Took stock of the orchard and found that 27 trees had died or were otherwise missing. \u00a0Decided to replenish, a much bigger job than I anticipated. \u00a0Dug the holes with an auger on a bobcat loader, that ended up being the easy part.<\/p>\n
Bought the trees from Stark Bros. nursery online, a mixture of various apple types in a semi-dwarf size. \u00a0Planting them ended up being back-breaking work over about 3 weekends. \u00a0Then I put up a 5′ diameter fence around all 27 trees to keep the deer out until they grow large enough. \u00a0Way more then I had bargained for, but it should be plentiful in a few years. \u00a0 We now have an orchard that has 55 trees, mostly apple, some peach, pears, and cherry though.<\/p>\n
![\"Digging](\"http:\/\/www.springfieldfarm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/IMG_3470.jpg\")
<\/a>Digging the holes, the easy part<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Last tree in, note the rock pile<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Uncle Sonny, my Mom, and brother Mark help put up the final cages<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Took stock of the orchard and found that 27 trees had died or were otherwise missing. \u00a0Decided to replenish, a much bigger job than I anticipated. \u00a0Dug the holes with an auger on a bobcat loader, that ended up being … Continue reading