New Orchard !!

A couple of weeks ago we visited The Urban Farm - www.urbanfarm.org - and learned many things. But one of the major lessons is that you can grow fruit trees like a hedge; not too tall, not too round, but a continguous, fruit-bearing hedge. This caused a lightbulb to flash in our minds. What if we take out our cactus garden strip, at the front of the property, and replace it with an orchard? Several benefits; 1) maintain the privacy that we had been getting from the cacti, 2) more sunlight on the front yard by removing a few un-necessary trees, 3) much easier to maintain, 4) fruit-bearing instead of not producing anything.

Totally win \ win.  Only downside is it was a lot of work. And, we're not done, but we are well on our way to having an orchard with - so far - 3 types of oranges, one apple and one peach. And plenty of room to fill in with more trees as we're able. Our big spring project for this year.

                                                                              

Last year's big spring project was the erection of the support system for shade. This came in handy this week, as the temperatures soared to over 100. It was a breeze throwing up a few lattice pieces on top of the wires and fastening them down.