B-Haven Orchard

We have finished the first draft of the B-Haven Orchard. Just like the vegetable garden, the orchard has to be protected from deer and raccoon. So a 8 foot deer fence was required. The orchard dimensions are 120X80 feet. It holds up to 32 trees. So I used 12 foot steel posts for the corners (3 foot into the ground) and 10 foot t-bar posts every 10 foot. The fence itself is 6 foot sheep fence with a strand of barb wire at the top.

We used 160 lbs of cement for each corner post. The ground was soft enough, so we were able to use a tractor auger to dig the cornet post holes. I decided to use broadcast irrigation. There is three lines and valves spaced 20 feet apart. Each line runs 80 feet. I chose broadcast irrigation over drip or bubblier, to minimize the amount of pipe and spigots that I would have to run.

This orchard is restricted to fruit trees. There is 20 feet between each tree and the trees are 10 feet from the fence. I did plant some trees on the fence in an espalier fashion. I did decide to plant some climbing roses to brighten this up. And I will plant vegetables between the trees to maximize space usage.

Here are the fruit trees that we currently have:

Apples

Anna
Fuji
Gala

Blackberries

Brazos
Navajo

Citrus

Mexican Lime
Meyer Lemon
Satsuma Orange
Variegated Meyer Lemon

Figs

B lack Mission
Brown Turkey

Grapes

Albemarle Muscadine
Carlos Muscadine

Nectarines