We built the large orchard in two stages. Initially it measured 21m x 9m but we extended it by another two rows in April 2007. It is our main area for fruit production. The orchard is facing  South but receives very good sun from September to April. The ground falls about two and a half metres across the 14m width of the orchard. The rows of raised beds are built along the contour lines. 

The photo on the left shows the orchard in its initial size of  21m x 9m with three rows of fruit trees plus room for nuts and berries. All trees in this section were planted in winter 2006.

The photo on the right was taken in December 2007. We have added two more rows to the orchard and planted another 18 fruit trees plus two grapes. The final size of this orchard now is 21m x 14m. 

We used hardwood off-cuts from the local timber mill to build the raised beds. The boards are only 12mm thick and won't last longer than a few years, but once the trees are established and the beds have settled, we will hopefully end up with gentle raised mounds that don't require any timber any more. All we hope to achieve, is to keep the trees a bit above the natural ground level, so that the roots stay drier in Tasmania's wet winters. The beds are built up with horse manure, mulch and topsoil. When we planted the first section of the orchard, we did not add any fertilizer to the holes. We read so many different opinions about the best way to prepare a hole for planting, that we added a handful of lime to each hole, when we planted the 18 trees a year later. It didn't really seem to make any difference.

Fencing is a big issue in our part of the world. We don't live alone on our property. The woods behind the house are ideal hideouts for possums and wallabies. In the evening ten or more wallabies come down to our paddocks to graze. While they eat a lot of our grass, they aren't a big problem for the garden. A normal chicken wire fence will easily keep them away from the plantings. The possums are a very different matter. They love to climb fences and trees and can jump a couple of metres from one tree to the next. The photo on the left shows the kind of fence we put up around all our gardens and orchards. It is made from 1800mm wide chicken wire. The top 600mm are folded outwards and left as floppy as possible. The bottom 600mm are also folded outwards and pegged to the ground. Possums don't like to climb up wobbly fences, we were told, and it seems to be true. One strand of electric wire gives the orchard extra protection. So far the fences have worked. But we also don't encourage the possums to come to the house or garden. We don't feed them and we don't leave any food scraps outside. 
Birds are another problem. Once our fruit trees are old enough to produce, we will cover the whole orchard with bird netting. That's why all the posts are 2.4m high.

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