STUN Orchard
This is the story of our fruit orchard that almost wasn't. As of today we have 2 peach trees, 2 plum trees, 2 pear trees, 2 fig trees, 2 jujube trees, and 17 goji berry shrubs. We like to call the area our STUN orchard. STUN is an acronym for Sheer Total Utter Neglect. The plan is to just let the trees and shrubs do their thing with as little maitenance as possible. We don't think it will ever be completely maitenance free, but as of right now things are looking pretty good.
The orchard was born back in February of 2015 shortly after we moved into the homestead. We planted it in what we thought was the perfect spot out in the front yard next to the driveway. On Valentine's Day we went to a local nursery and purchased 6 peach trees, 3 plum trees, and 2 pear trees. At the time we really didn't know much about the importance of root stock and chill hour requirements, but thankfully shopping local saved us. Our local grower only sold trees with proper root stock and chill hour requirments for this area.
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Over the next two years things didn't go well. The trees were having problems establishing themselves, and several flat out died. By August of 2017 we had just about given up hope until we found a YouTube video featuring Paul Gautschi and his Back to Eden gardening method. It seemed so simple. Get rid of the grass and cover up the ground with a layer of wood chips in order to provide a more natural environment for the soil biology. It was worth a shot, and a tree crew just happened to be in the area trimming trees along the powerlines. We contacted the company and they happily dropped over 20 loads of fresh chips in our pasture. It was a win/win for both of us. The chips were free for us, and they didn't have to haul them miles away to the dump and pay to drop them there.
Landscape timbers just happened to be on sale at Lowe's/Depot that week so we bought a bunch and framed in the area around the trees. We then placed down a layer of painter's masking paper as a weed block. We wanted to give the plot a head start, so we added a layer of composted horse manure we got from our neighbor next door. Then we piled on some wood chips. We also planted 2 goji berry shrubs between each of the fruit trees (20 total), and added 2 fig trees, and 2 jujube trees to replace the others that had died.
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What an incredible transformation in just two months. The peach trees which we thought were dead were loaded with foilage. The plum trees looked amazing. The pear trees looked decent, but I think they were heading into winter mode. We'll have to see how they do come spring. The fig and jujube trees looked great as well. The goji berry shrubs had nearly tripled in size. We even planted some spaghetti squash and canteloupe under the trees just for fun.
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It snowed in early December, which is very rare for here. That pretty much put an end to the canteloupe and spaghetti squash. Sadly, it didn't kill the weeds. We probably should have placed the paper weed block down on top of the compost instead of on top of the grass. Oh well, lesson learned. If things dry up a bit around here from all the rain lately, we'll add another layer of paper and wood chips for the rest of the winter. Come spring the orchard might just be ready to plant something else under the trees.
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All of the images in this post are clickable just in case you want to see them full size. Be sure to up-vote and/or comment if you found this post useful or entertaining. We'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Hi @barriault, nice to meet you.
The orchard looks cool! Do you plan on having a perrenial ground cover? I think it would significantly help the trees (in case it's not a grass type plant) and it would help you since fewer weeds will be around!
You might consider reading this article I wrote a while ago about ground cover, updates coming soon so tune in to my blog!
BTW - It might sound weird but I love to see all weeds (except for extremely invasive, perrenial ones, like Reynoutria japonica around here), they are like free biomass that's grown on spot, it means the future of the soil is more fertile than it was before!
Keep your soil covered <3
YOU have an exceptional area and garden!!
I tried to seed out goji berry bushes last year but had no luck. I used up the six seeds I was gifted and now need to find more. I am determined to grow those bushes... lol
They grow very easily from cuttings. Literally just stick the cuttings in a pot with some dirt and water regularly. Maybe there is someone near you growing them willing to give you f few cuttings?
I know we have a garden club- I see signs at the library all the time.I will have tot stop at the bulletin board next time I'm there
What a wonderful area! I have never heard of a Jujubee Tree...what is that?
Makes me want to try some fruit trees in the front area...we planted several in the back, and the goats ate them to death! Upvoted & following
I’m not too familiar with them. I traded some lettuce and microgreens for them at Market one day. They are also known as Chinese date trees. I’m looking forward to getting some fruit and giving it a try.
you'll have to keep us posted! I'd love to see the outcome
Dear @barriault. What a wonderful post this is. And what a wonderful topic. I heard about STUN for the first time by Mark Shephard from Restoration Agriculture on a video of a tour he gave on his property. I was baffled by the approach he uses and also by the way he thinks about trees, varieties and hardiness in general.
STUN seems to be a very appropriate strategy for true relilience in times of increasing weather extremes and fits well into the dicipline of Permaculture. Because of Mark I only thought about STUN in big scale agroforestry systems and never in the homestead scale. But here you are showing off your great experience with lots of photo froof.
Thanks for sharing.
I have his book. A little over the top with the whole ‘save the world’ evangelism for me, but a bunch of good info packed in there.
We're also practicing STUN with all the perennials at our new garden! However, you might not now that Mark, who coined the term STUN as a management practice, in later years updated the abbreviation to mean "Strategic Total Utter Neglect"! ;)
So he manages pretty intensively his farm, but only at strategic points in time. It's what we've also taken in our third year in the new garden!
Now that you mention it, I guess I do recall that from a recent YouTube video where Justin Rhodes of the Great American Farm Tour featured him. I’m aiming more for the old ‘sheer’ definition though.
Looks good. Even STUN can be a bit of work to get established
That's really cool. We sort of planted a STUN orchard last year. It was mainly experimental but I plan on putting in a substantial orchard with minimal care in the next few years.