understory plants for the fruit orchard

Dear Family & Friends

Two years ago, we decided to turn the grass lawn area into a fruit orchard. Greedy us packed at least 12 different fruit trees, probably there's only about 3 meters distance from each other. It will be densely packed but we will try to trim them into dwarf sizes.

facing our young fruit orchard area

To keep the fruit trees happy with more company, we also planted perrennial herb bushes like sage and rosemary. There's also gooseberries, goji berries, and other flowering shrubs planted underneath the trees. The benefit of doing this is that the surrounding soil will be covered with living plants for moisture retention. 

our sweet cherry tree with daylily companion plant

Planting other plants in the fruit tree orchard also benefits the trees because flowering shrubs will attract beneficial insect to the area to later help with the fruit pollination.

our young fruit orchard with surrounding plants for company

The berries planted under the fruit trees are actually producing fruit snacks for us already. So, having understory plants underneath the trees are indeed a win win idea, while waiting for the trees to fruit in their season.

densely packed with berries

Our garden is chaotic in every ways. That's how plants grow naturally in a healthy forest. Believe me, this is not a scary chaos, but a beautiful one.

Enjoy a nice day wherever you are.

Yours