How to properly plant a fruit garden: tips
Kyiv • UNN
Tips for beginners: choosing unpretentious crops, taking into account climate, soil, neighborhood. Proper preparation of the site, zoning and planning of plantings for a bountiful harvest.
In order for the orchard of fruit trees and berry bushes to yield the maximum possible harvest, it must be laid out appropriately. The Association of Gardeners, Winegrowers and Winemakers of Ukraine provided advice on how to properly plant a garden to take into account all the subtleties of growing garden crops, reports UNN.
What crops are suitable for beginners?
The first thing a novice gardener needs to determine is which trees and shrubs to plant in the garden. It is necessary to know that here you need not only to decide on the type of plants, but also to find out whether their neighborhood is permissible. The thing is that some varieties of both fruit trees and berry bushes cannot grow in close proximity to each other. This is due to the fact that plants will compete for access to nutrients in the soil. As a result, the stronger species will survive, and the weaker one will slowly dry out and soon die.
Another important point when choosing what to grow in the garden is the complexity of caring for a particular crop. Today, breeders have bred many different varieties of trees and shrubs. However, only some of them are considered unpretentious to growing conditions and care.
A novice gardener, in order to provide himself with a plentiful and tasty harvest in the future, should choose plants for planting according to the following criteria:
- climatic conditions in which the variety should be grown. The choice depends on the weather conditions characteristic of the region of cultivation;
- yield. This parameter should not be lower than the average level;
- care requirements. Naturally, a novice gardener should focus on those crops that require minimal care and do not include complex agricultural procedures;
- frost and cold resistance. The higher these indicators, the less trouble there will be with plants when preparing them for winter;
- fruit ripening period. It is better to give preference to early and mid-early species that bear fruit long before the appearance of autumn frosts. This will allow a newcomer to harvest the crop without losses.
When choosing, you also need to evaluate the characteristics of the soil so that the planted seedlings do not experience a lack of nutrients. It is worth noting that in order to obtain a harvest during the season, it is necessary to plant several varieties of the same species (for example, apple or pear). Moreover, take varieties with different ripening periods of fruits.
Most often, beginners grow apples, pears, plums and cherries. From shrubs, it is worth choosing gooseberries, any varieties of currants, raspberries and blackberries.
Selection and preparation of the place
In order to plant trees, shrubs and vegetable crops on your site, it is necessary to prepare a "planting site" for them in advance. First, the land should be cleared of wild shrubs, plant residues and stumps, as well as stones and other debris. After that, the soil is plowed and dug up.
Then the area is watered to provoke the appearance of weeds. Then they are destroyed and the land is leveled. At the same time, fertilizers are applied to the soil to improve its performance. The soil can be sent for analysis to accurately determine its condition. This will help to find out what fertilizers need to be applied.
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Drawing up a placement plan
In order to properly organize your garden, you need to zone it and determine the place of growing fruit trees, berry bushes and vegetable crops.
The layout of the garden for fruit trees is also drawn on a piece of paper. About 4 square meters must be allocated for each crop under one tree. You can't thicken the plantings. The distance between plants should be 4-4.5 m, and between rows - 2.5-3 m. But if columnar varieties are grown, then the distance can be reduced.
To obtain a harvest in the amount for one average family, it is necessary to plant approximately 1-2 trees of each variety. In this case, early, middle and late varieties should be planted in order to harvest during most of the season. Preference should be given to zoned species.
Berry planting planning
When forming a berry garden, the characteristics of cultivated crops should be taken into account. Here it is important to determine the neighbors. For example, black currants and gooseberries, like sea buckthorn and viburnum, should not grow in close proximity to each other. Such species should be grown separately.
Some gardeners prefer to plant berry bushes along the border of their plot. This format allows you to free up the internal space of the garden for other zones (for example, recreation) or vegetable crops. However, this placement option is possible only in the absence of a green fence on the site.
It is important to correctly determine the density of plantings. This parameter is selected for each variety and depends on the growth rate of plants. For example, raspberries are planted in dense rows with a distance of 1-1.5 m. 0.5 m of free space is maintained between the bushes.
What trees are prohibited from planting in the forests of Ukraine
The Ministry of Environmental Protection has approved the list of alien tree species prohibited for reproduction in forests.
The List includes 13 species: ailanthus, Manchurian aralia, dwarf elm, prickly gledicia, black walnut, red oak, western carcass, ash-leaved maple, narrow-leaved olive, paulownia (species and hybrids), common robinia, late bird cherry, Pennsylvania ash.
Alien tree species are capable of changing or destroying entire ecosystems. Lacking natural enemies in new territories, invasive species rapidly multiply, seize space and displace native species from natural landscapes.
