Homestead Orchard Tour: Growing Bounty on our Small Farm

Welcome to the Wardenburg Family Farm with Don and Brenda. It's time to pick peaches, so we figured it'd be a perfect time to show you around the orchard. Here, you can put a few more in here. Not too many. No, a couple more. I think I want to keep it single layer. Okay, that's good. Well, I'll get a couple more trays. Okay, sounds good. One of the reasons we're picking right now is, well, some of them are ripe. Not all of them are ripe, but the birds know which ones are ripe, don't they? There's one right behind you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is what birds do to peaches. But, you know, they're pretty considerate because they pick maybe five peaches over the tree and they just eat it down to nothing rather than hitting every peach. Once we see them eating, we let the peach on the tree. They'll keep going after the one that's already eaten instead of going after the other ones. Plus, when we saw them starting to get eaten, I put all these shiny things on the tree. I'm sure that helped a lot. I think it had to have helped. I think it did. Yeah. Now, we don't waste these peaches that are already half eaten. No. Guess where they go? Yeah. Chickens. They don't care if the birds already ate part of it. So, this is a Red Haven variety and they are, I think, the most beautiful peach because I love the red color. And they are delicious. Oh, they're amazing. I love peaches. So, this is like one of my favorites. I know. You know peaches are good, but it seems like you forget how amazing they are until you get a fresh peach. Oh, I don't forget. So, we'd like to do a little bit of an orchard tour for you once we get some of these peaches picked. You know, if you're an orchard person, you know a lot about trees. You'll see some foolishness here. And I'm a rookie. I've only been doing fruit trees seriously for four years, but I did not thin this tree out enough. And some of the fruit was smaller, but within the last week, I did water a couple of the trees. We had a nice rain a couple days ago and these things plumped up. So, they're almost normal size. Yeah, they really plumped up compared to what they were. We had our grandson out here this morning picking. Yeah, he was helping to pick peaches. He thought that was great. Yeah. And, of course, we went and ate a couple. That was the best part. Can't wait. Have to do quality testing. Their quality. Yeah. Well, here's some of the peaches we picked. We still have a lot more to pick and it's just one tree. So, just so you have perspective where we are, right over there's Market Garden, the whole thing. And over there's my high tunnel. And back there are all my blackberries, raspberries, and elderberries. And here comes the orchard. The orchard is at the other side of the Market Garden. Well, the orchard actually takes up 60 or 65 percent of the whole area that we have fenced in for the Market Garden and the orchard. But the layout is pretty consistent. We have a central aisle here and then there are rows. We generally have four trees on each side. The trees are spaced 10 feet apart and then each of the rows are spaced 20 feet apart. And that was the recommendation of the planters at the nursery where we picked all of our bare root trees and planted them. So, we'll just take a walk through. I want you to, the orchard, and notice a few things. We have wood chips down. And you might think, well wood chips, yeah that's to help control the weeds. Well, it is to some degree. And it also looks nice. Yeah, that's true. But the main reason is, is that in the spring it's kind of an insulation layer that keeps the sun from warming the soil and it can delay the development of the trees. Because we want the blossoms to come later in the spring, then there's less likely that we're going to get frost damage. Also, the orchard itself, we have to be very mindful of where we place it because frost damage can wipe out your whole orchard. So, you know on those cold evenings and there's no wind, the air separates by layers. So, you want your orchard higher. So, in this piece of land, it slopes off. And we'll show the pictures here that show you can see on a still morning where the fog is laying in the low area. So, we're less likely to get frost up here. So, having said all that, the first row here we have are cherry trees. And the first two here are sour cherries, Montmorency. Very popular, great sour cherry for for pies and wonderful. And they are cut, pruned more of in a in a open base and make it wider. At the very end, you can see we have some cherries and they're sweet cherries. And those are black gold variety of sweet cherries. Now, we haven't really got many cherries yet. No, we didn't. We had some good ones this year, but it's a race with the birds. Yeah, and early on those trees were stunted because we had a little bit of damage and disease in a trunk. I think we took care of that and we're going to be good. I think next year we're set to get a lot of sour cherries. Yeah, as long as we beat the birds to them. Okay. Okay, directly across from the cherries on this side, we have nectarines. And it just worked out that we try to keep them close together in a row, but we have nectarines at the end of three rows here. Nectarines, this is the first year that we actually have a good crop in there and they're still pretty firm at this point. But we're really anxious to to try our own homegrown nectarines. The birds haven't tapped into them at all yet. No. Maybe I need to put some shiny things on that tree. And this is a tough tree to grow if you don't know what you're doing. And that was me when I started. But the leaf curl in the spring is brutal on these trees. So you have to really get after it with the fungicide. So next to this we have three plum trees and boy there's some beautiful plums there coming off the trees. Now I think the one plum tree that's very large right there, I think it's a semi-dwarf and it's really getting big. And now I'm questioning whether we should have gotten that because scale-wise. It's like an out-of-control monster. It is. It is really a monster. And it hasn't really developed fruit. So I don't know if that tree's going to be, if it's going to make it. I'm going to give it one more year to see if it produces. But three different varieties of plum here and we'll put them on the screen for you to see. All right, another nectarine on the end of this row. And then we have three apricot trees. And these first two are hercot. And to be completely honest, we didn't really know if apricots were going to grow here. But that was a surprise of the spring. They were amazing, weren't they? They were delicious. I loved them. They were small, but the flavor was amazing. So I'm really happy with this variety, the hercot. All the grandkids loved the apricot. So hopefully next year we get a boatload of apricots. Yeah. And we'll have to see if you can them or dry them. I don't know. Canned, freeze-dried, we'll see. Well, the grandkids might eat them all before you can do anything to them. Yeah, maybe so. Maybe so. You know, all of these trees, because they're dwarf trees, they're all grafted on a rootstock. And some of the rootstock is not very strong, so some of those trees have to be supported with a stake. Now, on this side of the orchard, though, most of them are very solid, so you don't see them staked up. When we go to the other side, you're going to see, with the apples particularly, you're going to see more stakes for support. So let's just keep going down this side before we get into the apples, because apples takes up most of the other side of the aisle. Now, in the next row, we have four peach trees, and if you look at them, they look a little younger. That's because the original trees that we had in here died. I tried some different treatments, and we tried more organic alone treatment in the beginning, and I was not able to control the leaf curl, and the trees were weakened, and they died. So I had to replace them two years ago. But we're using some new methods now that seem very successful. Hey, if you look down on the ground here, you can see we've been using some tarps, and I move them around. We just put that one there, and I'll leave it over grass or the weeds, and it will kill them, and it's a kind of an organic way to take care of the weeds and grass that grows up. Okay, here is the peach tree that we picked earlier, and we still have a few more peaches on it. That's Red Haven, and that's one that's an original. So if they were all originals, they would be about that size, and we'd be getting peaches off all of them. Yeah, but now we do have four other trees that are not within the fenced compounds. Kind of an experiment, but those trees are three years old, and there's a lot of fruit on those. So now we're going to get into the pear trees, and if you look at this one, you can see it's pruned more upright, has a central leader, versus if you look over here, the peach tree where it's cut open like a bowl in the center, and that's for better air circulation, and also the sun can get in and shine onto the fruit. Peach trees we can pick without a ladder. The pears, we might need a ladder. Yeah, I'm going to try not to let them get too much taller than that, but these are sickle. I think these are beautiful. I love the red. Oops, that one came off already, but it's not anywhere near being ready. So, but I think we're going to get some good fruit off of them. The next row has four pear trees, and then beyond that, we planted four more new ones just in the spring. So, they're all Bartlett. So, Brenda's a Bartlett pear lover, so we got six Bartletts on the way. Again, this is a Bartlett pear, and you can see with the central leader real clean, and then we try to have just the laterals coming off, and it's best when they come off either at a 90 degree or up to 45. If you have some that come off the branches very high like that, that makes them weak. So, I have little bars that you put on it that pushes the branch back down, so it makes it a better angle, and it makes it a stronger branch in the end. So, that's what we're going to have to do with these trees here. These are the Bartlett pear that we just, they're bare root. We just planted them in the spring, so I'm going to have a lot of pruning and training to go, but I'm going to want these coming out at an angle like that, and the ones that are growing too much straight up like this one, this is not good. It's going to be a very weak, the crotch right there, that will break. So, I'll probably prune that off, and I'm looking for branches more like this that coming out at a lower angle are going to be much stronger. So, just keep in mind that when these branches come to here, some folks think, oh well, when the tree grows, when it's finished growing, this branch is going to be here when it's done coming out, and that's not the way it works. These don't grow up this way, so I'll probably cut off some of the lowest branches, because if it's down at this low to start, and then it gets the fruit on it, and it hangs, it's going to be laying on the ground. Okay, we're back where we started on the other side of the orchard. There's the cherry trees, and now we're heading into apple territory. Yeah, except we have right here one of the three nectarines. They're all across from each other, but it's kind of oddballs not in a row. Probably about 20 apple trees, many different varieties too, and we'll show them on the screen. I think that one of the first ones to ripen is over here. I think this is the gala. I think it's one of the first ones that we'll be able to pick and eat, and actually they're still a little firm, but they're going to start to soften up pretty soon. Now I have a little bit of work to do. I mentioned earlier on the other side with the apples, some of the root stock is not as strong, and here is a stake to hold the tree. Just the other day I had a broken tie, so I have to put a couple ties back on this tree to help support it, to give it additional strength. Now not every apple has the stake, but probably 50 or 60 percent of them do. Let's go over to the Fuji at the end. They're one of my favorite varieties. These two are the famous Granny Smith. Of course they just stay green, and to me it's a little bit of a challenge determining when they're actually ripe because they don't get get red, but my favorite apple are these next two trees here, and these are the Fujis. Now this tree kind of got away from me, and I did a brutal pruning on it last year, so it's not as heavy a fruit on this tree. This one here is still loaded, but again I didn't thin it out as much, so some of my fruit's going to be smaller, and that's an inexperienced orchard manager not thinning the fruit enough, so that's something I hope to do a better job with next year, and of course we're going to have a lot of apples or apple cider. Yes, I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, apple cider I think is one of the best parts. A cold fall day making apple cider. These are new trees, this whole section that we planted this year, of course all bare root, and the two that I'm showing right here are crab apple. Beautiful trees, and I got this variety because it should be great with our apple cider. It's a tart apple. I know Brenda likes her cider to be a little tart, so it's going to add a different flavor element to our ciders, and back here we have two rows of four peaches. They already previously noted red haven, and then the last four are john boy, and they are supposed to ripen about a week after the red haven, so that we won't get totally swamped or overwhelmed. Now what's this big bear spot over here with no trees? Yeah, that's future expansion. What are you thinking of for in there? I have many different options, so it depends on the demand too, and the interest in the market. Okay. Might end up with more more peaches. I'd be okay with that. So next we're going to go outside the fence where I have all kinds of interesting nut trees and things growing, but they don't need to be protected from deer, though we put them outside the fence area. So let's go take a look. So this is the area we have nut trees and unusual fruits, things that most of us aren't really that familiar with, including us. So right here we have two persimmon trees, American persimmon, and they get very tall. They're going to be 80 feet tall. The reason they're outside of the fence area is when they get tall, the deer won't damage them. Right now we just have a local protection so the deer won't eat them, and then at the very bottom we have a little pipe that'll keep the bunny rabbits from eating the bark away from the tree. So I think we have a good start for for these trees. Along the lines of unusual trees, these are butternut or white walnut. So we have three of them. We actually bought five seedlings and three of them lived. Believe it or not, there's a little tree in there and I think it's getting roots and it's going to be okay, well protected. So I'm really curious to see how it grows. Now there's some strategy involved here too because there's some power lines that cut across the farm and so these big tall trees we had to get out from the orchard because they would grow up into the one set of power lines that we have. And then let's take a walk out here. These two are hazelnut and I have no idea what a hazelnut is or how to use it, but they seemed very interesting and we're going to give it a go. So I wanted to have the most unusual collection of of trees here. You're doing pretty well. Yeah, I think we did. And we have even more on the other side of the aisle. Okay, we crossed over the center aisle and these two are more bushes and they're serviceberry and they produce, like Juneberry, they produce a nice red little berry that's great for jams and things. So we're going to give that a go. Now the next two are pawpaw trees and these are used to growing in a forest kind of under the canopy, especially when they're very young. So we put this the shade cloth over it. Now Brenda grew this up in the nursery in the last two years and we got the is a gift from the local university. Professor was working on these trees. So two pawpaw trees. Beautiful fruit. I think it's native to this area. George Washington's favorite fruit. And the last two out here are chestnut. Now they're not American chestnut. There's a long story, you know, they were all wiped out. They're trying to build them back, but these two are Chinese chestnut and they have a resistance to the disease that killed all the American chestnuts. So I'm really excited about these trees. I don't know that much about them, so I have to do some reading over the winter and make sure I take care of them properly. Great looking fruit, isn't it? And tasty. Yeah. I mean, this is the reason to put all the effort into an orchard. Just have beautiful fruit like this for your family or to sell. And you know how it was grown and there's just something so satisfying about it. Yeah. Yeah. Go out and pick your own fruit and eat it or can it or freeze dry it. Now you don't know this, but she has a fruit cobbler in the oven right now. We're having peach crisp. It's a peach crisp for dinner and for dessert tonight. Yeah. The crisp is my favorite, but wow. So the reason for all of this, you know, placement of the orchard, preventing the frost, cleaning up all the fruit that falls in the branches to prevent the fungus, you know, spraying, spraying fungicides so we don't get leaf curls. There's all kinds of critters that want this amazing fruit. You know, the rabbits will come and eat the bottom of your trunk and the big animals, the deer will come in. Now we have a 3D fence. We've been fortunate not to have any deer damage inside the orchard. Yeah, so far. Now, do you know what a 3D fence is? Yeah. Yeah. 3D fence is something that's fairly new. Deer can jump eight or ten feet, but we have just about a six foot fence. What makes it work, though, is that there's two fences. One's about three feet in from the other and the first one's really just two or three lines of string or wire. Yeah, it's actually bailing wire just from post to post, maybe three feet high. When a deer bumps into it, they apparently don't have great depth perception, so they're afraid of getting caught and they can't really judge how high the next fence is. So whatever the reason is, it seems to work. Yeah, if you want to fence your garden, look into 3D fences because five years we haven't had a single deer and we have deer around here, but none have gotten in the garden. So, so far it's working. I think I said earlier in the video that I've only been doing this seriously for four years and this is the only project that we undertook where we didn't have a mentor. So one of the reasons we're doing this video is to ask you if you see anything, have any experience in this area, we'd love to have your feedback because we are mentorless. Yeah, well especially a viewer just suggested we use surround kale and clay, so we bought some. We're completely new to this and we'll be using it next year, but if you have advice on how to use kale and clay, whether it works or not and it's worth it, let us know because that's, that's completely new to us. Yeah, well hey, thanks for joining us on the tour of the orchard at the Wardenburg Family Farm. We'll see you in our next video. Bye-bye.