Planting an Orchard? What are you planting? It depends on the tree. Avocados have much larger spacing for example. Lemon trees and most citrus will fit your design but kiwifruit and grapes would not. so it depends on what you want to plant. Look online at full sized trees that you want to use and then map it out. Are you intending to mow it all the time or are you going to have sheep? Is it north facing? Where does the water flow through the property? Are the plants water hungry or prefer dry feet. etc Clay soil is suited best to certain types of plants maybe you could investigate that first and then choose what you want to plant. Hope this helps.

Brilliant idea! I am also a beginner gardener and have planted many fruit trees recently. Some of the tips I can offer are: Make sure there is easy walking access to each tree/area. See if you can stagger them with smaller ones at the front and larger ones at the back so they all get good sun. Even consider some of the dwarf varieties (they still produce full sized fruit) for the front. I also have clay soil, so made sure when I planted the trees I dug extra deep holes and put in some pebbles for drainage, and a good helping of compost before putting in the trees. I have also heavily mulched around them with a deep layer of autumn leaves topped with peastraw to stop the leaves blowing away - but in a doughnut shape so the trunk of the tree is not covered. I put down a bit of blood and bone under the mulch - apparently this helps the leaves to break down faster and stops too much nitrogen being extracted from the soil while they break down. Once they do break down, they will add all sorts of goodness to the soil - I hope! The other advantage is that the mulch is helping keep them "warm" through our frosty winter, and will help reduce evaporation over summer, so reduce watering requirements. The downside of fruit trees is that over summer you need to be really vigilant for pests, and treat them accordingly - I went through dozens of bottles of homemade garlic spray! The trees I planted are lemon, mandarin, grapefruit, fig, pear, apricot, peach and almond - so far so good, hoping for a first crop of fruit this summer! Hope this helps, good luck!

looking at your plan for the orchard there are more stone fruit than pip fruit (apples & pears) so the diseases are most likely to be bacterial canker, and silver leaf. To counter this you will need to control sucking pests, best to keep the orchard canopy very open by pruning and keep the trees well spaced from one another. There is no indication of the rootstocks your trees are worked on, it is important to know this as rootstock and variety of fruit tree controls the spacing in an orchard.

Hi wjohns95. I have changed the layout a bit since I put this plan forward. I have had to look at which trees need more frost protection and planted them closer to the hedge (figs, Peach and Peacherine). I then also looked at the need for wind protection (ie nectarine) and planted that relatively central. Apricots got planted closer to the house and further from the Feijoa hedge/outer edge of property. Apples are closer to the edge of the property and getting a bit more wind. I have looked at rootstock and have found mostly MM106 or Plum rootstock (except figs). Apparently that should suit our clay soil. Other then that I have dug holes about 30-45cm deep, mixed Gypsum/Clay Breaker with a mixture of compost and mulchy bark up to ground level and then planted the fruit trees +- 20-30cm ABOVE that in a compust mixture with Pea straw for "warmth" etc. on top. And then used either wire netting or a plastic tube around the vulnerable trunks to protect against our friendly neighbourhood rabbit population : ) I have been advised to plant the trees in lines of 3,5m apart and will espaliate them 3m apart or 4m between the figs. Sound ok ?