I got email notice earlier this week that our fruit trees will be here on Saturday! So… preparation of the orchard, including irrigation system, hole-drilling, etc. had to be done. We mapped out where we want the garden beds to be and planned the irrigation system for them and the grape arbor all at the same time. Together, Oz and I measured out where everything would be and tried to design an efficient system of valves and lines. First, we had planned the tree location (photos earlier); now we planned the layout of the raised beds, marking them with stakes. Using a 4′ x 8′ wood frame for a template, we marked the corners of the bed locations.
6th Bed location
Locating Bed #5
Staking out 4'x8' beds
To begin with, we’ll have 6 raised beds, with planned space for 3 more when time and energy allow… we have 6 grape starts promised from a local retired Veterinarian who has an amazing garden, so we planned for those plants along the back garden fenceline, too.
To make the trench-digging easy, we rented a trencher from Davis Hardware (great folks to work with) in Roswell. In only a couple of hours, we had all the trenches for this project dug and returned the machine.
Garden Bed Trenching
Hand Trencher in action
View from the back porch
After trenching was complete… we rented an auger to make hole-digging easier. With 11 fruit trees (yes, the number has increased due to the generosity of a friend, who purchased a fig tree to add to the orchard) and 6 grape plants, we’d never have gotten the holes prepared in time (and would have needed the pickaxe with the ground as hard as it is). In less than an hour, everything was done…
Six grapevines aligned with irrigation lines
Tree locations prepped