New Zealand Life

Fruit Galore

March

• Richard (our earthworks guy) put some of the topsoil from the house site down in the designated orchard site.
• Ian Fletcher (our fencer) put deer fencing around the orchard, and put in a deer gate so the little fruit trees wouldn’t get eaten by the deer.

April

• David (our planter) planted 49 fruit trees and lots of shrubs and pines for a wind break.
• I went into the orchard and made a map of all 49 fruit trees.

May

• Grass and weeds started to grow rapidly and strangle the fruit trees in the orchard.
• Mom and I went in on the day she was leaving for the US, and found the orchard assailed by hundreds if not thousands of weeds. We pulled weeds for nearly three hours straight and filled up the back of the Ranger with and Eiffel Tower of weeds.

June

• We continued to weed the orchard as much as we could.
• Mom decided that we should give the trees some breathing room and rip out all the grass and weeds with in a one-foot distance from each tree’s trunk.

July

• We went into the orchard and pulled all the weeds and grass out from around the fruit trees. We then put paper down and wood shaving on top of the paper so that the grass and weeds would be less likely to grow back around the trees.

~ Julia ~