PDC LESSON 2.6 DESIGN - AN ORCHARD

 

PERMACULTURE COURSE AGRO-ECONOMY

PDC LESSON 2.6 DESIGN - AN ORCHARD

An orchard can give you an abundance of fruit but fallen fruit can create fruit fly problems. Could you accommodate some chooks (or even pigs) in the orchard to keep the fruit fly in check and raise meat and eggs at the same time?

What about the free fertiliser that comes with this package deal? Growing citrus trees can give some problems with caterpillars destroying the trees. Plant crotalarias in between the trees as these will act as decoys and save your citrus from being demolished.

Crotalarias are also good support plants, and they can be regularly chopped and dropped around the fruit trees to suppress weed growth. This will create a mulch layer to conserve moisture as well as add nutrients for the trees to feed on.

Unwilling to waste agricultural land, the ancient farmers used to plant cows, sheep, geese, pigs, and chickens under the sprawling trees of the orchard.

In a virtuous triangle, livestock were fed from the fallen fruit while fertilizing the trees, providing natural pest control.

To pick the reddest apples in our family orchard, a child had to climb the trees like a squirrel. In all four seasons, the traditional orchard, whether for apples or pears, cherries or plums, was a haven for wildlife. There were the trees themselves, homes for everything from long-eared owls to long-eared bats.

The blossoms of the trees were a feast for badgers for the butterflies in need of nectar, the bees, and the snails on the windfalls.

The cattle that grazed and devoured under the spreading branches of the trees produced poop in abundance; A single cow emits enough sewage to feed two million insects a year, which explains why swallows whirl about the orchard.

Little, if any, pesticide was used.

Text from the roots, Elisabeth Ferkonia (Aus.) PDC studied with Bill Mollison,