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  • From: Lisa Perry <lkvp AT floydva.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Rabbits
  • Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 16:50:20 -0400

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






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