What is the best course of action to plant a meadow and an orchard near each other?
Question:
I have decided I want the area where my orchard will be to also be a meadow. I am having trouble finding any information about this. I’m not sure if I should meadow and then plant fruit trees, or plant fruit trees and then the meadow, or if there should be time in between. Are there any tips or resources you could share with me?
Answer:
How nice to be planning two great additions to your home garden and landscape–and I think the pairing of the fruit trees with wildflowers is a smart idea to bring plenty of pollinators into the project.
That said, there are a few concerns I would have with actually intermixing the two:
1) Competition. Grasses, wildflowers, weeds, and small shrubs from the meadow planting will compete with the (somewhat resource needy) fruit trees for soil nutrients and, especially, water.
2) Site preference. Wildflower meadows tend to do well in low fertility soil, while fruit trees like lots of organic matter and sometimes supplemental fertilizer (producing a crop of fruits is very resource expensive).
3) Logistics. This one depends on how big the orchard will actually be, and if you’ll be working it heavily or just having some nice trees to pull fruit off of sometimes. If the former, at the very least you’d want clear pathways for easy access to the trees for gear and irrigation. A thriving meadow can be a challenge to regular movement through the area.
Obviously, these aren’t hard and fast problems. You could easily plant the meadow alongside the fruit trees but in a separate space. Or you could intermingle them to some extent but make sure there is plenty of breathing room for the trees. It depends on your plans and the details of the site, but these are the sorts of considerations I’d encourage you to think about while planning where everything will be planted.
As far as the timing goes, based on my above comments, I wouldn’t recommend getting a meadow well established and then planting fruit saplings out among it–the young trees would be at a notable competitive disadvantage in that kind of situation. It would be less problematic to establish the trees first, but then you might be waiting quite some time to plant the meadow. However, if you’re planning in some physical separation and the trees will have their own growing space, the timing is less important. Spring is a great time to launch both meadows and new tree plantings.
Here are a few resources that can help you through the next stage of planning, as well:
Northeast IPM Center Webinar “Planting for Wildflower Habitat”
UMaine Cooperative Extension “Plants for the Maine Landscape” native plants home page
UMaine Cooperative Extension “Growing Tree Fruits in Maine” home page (numerous links to great information)
Univ of MD Cooperative Extension “Starting a Home Fruit Garden”
Happy gardening.