Finally after years of trying our fruit orchard is producing, due to this old timers method I tried and had success with. I’ve been holding my breath hoping we didn’t get a windy storm and blow all the fruit from the branches, and so far so good.
When I first planted the trees years ago I made a diagram of our property, added the fruit trees, and labeled them with what fruit they’d produce and the year I planted them. Over time I’ve lost and replaced trees adding and subtracting from my master list. It looks like chicken scratch all over the page at this point.
I decided to make myself a new one this year just to tidy it up. I don’t know about you but I tell myself I’ll remember what’s planted where but I never do. I can tell the leaf shapes of fruit trees but I have no idea what variety it is without a master orchard plan.
I’d lost my cherry, and apple trees due to weather and I won’t mention anyones name but someone hit 2 with the lawnmower. So this year for my birthday my Dad gave me a gift card to a local nursery and my Mom did the same as a thank you for hoting them at the Cabin for 3 weeks and I replaced the 4 trees.
Here’s how I created the Master Orchard Plan with PicMonkey
- Go to PicMonkey.com and choose Design at the top of the page and then pick 8X10.
- Rotate the 8X10 using the Rotate tool on the left hand side to make the page a landscape instead of a portrait.
- To create the Green portion of the tree click on the Butterfly icon on the left hand side, and then pick Labels, the first choice is your tree leaves (to change the color to green you’ll move the cursor in the overlay pop up box to green).
- Just repeat that process or right click on the green leaves and pick duplicate from the menu, do this untill you have the number of trees in your orchard.
- For the tree trunk in the same area pick the last one in the basis section. Repeat as above to change the color to brown, and add additional trunks.
- Don’t forget to add the date the tree was planted with the Text tool and the variety of tree to your diagram.
- Print a copy and save a copy to your computer for future reference.
IF YOU MISSED TREE PLANTING PART 1 &2 CLICK THE PHOTOS BELOW
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IF YOU MISSED HOW TO GET FRUIT TREES TO BLOSSOM AND FRUIT PART 1 & 2 CLICK THE PHOTOS BELOW
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I should use PicMonkey to do a layout of our garden to organize it.
Carol that’s a great idea. I’ve planted things before and can’t remember what they are so if I’d had a plot map I could’ve referenced it.
Just came in via Pinterest.
Sounded like a great idea.
I am not certain if Picmonkey (or any other program) could handle the 150 trees I’ve planed since I moved here in 2002. A huge Japanese maple, crape myrtle, red maple, and other unusual tree collection. Really, anything red or with burgundy foliage.
It is interesting, though, that I was just thinking I should make a map….
Thanks for the thoughts!
Christine, wow 150 that’s a lot. I planted 200 pines one year and one of my employee mowed them all down 🙁 I’m not sure how he didn’t notice them, but he claims he didn’t see them. I think it’s a good idea to create a map for future reference.
I went to picMonkey and only seen a photo editing program, I would like to use it for a garden layout,