Planting New Fruit Trees And I Hope I Don't Kill Them

After five years I have finally decided to take the plunge and get some fruit trees.  Hopefully I don't kill them all, lol.  Mike is going to help me clear and area in our yard first.  It was kind of easy to pick a location for my new trees since the deer ate our old trees...ugh!!!


March

We used to have these very pretty arborvitae at the front of our house until the deer ate them one winter.  We decided to move them up to our fence and see if they did any better there.  Well needless to say the deer still ate them.  We kind of knew that would happen but it is heartbreaking to throw away trees.


Here are the arborvitae the deer ate:

We need to get the trees out of the ground so Mike gets his tractor.  We tie a chain around the tree and Mike tries to pull it out.

That doesn't work because the chain just slides off the tree so he tries to push it out.  No go.  Looks like we will have to go back and do it the hard way, lol.  We take turns using the shovel to get the trees out of the ground.

Here I am digging the last one out:

Ah...now we can use the tractor.  Mike brings the tractor close to each tree and we load a few of them into the bucket.

Then Mike drives them over the our back side fence:

And dumps them:

Now it's time for the fun stuff.  While Mike works on other things I measure the distances and start digging the holes for my trees.

My sticks, oh I mean trees are here.  I bought a cherry tree, a plum tree, three kinds of pear trees, and a peach tree...all dwarf varieties.   I also bought a variety of six different blueberry plants.  I heard good things about Miller Nursery so I ordered all of my fruits trees from them.  Miller Nurseries

I unwrap them and soak the roots in water while I start to dig my holes.

Planting a tree.

My first six trees are in.

And my blueberries are in after I added acid to the soil.  I used a soil tester to make sure I got the acidity levels correct for the blueberries.  Soil Tester And PH Meter

I also got a head start on my raised garden and planted some lettuce, spinach and peas:

I also bought some red onions:

Here are my temporary grids for my garden.  I section off my garden in 1 foot by 1 foot squares using the Square Foot Garden method.  Square Foot Gardening

Now my trees are in and it's time to start planning my vegetable garden.  I am so excited to get my plants but I have to wait another month.  I love this time a year:):)

For anyone who has never tried a vegetable garden I highly recommend starting with a small square foot garden.  It is much easier than you might think.  Give it a try if you have never done it.