I have 5 citrus trees and 5 plum trees that we can plant once the beds are ready. I want to try a new planting technique with the trees that is called close planting. Rather than spacing the trees 15-20 feet apart for full growth, we will plant the trees 5 ft apart or less. The competition for space and nutriants in the soil will create smaller trees with reduced fruit production but will allow a greater varity of fruit in a smaller space. When you prune the trees, you basically treat all the trees in the bed as a single tree with each trunk as a branch of the tree. This would allow someone with a small home garden to produce a varities of fruit that would be sufficient for family consumption. A single tree planted orchard style to maximize size and prodcution will produce more fruit that a family can consume. I see single fruit trees in my neighbor where the fruit goes to waste because there is too much fruit on the tree for the family to eat. Part of the purpose of the garden is to allow us to experiment with new types of plants and techniques that would be applicable to a small home garden or a small farm garden in an urban setting. There is an interesting movement in this country (and in other countries) called urban gardening where unused open space is reclaim for small scale gardening or farming. Once we get a bit more experience and expand our growing space, we may try to sell excess produce at the farmer's market at railroad square to low income families at affordable prices or even create a farmer's market at the garden. Any profit would be donated to charity. One possiblity would be to invest in micro-loans to women in third world countries so they can start their own businesses. This will depend on expanding the garden, getting enough volunteers to do the work and developing a good business plan. Right now, let's start small and take it one step at a time. I have justed added another 250 square feet of planting beds to the garden and plan to add more this week. I'm looking forward to our grand planting day on Sunday, April 4th. Bring your favorite seeds and plants with you. It will be a busy day. Remember, it takes a village to raise a garden.
You are so right about the small steps! Just reading your larger plan makes me nervous! That sounds like too many volunteers needed. See you on Sunday.
I have 5 citrus trees and 5 plum trees that we can plant once the beds are ready. I want to try a new planting technique with the trees that is called close planting. Rather than spacing the trees 15-20 feet apart for full growth, we will plant the trees 5 ft apart or less. The competition for space and nutriants in the soil will create smaller trees with reduced fruit production but will allow a greater varity of fruit in a smaller space. When you prune the trees, you basically treat all the trees in the bed as a single tree with each trunk as a branch of the tree. This would allow someone with a small home garden to produce a varities of fruit that would be sufficient for family consumption. A single tree planted orchard style to maximize size and prodcution will produce more fruit that a family can consume. I see single fruit trees in my neighbor where the fruit goes to waste because there is too much fruit on the tree for the family to eat. Part of the purpose of the garden is to allow us to experiment with new types of plants and techniques that would be applicable to a small home garden or a small farm garden in an urban setting. There is an interesting movement in this country (and in other countries) called urban gardening where unused open space is reclaim for small scale gardening or farming. Once we get a bit more experience and expand our growing space, we may try to sell excess produce at the farmer's market at railroad square to low income families at affordable prices or even create a farmer's market at the garden. Any profit would be donated to charity. One possiblity would be to invest in micro-loans to women in third world countries so they can start their own businesses. This will depend on expanding the garden, getting enough volunteers to do the work and developing a good business plan. Right now, let's start small and take it one step at a time. I have justed added another 250 square feet of planting beds to the garden and plan to add more this week. I'm looking forward to our grand planting day on Sunday, April 4th. Bring your favorite seeds and plants with you. It will be a busy day. Remember, it takes a village to raise a garden.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about the small steps! Just reading your larger plan makes me nervous! That sounds like too many volunteers needed. See you on Sunday.
ReplyDelete