Barry Frantz

i don't remember what scientific name my fennel has.  it came from a standard seed packet showing picture of bulb fennel.  i never got any bulbs, but lots of top growth with flowers that then when to seed.  now it comes back every year; some i think from prior year plants and some from seed.  since then i've read that where i am (pennsylvania) that bulbs form best from fennel sown for fall growth, and spring seeded fennel will not reliably make bulbs.  i'm going to try both this year; some spring seeded fennel for the bees and summer seeded fennel to try for bulbs.

we see a lot of bees on our small fennel plot, and we also keep bees.  fennel seems to be attractive to a lot of insects .

also see bees active on anything in the mint family.

my math is you need to add another 10 feet to the width for the third row.

then, those species will be at least 30 wide themselves when mature.

So, you may want to plan on the hedgerow being wider than 30 right away, and then are you ok with the trees growing over the fence and into each other.

you may want to consider planting fewer big species, instead filling gap with more smaller species like hazelnut, that may eventually be shaded out anyway

If you know where the sample was taken, and how deep it was taken, you could use USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) soil survey information that includes data about sand silt and clay. available on "web soil survey" at http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov. it may not be the exact sand silt and clay ratio of your particular soil sample, but unless you really need to know the exact percentages for some reason is probably a more accurate average number than what you will get by trying to test it yourself.

the finger roll method is a pretty good quick method, BTW