coming soon) to help with this!
Mistake FOUR – Not Planting Two of Each Kind of Tree
Although the orchard starter kit I bought was great & the trees were healthy, I was struggled to get much if any fruit from the trees.
Over the years, I added a second pear, plum & peach tree to our mini orchard & this year we had way more peaches & pears than ever before!
I hope this helps anyone that might be planning, starting or having trouble with your home orchard.
I would love to hear any home orchard ideas, tips or mistakes you made.
by Tara Lehman
For more Home Orchard Ideas, you can always follow along on Pinterest!
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