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Hi, we plan to grow a few fruit trees or nut trees in our backyard. Can anyone tell us when is the best time to plant? Spring or fall? Where to buy fruit or nut trees?
Also anyone knows where we can go to get good compost or landscape mix with relative lower price? We probably need a lot for our backyard. Any suggestions are appreciated!
Definitely the best planting time is fall. I like the soil from American Soil and Mulch that is a mix of topsoil and manure. If you have access to a dumptruck and a loader, there are probably horse farms that can supply you with a lot of composted horse manure.
Yes you want to plant in the fall to give the trees enough time to establish themselves before the summer heat. I recommend reading the Ag Extensions guide on fruit trees in NC before choosing which varieties to plant: Producing Fruit Trees for Home Use
If you plan on growing figs or persimmons, the guys at the Farmers' Market have a good selection.
The best fertilizer is chicken compost manure. You have to get it aged and not fresh because it's too hot and will burn everything up. Throw it in the lawn, rose bushes, plants, everything. That stuff nuked my veggie garden this year. Best crop of tomatoes I've ever had. Search Craigslist for it. Lots of chicken farmers around. $5 for a 50 pound bag. Till it in.
Craigslist fruit tree's or Google as well. That's how I found a farmer in Youngsville who sold me my Bhut Jolokia Ghost Chili and Trinidad Scorpion Pepper plants. Not going to find this stuff at your local garden center.
The best planting soil I have used is the "Premium Landscape Soil" from Mulch Masters. I have used it many times to create planting beds. It's a very workable soil and does not clump or harden. Plants absolutely love it.
We bought a truckload of composted chicken manure mix years ago from somewhere and had to choose between the more expensive that had the weed seeds killed by some process or the cheaper kind without that...
That's the same reason I'm wary of buying compost from the city. They use everyone's yard waste to make that compost that usually includes all the weeds people have pulled out. I can't imagine the city is doing much to kill off the seeds.
If the city is composting correctly, they are using a thermometer to make sure that the compost reaches the temperature necessary to kill the weeds.
That said, we got a load of compost last spring from the city and was real disappointed, looked and felt like dust. We've had better luck loosening up and enriching the soil with composted pine fines, composted wood chips and leaves from our yard, and composted chicken manure.
On Dec. 15 at Duke Gardens, there's a talk about microbes in the soil by a Jeff Lowenfell. You have to register but it looks like a great workshop.
Def plant in fall. You can go to the wake county landfill that accepts tree debris and get mulch and compost very cheap. The only one I have been to is on New Hope Rd, but I am sure there are others
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