My first fruit tree arrived this week and I’m not ready to plant it. Having spent ages deciding what to order and where to plant them, now it has arrived I’m having second thoughts. I don’t want to have to move it so where this tree is planted and goes on to spend its life is important.
Originally it was part of the grand chicken run design.
I love the idea of an orchard with hens running around under the trees, and of course the hens do a great job in pest control. But once we’d marked out where the run was going and placed the hen houses inside it became clear that there wasn’t as much space as I’d first thought.
The rethink was to train the trees as espaliers and cordons on the boundary of the chicken run and this may yet happen, but the tree that has arrived, bare root, is surprisingly big, has two main stems and is going to need some careful pruning.
So for the time being it is going to be heeled into the moist soil up by the beehive until a decision has been made.
The fact that it has now arrived does fill me with a little trepidation as it means the rest will be en route soon and all will need care and attention on arrival.
The chicken run is hardly any further forward and until that is finished I can’t plant any trees in it or around it.
I need a cunning plan.
