Despite having been ill the last couple of weeks I still managed to get to the land and plant nine fruit trees, a process which i finished off earlier today by mulching with some handy partially rotted straw which was left over from the straw bale house build.
I decided to use the already existing swale area and simply replaced any of the previous trees which had died, because of there having been no one there to water them the previous summer, maybe even for two summers in a row.
The area is actually pretty good for fruit trees IMO, on a slope, with room to store water above, and then swales down below, and with a well nearby, so it wouldn't be too much effort to pump water up from said well to some IBCs to keep the trees watered.
The process...
I probably did this wrong, but I basically dug a square hole about a foot wide and just a bit deeper than the planting depth (just about the graft of a bare root, or pot level depending), put some loose soil/ compost mix in the bottom to bring the planting depth up to the level of the soil.
Then I watered the hole first with half a bucket of water, then put the tree in, and (for bare rooted) placed a mix of soil and a little compost in while shaking the tree occasionally to make sure the earth was well into the roots, no air gaps.
I actually watered once I'd put in about half the soil, post shaking...
Once up to planting depth I firmed to soil down with four pushes with my feet while holding the tree to keep it upright.
I also put in some watering pipes, aimed at the lowest root level.
After all of this I added some straw to mulch with, which was already well rotted, so pretty much perfect!
I used in addition a little pine bark (not very much) on the cherry trees as these apparently like a slightly more acid soil.
In retrospect I think I may have planted a little too deep, not sure if these depressions are too much - but then again, I am planting in a dry climate....
Some of the trees
The Lemon Tree...
One of the Cherry Trees
Maybe too deep and a bit lopsided, but I'm sure it will do just fine!
One of the almond trees...
NB this one is dead straight it's just a quirk of the photo that makes it look lopsided!
Final Thoughts
This was round one, probably all the fruit trees I'll put in for this winter, it's a good start - next step is to maybe stake them to ensure they grow upright, and maybe even prune them before spring, I need to get someone to help me with that.
Nine trees should be easy enough for me to water and keep alive over the hot summer months, the main challenge being actually having enough water to see me through the dry period IF the well dries up. It didn't dry up last summer, but last winter was wet, this year it's been VERY dry so it may be a different story in Summer 2022.
We shall see, and hopefully in two years time I'll enjoy my first fruit!