Awful Orchards??

Are you struggling with orchard trees? Sandy soil? Garden areas on slopes?

Here's some recommendations:

🌳 Plant trees with friends: shrubs, perennials and herbs. Their roots will start to grow in a network that helps each other. The friends shade the orchard tree soil, capture rainwater and keep soil from eroding down the hill. Look up the term "fruit guild".

Eliminate grass from the root zones, add compost and mulch with woodchips. 💩 Consider laying logs horizontal to the hillside slope to keep materials where you put them and not wash away. Consider a shrub hedge on the north and west sides of the orchard to block strong winds. Maybe add chickens 🐔 to the area for natural weed/pest control and natural fertilizer. Look up "permaculture".

💀 Never replace dead trees or shrubs with the same thing. They don't grow well in dead root areas. Plant something different.

Don't drive mowers, tractors or four wheelers between and around the trees as it will compress roots and may harm bark if the trunk is nicked. 🚜

🍎 🍏 Visit local orchards and ask what varieties they are growing. Try to grow what works best in your area. Consider hiring a professional orchardiat to teach you to plant, prune and tend the best way for the tree health. That's $$ well spent!

PS - it hard to tell but did you plant trees in the root zone area of a larger, established tree? New trees don't do as well there as they're competing for sun and water. Root zones go all the way to the outside tips of the trees.