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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. |
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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. |
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| August 2008: we built a dedicated berry orchard because we had lost too many berries to the birds! We transplanted the blueberries from the kitchen garden into the new berry orchard. We used runners from the existing rasperry Williamettes in the large orchard for the new row. The plants in the two new rows of strawberries came also from established beds. The other raspberries, the youngberries and the boysenberries are new plants. We used 100mm treated pine poles for the framework. All poles are painted so that no chemicals can leach. They are set in concrete and can't leach at their bases either. The birdmesh is commercial netting, 15mm hex openings. We could buy it in a 15m width and could use a single piece for the whole project. Because of the many possums in our area we decided to use our standard "wobbely chicken wire" fence additionally. Possums don't like wobbely fences and we hope they won't try to climb them. It worked very well so far! But we don't use an electric wire around the berry orchard. | ||||
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| Home | Donations | Poultry info | Garden Diary |
Alphabet of Gardening |
Our Recipes |
Gardening Calender |
Orchards | Kitchen Garden | Vegie Garden | About us | Contact Resources Disclaimer |
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