Despite cold and spitting snow, I spent Sunday afternoon planting the apple trees.  This is the smaller of the two --- the one year old Yellow Transparent (aka June Apple.)

I built my usual raised beds, which seem to be the only way I can get fruit trees to thrive on our clay soil.  The extra drainage and fertility help the trees get off to a good start, and the size of the bed reminds me where the tree is so that I don't whack it with a lawn mower, a watering hose, or just run into it myself.

These two apples fill in my last gaps in the orchard, unless I start to whittle away at the surrounding woods to create more open space.  I spent several joyful hours developing a better orchard map and spreadsheet, realizing that if all of my current trees survive, I'll eventually have tree fruits ripening from June to October.  The pears and two of the apples are good storers, so hopefully they'll keep in the root cellar until late winter or early spring.  

I dream of the day when I can stop buying fruit at the grocery store, but I know that day will be a few years in the future --- I expect my first peaches and cherries next year, nectarines and perhaps an apple in 2011, and full production by 2013.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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