Fruit Walls In the Home Garden

[Calista]

Britesea, maybe fill the cinderblock holes like this, so I'd not only have a thermal mass black wall but also cute little planters:

I'm also intrigued by using the concept of earth berms, both as a "wall" and as an effective windbreak:

 

[Britesea]

@Hinotori you don't need to have trees that are tall enough to drop branches on the roof- you can get some of the cooling effect from planting espaliered dwarf or semi-dwarf fruit trees along the south and west-facing walls, like I'm doing. I am very much aware of the dangers of tall trees around the house as I was nearly widowed a few years ago when a pine tree crashed through the roof of our house one morning. One of the branches punched through the living room ceiling and stopped about 6 inches from my husband's head; you could almost see that angel straining to keep it off of him!

@Calista I've seen that cinderblock planter wall before and I love the look of it; a great way to grow herbs. Instead of earth berms, maybe you should try hugelkultur mounds?

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I really enjoyed the link on the walls @Calista! I don't have any experience with them though, and now I am too far south to really need them, although I am thinking ...

In Wisconsin, our hollyhocks and asparagus always grew up on the south wall. Here in northeast Alabama, we're experimenting with a few trees that would normally grow better further south.

We're close to the highest elevation in the state. The last two nights we had frost, but it'll be about 65 later today, and we had 6-8 inches of snow this winter well before my family in Wisconsin had any (enough to build a 6 1/2 foot snowman, and then some!). Two weeks later, things were flooding with 6" of rain in one day. Already, we've had over 5" of rain in the last week, with thunderstorms, with a 100% chance of rain again for the next two days. (My rain barrels are filling up!!)

Sooo (what else is new?) the weather can be unpredictable. We bought a few borderline lime and olive trees at the end of last year, and have been experimenting (they were 75%off!) We put one lime tree in a big raised bed, and covered it with a pop-up greenhouse for the winter. The olive tree is also in a pot in a bigger greenhouse for the winter. Two lime trees and a peach tree went into the ground, and should be good until -20. It rarely gets that cold here. Unfortunately, it'll be years before I can say how well this will work. Some things are worth trying just for the experience. How cool is it to have our own olive tree??We do plan on adding a few fruit trees every year for the next several years. And I'll probably add a few trees on our west property line to provide a windbreak. Our north and east property lines are woods on both sides.

The berm wall here would probably just wash away here, and look like they take up more space than I want to dedicate to a wall. We're planning on trying some hugelculture walls in a few areas, but even those might take more space than I like. The rock walls would probably get way too hot in the summer.

I really like the picture you posted of the cement block planters. I could probably paint mine white and still be ok.

Soooo many possibilities!!

 

[Hinotori]

 

[CrealCritter]

It should work in my opinion. I would think the more mass the better.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

 

[Calista]

It should work. That was the whole reason they did espalier trees to begin with. You get less fruit per tree but can plant more of them as well in the space.

Note on that is that the pots need caged to protect them from my chickens. The birds know where the heat is. No pots on the step because chickens shove them off. The back door reflects tons of heat making the steps coveted even on cloudy days.

Ha, I do remember growing up how Mom always had to use the broom to shoo away the heat-loving hens sprawled on the flagstone path to the porch. Chickens are pretty smart!

 

[Chic Rustler]

I live in Texas. We just plant the trees. Idk about that other stuff.

 

[Calista]

I live in Texas. We just plant the trees. Idk about that other stuff.

And you get plenty of fresh peaches, right?

 

[Hinotori]

We don't have any trees around the house. Last owner clearcut the front. I have encouraged the willows and alders to grow on the fenceline 60 some feet away to reduce wind. It's much less now than it was 8 years ago. Still no trees by house. Don't want to worry about branches dropping in the windstorms. Plus no leaves to clean from gutters.

I've been thinking about a concrete wall of some kind for the south side of the garden to let me grow some of the marginally zoned plants. Like the eucalyptus that I tried twice with. Both times the trees grew well for a couple years then we'd get a nasty winter that killed them. A wall might be enough to get them through.