Spring is coming and we have to start thinking of what we're gonna grow. Yeah we have big dreams we want a huge fruit orchard and then in the future as well. Veggie patches, a greenhouse, nut trees, we want to produce as much as possible for ourselves in our land. But we don't know that much, do you? If you do maybe you can help us out right now. If any of you have knowledge on planting fruit trees, permaculture, orchards, nut trees, fruit forests. Yeah we need your help. Hey everyone in today's video we'll be talking all things fruit orchard. We're not back in Spain yet we're still in the Netherlands but for a few weeks now we've been discussing and looking into and thinking about our future orchard and this is because the moment we get back to Spain in April we have to get planting. We cannot wait we're already a bit late in the seasons so the more planning we do now the better for us later. And here's where we might need your help. If any of you have knowledge on building your own food systems or permaculture you could really help us out. When thinking about this project the first thing we did of course was looking at the possibilities of the different sites we have on our land for a fruit orchard. To do this we have thought about the microclimate conditions as well as where the existing vegetation is and the water sources. So basically in this property we have multiple spots where we can put trees and our objective is to start planting fruit trees as quickly as possible. We know that fruit trees take a really long time to give fruit and we want them to get settled. Also we need to kind of trial and error our way to knowing which trees will survive here with the big differences in weather typologies that we can have in one same day. They have to be pretty resilient and the reason we cannot really base ourselves of any other people's knowledge is that the locals here are herders and... - Solally. They don't grow any food, not even potatoes or simple greens. - I think the woman used to in the past but now it's gone. They just go to the supermarket so they all tell us that it's possible to plant fruit and veggies but that they don't know exactly which varieties work best. So yeah we kind of have to figure it out on our own and one of the biggest hurdles for us when trying to plant this fruit orchard that we want to plant is where to put it. - Yeah there are two main things or actually three to take into account. First it's the strong winds like we can get hurricane type winds here and we need to take that into account because of course we need to protect the trees as much as we can. - Just a little note by strong winds we mean winds of 200 kilometers an hour. Our neighbors right next to here had a meteorological station on their land for three years in a row and the three years they recorded winds of 200 kilometers an hour so we need to take that into account. - Yeah so the wind already defines that certain areas are off-limit for example the more flat area down the property. - Or some trees might not do very well in those conditions. Then secondly of course the goats. - Why are they chasing the goats out of the field? The goats are a massive issue and we cannot fence this whole area off because this property is 12 000 square meters and we just don't have the money to fence it off so we need to keep everything a little bit more contained central so we cannot fill the whole field up already with trees we need to do it in stages. And then thirdly we are northeast facing with the house the sun comes from the back from on the other side of the mountains of course in summer this is not an issue at all but in winter if we want to get a little bit of sun we need to get those sun angles correct. - Yeah so let's go through the options of the fields we have. This is option number one. With our limited knowledge we kind of think this might be the best spot. The reasons being there's a whole line of trees along the property line which protects from the wind. So the wind comes from the south, the main winds come from the south and the sun also of course comes from the south. So here the trees will be the most protected we think but it's also the place that loses sun first in winter. So that means that in winter around 4 pm there's no longer any sun. Other good things about this plot is that it's a bit flatter so we would be able to reach the trees easier. - The zone behind us is beautiful as well. It's a beautiful meadow, you say that. But it's very steep and I'm a bit scared that if we start taking the fruit it's going to be a bit complicated like wiggling down the mountain. - Yeah you mean the next field over. - Another advantage of this field is that our water source is coming in there. You see the tank there that is where our main water source comes in that we use. - I don't know where it is. Somewhere there somewhere there. - Yeah so we can through gravity quite easily let the water flow down this hill. And then another great thing is that here there are two water sources on our land that we can also redirect partly to flow through this field as well. - I mean it rains here pretty often so we hope that normally we won't have to water the plants but in case there's ever a drought period then we have water accessible very easily here. - Yeah also because those springs never run out of water luckily. - And the positive for me as well is that here the trees no matter how much they grow they would never block our views. And that is nice. - And I think it's also really nice to have this entryway a bit more with trees, no? - Would you make it a bit of a lane? - Yeah okay so option number one then right opposite the field we just showed you is this little bit of land. It's not huge but there's already a couple of fruit trees here so we think maybe we can plant a few more. If the orchard the main orchard is there then we can continue it here whenever we need to make it bigger. - And it's really nice also of the other orchard is that we are right next to the driveway so we can easily access it. - Yeah anything else to say? - Pretty it has water. - Water? - There's more sun than that one probably. - Yeah. - And it's properly secluded although that tree got hit by the wind a lot so even the winds down here are still very strong. - Yeah. - Option number two. - Yes so this is the field that is in front of the studio and kind of from the house if you're looking at the mountains. It has medium wind protection because there's a couple of trees there's also the structures so I kind of think yeah the plants will be a bit more protected the trees will be a bit more protected and it has more sun than the first option. - And it's more closely connected to the studio and the house. - But the main con for us here is the fear that they might block the views. - Yeah even though the fruit trees will never get that high we will always see them from our house and the views won't be as clean. - Yeah and the views are spectacular as you've seen so having trees in front of that we don't know if that's the best. Another big con is that there's no water here. - We would have to put a pipe system. - Yeah we'll have to get a pipe all the way from the source to here which is of course not the biggest problem but it is something we'll have to take into account. - And finally option number three. Here we have a huge field that we don't do absolutely anything with. - No. - So it would make sense if we could make this a huge orchard. However here the trees would be completely exposed to the wind. There's nothing to protect them. - And there's an extremely strong wind coming from that valley area so I think the wind is even stronger here than it is next to our house which is already quite intense. - Then we also have the issue of the views again although if they're a bit lower the trees probably won't interfere. - And the water. - And the water. - The water is even further here. The big pro is that this area gets the most sun by far even in winter. - In winter in the evenings when we have no sun on the rest of our property this field still gets it. So for trees that need a lot of sun exposure this would be a really good spot but could they deal with the wind? I don't know. Like here is where we have the big questions. - Yeah there is something we can do of like creating a wind buffer along the property. Willows are native here so that is an option to have willows that we'll cut every year so they stay low and we can use the the branches for all the works in the land. We can also do other things with small other trees maybe that's something you can recommend to us. - Like our property line is so close that we are cutting like we're getting away our sun not in summer but in winter. - In winter you cut the willows. - Yeah I don't know but in our home you feel a lot the trees when the sun is really low. - That's true and the sun gets pretty low here. - So that is a worry of mine. I don't want to limit our sun exposure even more. So wind, sun, what are you more willing to deal with lack of sun or a lot of wind? - I think the lack of sun because the willows are only there and the rest of the trees are much more here they will never get interfered with the sun. Another good pro is that we're very close to the greenhouse, the future greenhouse that is here so we would be able to work on the land much closer and much easier and also for a future veggie garden that will probably happen here not so much there. - Yeah okay so a lot to think about. There's option one with less wind but also less sun. Probably the place that makes most sense also it already has some holes that look like they were ready for trees so that would make things easier. - Yeah apparently two owners before they wanted to plant 2000 trees. - Yeah and they never got to it. - But they made the holes already for it. - They started preparing them. Then option two with medium wind, medium sun. - Still good sun but less. - And the issue that it might block our views. And then option three with great sun and a ton of wind and also the biggest space I would say. Given the three options we have for now which one would you choose? I still don't know if we should be prioritizing maximizing sunlight or mitigating the harsh winds which is more important. But taking into account everything for us site number one feels like the most manageable. It's not too big which is good as a starting point and will allow us to fence off the area and protect it more easily at the beginning. It has water access very nearby and it will also in no way limit our views which is quite nice. So for now all my plans are kind of geared on that plot but they can of course change. In that plot I'm calculating that we have around 100 square meters to play with or maybe 150 if we include the plot at the bottom. And this should allow us to plant between 10 and 15 trees. The design I'm working on is not final in any way but I have started working on it because I got really inspired by a woman I found on Instagram. The name of her account is seedandscribe in case you want to check it out. Luckily the climate here is quite mild in the sense that we don't get Canadian winters or Swedish winters here. It doesn't freeze till below minus two minus five. It doesn't go lower than that. So we are in the mountains but it doesn't get extremely cold. The weather changes quite a lot so I do think there's enough days of sun that we can sustain some veggies. But things like tomato plants for example don't do well here because of the humidity that there is in summer they tend to get diseases. So it is humid enough for some plants to not be able to thrive even though there is sun. Yeah that's actually good to mention that the clouds quite often come into the valley and we block them here. So they get blocked basically on our level and you can barely see five meters ahead of you so it gets properly humid on the ground. But temperatures are mild. It doesn't get too too hot in summer. They've only had a couple of heatwaves over the past couple of years because of course climate is changing. But normally that used to never happen and if you do have a heatwave here it only lasts for a few days. So temperatures in summer normally range between 15 degrees and 20 something let's say. That's the normal temperatures and then once in a while there's hotter days. Anything else about the climate? No most things should be able to grow. We've talked to quite a lot of locals that have seen other people grow stuff and citrus trees grow here. Well citrus is a bit more difficult but apples, pears are not an issue at all. Everything you can grow in the Netherlands easily. Basically you can grow here berries all berries will do well. Nut trees, we have hazelnut, we have walnuts, we have chestnuts. Yeah those do really well. So this is what is important for us. We want as much fruit variety as possible. Finding concrete information for the area has been so so difficult. So I'm sure we're going to have to just do some guessing and also some trial and error along the way. To get inspired we decided to go to a local garden center here in the Netherlands to see what tree varieties they had available now. As the weather conditions in the Netherlands are surprisingly quite similar to where we live. I would love to have one of these in our garden. No? This we want for sure. It attracts birds, it attracts butterflies and bees. Our cabaña would look so nice with some wisteria around it. Don't you think? No one has that. So I guess they cannot grow there We've come to a garden center in the Netherlands, not to buy plants because we cannot transport them across all countries. But to get inspired and to make a list of plants and trees that we know we want for sure. And that way when we get home we immediately source them and get to planting. This I want the "hop plant". I think it looks really cool and it's good for birds, butterflies and bees. After some research we think we'll be able to grow varieties of apple, pear, cherry, plum, peach and apricot trees. We might also be able to plant kiwis, mulberries and persimmon trees. All that sounds really exciting. But in the future I'd also really like to try more niche, unknown, funky varieties of plants and fruits that we could see if they work there. Never seen that before. Have you? No. See this is the type of thing I want to try. Just random plants. What is this? This we want for sure. It's a berry that we just discovered last year and you normally cannot find it in the supermarket because it's very delicate but it's delicious and it grows into a huge tree. So we're gonna get this for sure. I'm gonna see if we can buy the tree in Spain and if not we'll take it from here. So if you have any suggestions please please drop them in the comments. We are really interested in regenerative gardening and therefore we know that we'll have to focus as much attention on the complementary plants as the trees themselves. This is what I've learned so far. I have to look for plants that are nitrogen fixing, dynamic accumulators and pollinator attracting. Nitrogen fixing is that they give nitrogen to the soil. Dynamic accumulators basically means plants that extract nutrients from deep in the soil more to surface level so that the trees can benefit from these nutrients. And pollinator attracting is self-explanatory. You need pollinators for an orchard to be successful so you therefore want to attract as many as possible to your land. For us in the north of Spain I think this will mean including yarrow, clover, chamomile, thyme and dill. I'm pretty excited because a lot of these plants will be beneficial for the trees but also have more uses that are beneficial for us. In between the trees we are also thinking of creating a system of trellises where we will put raspberry bushes and blackberry bushes. This would be great because we would get berries which yum, who doesn't love berries but also these plants are great for pollinators. Now as we mentioned before in the site analysis one of the biggest worries in our area is how harsh the winds can be. So along the southern border our main focus will be creating living windbreaks. This basically means having vegetation that is really sturdy can handle the winds and therefore protects all the plants that are planted afterwards from the initial you know the initial shock. In plot number one, we have the great benefit that there's already a whole row of ash trees to help with that but to have more protection we'll also want to add some shrubs. Here I was thinking of planting some more holly plants and perhaps also juniper bushes as they're both keystone species for the area. In case you didn't know this a keystone species is one that is not only indigenous but also really important for local biodiversity. We already have a couple of holly trees on our land and they are doing really really well so we thought that would be a no-brainer but apparently juniper is also very important and I think it would suit there. What is exciting about this living windbreak is that it will also be a great habitat for wildlife. Now these are our initial plans I would love to hear any suggestions you may have perhaps things I'm missing or plant varieties that I should be considering. Yeah it would be really nice to hear more opinions. If you know any cool rare plant varieties that we might not even have heard of let us know as well in the comments because we'd be excited to try different things. Yeah so this is basically a bit of a call out for you to actually comment. Just let us know, give us a little bit of tips of how we should do certain things. What would be the smartest, what you would do and yeah we'll over time start developing an idea when we come back from the Netherlands. If you know of course. If you know. Don't just randomly start.. or you can. I mean you can give us suggestions without knowing. Put "Armchair Expert" in front of it when you comment. Anyway we're very excited about planning this we're going to do a lot of online research We're going to try talk to as many experts as possible and then we're just going to have to try and see what works and what doesn't. The thing I'm most worried about at the moment is not really figuring out which plant varieties we need but more how how will we source them. I really hope our local nurseries have most of what I'm looking for but in the future I would love to connect with other people in the area that are interested in in this type of agriculture as well so we can do seed exchanges and plant swaps. If any of you have experience with this type of projects where do you get your seeds and your plants? Do you source everything in normal plant halls or do you have more creative ways of finding the plants? And finally and perhaps the most challenging part of everything we'll have to undertake in a month or so is building a fence around the whole orchard to protect the trees whilst they're young. We'll have to do this because unfortunately there is occasionally a herd of goats that passes through our area. Normally the herders are with them and make sure that they don't go into your property but it has happened before that we've just seen goats everywhere eating absolutely everything. Our baby lemon tree has been eaten by goats. They left nothing like they ate the bark. Holy moly. So we cannot risk it with with our little fruit trees. This really intimidates me. I don't know how we're gonna figure out to make a fence that is not super labor intensive because we don't want to spend a month just making a fence. Also that is cost effective. I know fences can be really really pricey and also that doesn't destroy visually the area but also that it's not detrimental to wildlife whatsoever. If it weren't for goats being such excellent climbers I think we would want to go for a brush fence or a woven stick fence but I don't think that will stop them. I don't know but I don't think that will stop them. So yeah that's something we have to do more research on and try figure out. Okay we've gotten a bit technical here and very plant specific but this is a big project that we're very excited for so hope you have enjoyed the video. Also I want to note that in this video I've just covered a tiny tiny portion of the plants we have for our outside areas. The fruit orchard is very important for us and we're excited about getting it started as soon as possible so that we get fruit as soon as possible as well. But in the future we also want to convert more of the grass fields we have into these really diverse ecosystems. I'm already doing my research to figure out what keystone trees we need to plant perhaps in the very steep slope. There we could have a whole forest in itself and also wild flowers. It would be so lovely to have a section all of wild flowers for pollinators to enjoy. So our fields hopefully will look very different in the future. It will take some years but I'm really really excited about this. Thank you so much for watching for listening to all my thoughts and ideas on how the orchard could be and thank you in advance if you have any knowledge you can share with us. See you next week!
