How to Start a Homestead Orchard

Having a homestead orchard is a great way to grow your own fruit to accompany your garden.

Reader Contribution by Bobbi Peterson
Published on June 20, 2017
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Adobe Stock/ma510na

Fruit trees can add beauty and produce food for your homestead.

Living on a homestead means you are trying to be self-sufficient and produce your own food. One way to do this is to create an orchard that will give you fruit or nuts to enjoy year after year. However, when deciding to develop an orchard on your homestead, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure its success.

1. Decide Where to Put the Orchard

The success of your orchard will depend on how much space you can dedicate to developing it. Examine your property and figure out where you would like to put your trees and/or bushes that will give them optimal sunlight, soil, and water. As you decide where to put your orchard, remember that, as the trees mature, their crowns and roots will get larger and spread.

Place them in an area where you don’t mind that they will be covered in shadow, and the branches can’t damage buildings and aren’t near power lines or underground pipes, like sewer or water pipes, that the roots can damage.

You’ll also need to make sure the soil in this area can sustain and nurture your orchard. There are ways to test the soil to ensure it has the proper nutrients, and, if not, there are rehabilitation techniques to get the ground in shape to support the trees.

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