Orchard Sowing
Ya’ll, planning and prepping for an orchard is A LOT OF WORK!!!
There is so much time and money that goes into growing/raising your own food. But hopefully our hard work will pay off!
Nowadays farming is so glamourized on social media, and everyone makes it look so easy & just know that this isn’t the case! It only looks attractive because everyone shares the highlights and payoffs of all the hard work they have done. I’m sure I don’t even need to say all this, as I’m sure you all know that anything worth doing is hard work.
But I say all this because I’m scared! What if my orchard doesn’t flourish? After all the hard work and investment. That’s a tough pill to swallow!! I don’t expect all 32 trees to all grow perfectly with no challenges but also…I kind of do at the same time!
I pray that God blesses this orchard so that it may bless our family and many more! This is why I felt led to plant the orchard in the first place! God called me to plant this orchard & I believe it has a greater purpose than just serving my husband, children, & myself. This orchard is to be used to spread the gospel by serving and feeding many. When you allow God to guide you, everything has a bigger purpose. Most important being to spread the gospel and show others the love the Jesus!
About the orchard:
The orchard is 600sq ft.
Apple, Pear & Fig trees are from
Century Farm Orchards
1614 Rice Rd, Reidsville, NC 27320
They are a small, family owned and operated nursery specializing in old southern apples. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture has recognized this farm as having remained in David’s family for over one hundred years, hence the name Century Farm Orchards.
David has been AMAZING and I HIGHLY recommend him! He is VERY knowledgeable and was great help! If you are interested in planting apple, pear, or fig trees, check out his website. He has detailed info on every tree as well as videos on how to plant the trees in fall or spring. I told him I was interested in disease resistant trees because I didn’t want to spray lots of chemicals on them and preferred organic. He recommended the trees we are planting.
Here is a list of fruit trees that we planted in the orchard:
Apples:
Williams Favorite
Aunt Rachel
St Claire
Grimes Golden
Summer Banana x2
Magnum Bonum
Blacktwig
Roxbury Russet
Hopples Antique Gold (sweet eating)
Florina (sweet eating)
American Golden Russet (sweet eating)
Virginia Winesap
Red Royal Limbertwig (sweet/tart eating)
Goldrush (sweet/tart eating)
Arkansas Black
Pears:
Kieffer
Seckel
Plumblee
Moonglow
Korean Giant
Warren
Magness
Fig:
Brown Turkey
Celeste
Italian Golden Honey
Chicago Hardy
English Brown Turkey
cherry and pecan trees came from
Woodard Pecan Nursery
www.woodardsfarmandnursery.com
5194 US Highway 70 E, Princeton, NC 27569
Cherry:
Montmorency
Black Tartarian
Lapins
Bing
Pecan:
Lakota
Avalon
Persimmons came from Chestnut Hill Nursery. We ordered 5 because trees are either male or female, so you should plant 3-10 trees in a block, to ensure pollination.
Chestnut Hill Nursery
15105 NW 94th Ave, Alachua, FL 32615
We are planting American Persimmon x5
A very important thing to think about when planting fruit trees is keeping the deer away! They will eat the leaves of young trees and potentially kill them. Same with other little critters! Rabbits like to chew on the small trunk of a young tree which can be detrimental to them. So, for us, planting an orchard, a deer fence is a must!
We ordered our entire deer fence kit from Deer Fence Materials and Supplies (deerbusters.com)
I called and took care of everything via phone and email. Everyone I talked with at deer busters was very nice and very helpful! I called and told them the sq footage of orchard, how many corners, how many openings & sizes of openings and they put together everything we would need and sent a quote.
once we ordered, we received within 3 days!!
I can’t wait to see what lies ahead in this orchard journey. I am sure there will be many more challenges to face and much more laborious work! But we do it all with pure joy!
Trials and Temptations
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4
