Apples

I am totally in love with apples! For
several years I have really wanted to grow
lots of apple trees, but the yard is just not
large enough to hold any more trees. I
had a love-hate relationship with the mail
box when all those wonderful apple
magazines started coming after
Christmas. I wanted to look at them and
order several varieties of apples, but
didn't know where I would put them once
they came. I spent many hours circling the
varieties that most appealed to me, trying
to add the most desirable pollinators while
getting a good selection of green, red,
golden, and pink. Then there were the
heirlooms vs the hybrids. Well, of course,
the heirloom just were more along my line
of thinking. After a month or two of
wishing, I would put the catalogue away
and turn my attention to something I could
grow in the yard...a garden.

Over the past fall, I had an idea. What if
we could grow apple trees in the field with
the sheep? Would that even be possible?
After some consideration we decided to
try 'just one cheap tree' from an orchard
that didn't charge much. After all, I didn't
want to break the bank on an experiment.
The longer I thought about it, the more I
decided that it might just work. When the
apple catalogues came in this winter, we
didn't stop at 'one cheap tree' but rather
ordered 11 that weren't all that cheap. I
guess if I'm going to be disappointed, I
might as well have a VERY good reason
to be! We chose a good variety of colors;
some are bright red, some golden, while
another, the Granny Smith is green.
Most were heirloom trees. Now comes
the interesting part; finding a way to
organically grow them without hurting the
sheep, chickens, turkeys, guineas, or our
guard dog. We also figure we will have to
barricade them like Fort Knox in order to
keep the trees from becoming sheep treats.
I honestly don't mind sharing apples with
the sheep, but sharing the tree itself is
going a bit far. We are hoping that we
can drive several steel posts around each
of the trees and secure chicken wire or
some cut-up cattle panels around them. I
am hoping that the addition of the apple
trees will help keep the soil in place on
our hillside farm while giving the ground a
bit of shade to keep it from drying out like
a rock as quickly. I realize that the grass
won't want a lot of shade, but some won't
hurt, and may, hopefully, help keep it a bit
more moist. After the drought last
summer, I am trying to find ways to keep
as much grass alive as possible.