Homestead mailing list

[Lisa Perry <lkvp AT floydva.net>]

Lynda wrote:

> The woman that owned this property before us was severely gardening
> challenged!  She planted full-size fruit trees within 4" of the deck. 
>  
She wanted to reach out her window and pick pears, sounds delightful to 
me.  I'm kidding.  The previous owner at our farm did a better job than 
yours, but he made a few mistakes nevertheless.  We would have made 
numerous big mistakes if we had started from scratch, as it is we've 
made numerous smaller ones while we've learned in the last four 1/2 
years.  And we're still learning.

On our farm, the previous owner's mistakes included the placement of the 
two plum trees too low down the hill so the frost gets them every year 
without fail.  Another was that he planted a dozen dwarf apple trees 
inside the garden in a 4x3 pattern and spaced them only 2-3' apart.  The 
branches reach into one another and you can't hardly walk around or 
through them.  He also didn't disclose a small leak in the sunroom roof 
(former front porch), whoops.  It is a strange leak that only occurs 
when it's really pouring down for a prolonged period of time and only 
from a certain direction--it could be that they forgot about it (giving 
them the benefit of the doubt).  We had lived in the house for three 
years before we experienced the leak, when my husband went upstairs to 
investigate and opened the false wall over the sunroom, low and behold 
he found a pot full to the brim with water and running over.  The pond 
he made was too shallow and the trees too close, so we modified it last 
summer by having it dug wider and deeper, taking out trees as needed (a 
walking path/road goes around the pond now) and made a small silt pond 
above to collect/filter the silt.  Overall, we feel like the previous 
owner did alright.  We had looked at numerous farms and most of us learn 
by doing, so I doubt there are few perfect farms out there.  The rest of 
the fruit trees were well cared for and well placed, the blueberries are 
outstanding, the house is okay and the barn is hanging in there until we 
can repair it (it's on the list).

Lisa