A New Espalier Orchard at my Farm
I was shopping recently at Hardscrabble, one of my favorite nurseries, located in North Salem, New York. I was so pleased to see that they had beautiful specimens of Malus ‘Gravenstein’ espalier apple trees. I love this crisp and juicy apple, an antique variety, which is wonderful to eat and great for cooking and baking. I also love the way an espalier orchard looks and I bought six of those trees. Shaun, my gardener, and I plotted out where they would be planted and this week, the crew did a great job with that task. The apple trees are covered with blossoms and I’ll let you know how the fruit is forming. I hope you enjoy this blog. Also, please have a look at the Dailywag today for another perspective.
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- The rolled sod is loaded into a pickup.
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- Fernando and Chhewang use shovels to lift and roll the sod, which will be used elsewhere on the property.
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- That soil is moved to the dump truck.
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- Sheets of plywood are used to protect the remaining lawn from all the equipment.
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- When the soil is removed from the trench, it’s dumped into a wheelbarrow.
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- When all the sod is removed, a backhoe is used to dig a trench 40-feet long and 3-feet wide so that the trees can be planted 6-feet apart.
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- I hope all of these lovely blossoms will become delicious fruit.
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- I recently purchased six Gravenstein apple espalier trees. They are approximately six-years old.
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- Malus ‘Gravenstein’ – This antique variety is well known for cooking, sauce, cider and eating out of hand. The fruit is large, with crisp white flesh and a distinct, juicy flavor.
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- This is a much more recently planted espalier orchard, growing very nicely on wire supports. Shaun has been busy pruning and training them.
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- Meanwhile, Shaun begins moving the new apple trees using a ball cart hand truck.
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- The trees are heavy and require a good deal of strength.
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- The cart moves quickly and Shaun gains momentum around the bend.
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- Three moved and three to go
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- When the trench is dug, all the soil removed is taken to the composting yard. This pile is rich composted soil.
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- Chhiring takes a load of that.
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- You can see how dark and rich it looks.
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- That composted soil is taken to the pile marked ‘Screened Top Soil with Sand Mixed.’
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- Chhiring drops his load here.
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- He then uses the loader to mix the two together.
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- This super-rich soil is loaded onto the dump truck.
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- Proper placement is crucial when planting a tree. Getting six trees in perfect alignment requires exact measuring.
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- Tweaking here and tweaking there
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- The alignment looks just right.
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- Once the positions are set, the ropes and wires are removed from the tree ball.
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- Next, the composted soil is brought in.
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- The trench is filled in.
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- This photos shows how nicely aligned the trees were planted.
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- I really love how these new forms look in the landscape.
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- Once the site is cleaned up, Shaun gives these newly planted trees a good watering.
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- The trees will be getting posts and wires to support their lovely sculpted shapes.
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- This is a fine example of what happens when espalier apple trees are not tended to. This stand of trees, at my farm, is very old.
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- You can see the espalier form, however, these trees were allowed to grow without supports.
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- For this task the edger was attatched
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- To dig the area for the new trees, the thick grass has to first be removed. This edging tool helps make that job easier. We used a new Kawasaki product for the edging – it has 9 different attachments that are interchangeable. Shown here are the string trimmer, pole pruner, fixed and articulating hedge clippers. Model of this unit is the KMS27A – Power head.
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