Hi, I’m a newbie to this site and growing and I’m looking for some advice. 2 years ago I managed to find and purchase 21 acers of forest land. In the middle of it there was a field with a few pines growing. Come to find out this property was an old 4H club location. The field was where they had a baseball field.
I’d like to get a camp on it soon but so far I’ve just been clearing brush and cleaning up a bit. I’ve cut the pines out of the field and I’d love to plant fruit trees in it. But here is one of my issues. The ground is hard as rock and now had a ton of pine stumps in it. I’ve cut them as low to the grown as possible and chipped the trees. I was wondering if I should get someone to grind/plow the field (it’s .8 acer in size) and then plant fruit trees? There is a farm nearby so I could get some manure to add to the field once its plowed.
Where the driveway comes into the field at the top of the picture, the field is 225 ft long. I’ve cleared out some alders and there are popular growing along there. Would it be better to clear the standing woods back a bit and plant the fruit trees there, where the soil wouldn’t be as hard and probably better. Maybe a swale along the edge of the woods?
I have already orders some trees and any advice of where would be a good place to place them would be appreciated. Here is a list of trees/bushes I’ve ordered already:
5 Sea buckthorn
Juliet cherry
10 Nanking cherry
Romeo cherry
2 Elderberry
Aronia Viking berry
Evens cherry
3 hardy kiwi
Cupid cherry
Rose cherry
I’m also going to purchase some apple, plum and pear trees as well. I’m in a zone 4 – 4b. Also I’ll be planting some raspberries and black berries. There are already wild raspberries growing in the field so I think I should be able to plant some raspberries and blackberries in with them.
Any help you can offer would be appreciated.
Woody
