Dear FB friends and others with an interest in gardening and horticulture, I seek guidance and comments on my project as described below:
I am trying to create a miniature orchard on 2 1/2 acres of relatively undeveloped land about 53 miles from my home. I have water from a community water well and could have electricity although I don't feel an absolute need for the latter at the moment.
I propose to have 20-40 fig trees, a like number of loquats, pineapple guavas, papaya and a few each of pawpaw, black mulberry, persimmon, pomegranate, Paulownia, vitex, wax myrtle, osage orange and willow (osier).
I'm starting trees from seed or cuttings in a makeshift nursery in my back yard with a view to not spending much money on nursery stock. Eventually, I will likely buy a few named varieties as a source of grafts for the loquats and pineapple guavas. I won't have to do that for the figs and possibly not for the papayas.
In preparing the land for transplanting the trees, my initial idea was to use a permaculture technique known as *hugelkultur* that involves planting the trees on mounds or along the top of "dikes." Said mounds and dikes are made by putting down first a layer of tree trimmings, logs, firewood, untreated scrap lumber, etc.. Then comes the thickest layer, of compost and/or leaf and lawn clippings. Next comes a thin layer of manure, preferably well rotted. Finally the whole thing is topped off with a few inches of topsoil. Ideally, the height of these structures should be 3'-5' & the steeper the sides the better. All of the materials except the topsoil are readily available free locally for the price of the gasoline for transport. Sometimes a body can even find free topsoil.
The reason for doing this is to avoid having to hire heavy equipment or use arduous hand labor. My soil is reasonably fertile but has a great deal of heavy clay. Dry or wet, it is exceedingly difficult to dig out. To be sure, getting the hugelkultur materials in place is going to be labor intensive, but nothing like trying to tackle that clay. Besides most of these fruit trees like good drainage and there are many places where the land just doesn't have it. I want to avoid the expense of hiring heavy equipment and besides, I want to be the sole *auteur* as much as possible.
The further (alleged) advantages of hugelkultur is that the elevation provides a temperature of 3-5 degrees above the ambient temperature during cold weather, and the rotting wood at the bottom traps water and lessens the need for irrigation during dry spells.
But what about deer, rabbits and possibly voles, field mice and gophers? Of these, deer are the biggest problem. Deer probably won't like the fig trees or the papaya that much, but when they are hungry they will eat anything.
To address that and possibly cut down on some of the labor, I am now thinking that I could stock up on free pallets that the seem to be readily available and use them to build large, box-like "containers" by nailing together four standard wooden pallets, preferably 40" by 48," made of wood that has not been chemically treated but heat treated only. Since the main fruit trees are relatively shallow-rooted, I would only partially fill up the containers with the hugelkultur materials--no more than about two feet at the most. In a couple of years, since the roots *are* shallow, it might be necessary to put a gently sloping berm of compost all around the containers and replenish it from year to year. If smaller varmints other than deer are a consideration, I guess I could lay down chicken wire in the bottom of the containers before adding the hugelkultur materials and possibly a skirt of chicken wire around the perimeter to keep out rabbits.
Ah, but you say, these plants are subtropical and tropical and there are freezes in central Texas, and these plants require full sun, don't they? As seedlings in an enclosure, would they get enough sunlight?
Well, I think so. It seems to me that much horticultural information and advice assumes the environment is that of the northern U.S. But I've seen well-watered plants that require "full sun" completely done in by our brutal Texas summers. My loquat, fig and pineapple seedlings seem to appreciate the protection they receive from the partial shade that obtains on the east side of the house.
The seedlings would get filtered sunlight through the pallet slats in the early morning and toward sunset but get a fair amount of overhead sun the rest of the day.
The slight elevation and the enclosure would provide some protection to the plants during cold weather. Papaya is the most frost tender, but will usually survive even freezes if they are not of long duration. Even if the cold kills the foliage, the papaya can still come back from the root and stems
What is critical for both papaya and loquats, if they are to fruit, is that the flowers must not be killed during a cold snap. The tree may survive but will not fruit if the flowers are killed. Even temperatures as high as 42 degrees F will kill papaya They flower in February. Loquats flower in late winter or early spring. If a cold snap goes down to 29F or less, it will kill loquat flowers and no loquat fruit. (They are really good, BTW.)
I have two possible solutions, to be used singly or in combination, during the critical flowering period. There is on the market a stuff called Freezpruf. One sprayed application works for 6 weeks or 12 weeks--I forget which. It is claimed that it is like moving your plants 200 miles south, i.e., into another temperature zone. I'm in zone 8 and that would put me in subtropical zone 9--like the much of the Gulf Coast. One could also drape greenhouse plastic over the entirely of the tree or seedling also.
I'm hoping the hype about Freezpruf is true & would appreciate hearing from anybody who has used it.
Well, you may ask, why do I want to do this if I have no serious intention of making any money? And I will spare everybody the details of my proposed rose garden, ornamental perennial garden, herb garden, salsa garden, the luffa trellis, dye plant garden and fiber plant garden, all to be planted in the interstices and odd spaces of the orchard. Oh. And I also want to grow a few of those timber bamboo the Japanese use to make shakaguchi (sp?) flutes. Never mind that traditional Japanese flutemakers serve an apprenticeship lasting 15 years and also devote much of their time to developing the skills needed to pick out just the right sort of bamboo root.
Well, I would have plenty of fruit & stuff and I could take pictures and spend my advancing years painting watercolors of my Eden. I could be a wannabe Manet. My heirs could have it eventually as long as they promised not to trust any talking snakes.
Best case scenario is the orchard would start bearing fruit in 8-10 years while I am still at least capable of picking the low hanging fruit.
So why do it? Well, why not? I could use the exercise.
And I am an optimist.
R.
http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/
