Planning to Plant Our Asian Pear Trees

Bob Laying Out the Grid

As I stepped into the truck today to take the 25 minute drive to Jonesborough, TN, the sky was clear, and the only hint of snow was the white mountain tops which surround us.  Remembering my friends in New England and the relentless blizzard they had just endured, I was overcome with gratitude for the one warmish day we had to plan the next phase of our orchard.

Today we laid out the spacing for planting the first 126 asian pear trees which are scheduled to arrive the first week of March.  As we measured out our grid in the fenced in area, we second guessed the advice we got to place them 12 ft apart with a distance of 18 ft between the rows.  Then we were really thrown off by how misaligned the rows appeared when we laid them out. And then we discovered that the fenced in area where we are placing them is in no way square.  

So glad there was already a fenced off area to keep out the cows

Like I said in our first post, this first acre is our experimental acre.  As we stood overlooking the prospect of how our orchard will grow, it became clear that our plans are very much guided by the natural flow of our land.  There will be unforeseen circumstances which will alter the course of our planting.  Hopefully the unforeseen will unfold the blessings and the graces which make the adventure enriching.