what veggies and fruit trees to grow in 2000' elevation range?

[motordavid]

If I sounded too pessimistic/gloomy, it wasn't my intention...
Many of our friends are successful with large gardens and small farms, around Haywood County.

A decent sized dog keeps the deer away/wary, same for bear. Wild hogs, not so much, but fortunately while they are ubiquitous their numbers are not enormous.

Plant your crops/trees, and enjoy your outdoor farming efforts!
GL, mD

[steveh2112]

thanks, my thoughts were about half/half fruit trees and annual veggies. i guess a lot of it comes down to how much time we want to work on it and how much bending over. the nice thing about trees i guess is less bending.

there are some great youtube farmers in NC i've been watching, specifically Honey Tree Farm, however, he's on flat land but still lots of great info. he seems to grown almost everything in caterpillar tunnels. my issue may be i'm in a development and the HOA may have an issue if it looks too much like a commercial operation.

BTW, i did think about a dog but the problem is i hate cold weather and always spend dec-march in Thailand, where i am now, very nice here. so pets not an option.

[VinceTheExplorer]

Originally Posted by steveh2112

wow, looks like my biggest issue is going to be 'Four legged marauders'! a 7 to 10' fence is not really an option , too expensive and i doubt the HOA will allow it. maybe have to build cages around the trees? i read birds are a big problem for berries too so maybe cages are the answer, above and underground

We caged our three cherry trees but the tops are open. They’re really young and only 5’ to 6’ tall but will grow to 18’ to 20’ as they’re the semi-dwarf variety. Kept our 5’ tall cages around them about 4’ off the trunks (8’ diameter) to deter deer from reaching in and nibbling off the new growth and buds.

Doing so has worked well but be sure to put a few garden stakes up as deer love to rub on things and will knock down a cage if it’s not supported well. Also took the top rung of each cage and cut the wire at every second section then bent the wire outwards to further deter them from rubbing or popping their heads over for a bite, which has worked well too.

Once our trees mature there’s really not much we can do to deter birds from showing up for a snack other than beating them to the harvest. We were going to plant a few mulberry trees but because of the birds and excessive amounts of red and purple bird droppings and seeds on pretty much everything we decided against it.

Kinda stinks as we grew up with a tree in the yard and really love mulberries. When we want them we make a trip to Marshall, NC and the waterfront park there. There’s a couple of really nice mulberry trees there that always have a ton of berries on them.

Our German Shepherd does a good job of chasing away the critters but can’t be everywhere all the time. She’s more of a deterrent than a guarantee, but still does a pretty good job. Good luck.

[steveh2112]

what advice on setting up the garden? its virgin forested mountainside, trees don't look too big, it about 20% slope, south facing .

i was planning to push over the trees with the excavator and dig out the roots, scape the top clean then terrace it. for terraces i figure 8' wide flats and 2' walls built with a couple of 2x12" pressure treated boards held in place with 5/8' rebar stakes.

or i could do like 6' wide flats and 2' 45deg earth slopes which i'd grass to hold the soil in place and make look nice, but i think hard to mow on a 45deg slope so not so in favor of that idea, but cheap

then the soil its self? i wonder, maybe first year just plant ground cover crops to improve the soil. i'll be building the house so not going to have time for gardening anyhow. i can put fruit trees in pots for a while, but what ground cover to use?

thx

[v10tdi]

We're at ~3300' and have a garden every year. Tomatoes didn't do so well last year. But we did very well with peppers (sweet and hot varieties), cukes, egg plants, squash, watermelons, etc.

We also have about a dozen apple trees (lots of work, too much IMO), a couple of persimmon trees, and a couple of cherry trees. One of the cherry trees is about 60' tall and we race the birds every year...I wish we could just agree they could have the ones at the top and they would leave the cherries lower down for us. :-)

Here's a pic from last June...we had a bumper crop of cherries.

Cherries! Yum!
by Lee Small, on Flickr

We also had a couple of pear trees, but they were mostly dead when we bought the place. Cut them down to prevent possible issues with our other trees.

We do have to watch out for rabbits in the garden, but the deer have left the garden alone - probably because it is very near our cabin. The deer do love the apples. I pile up the extras every year for them to munch on.

[DLM2000]

Originally Posted by steveh2112

what advice on setting up the garden? its virgin forested mountainside, trees don't look too big, it about 20% slope, south facing .

i was planning to push over the trees with the excavator and dig out the roots, scape the top clean then terrace it. for terraces i figure 8' wide flats and 2' walls built with a couple of 2x12" pressure treated boards held in place with 5/8' rebar stakes.

or i could do like 6' wide flats and 2' 45deg earth slopes which i'd grass to hold the soil in place and make look nice, but i think hard to mow on a 45deg slope so not so in favor of that idea, but cheap

then the soil its self? i wonder, maybe first year just plant ground cover crops to improve the soil. i'll be building the house so not going to have time for gardening anyhow. i can put fruit trees in pots for a while, but what ground cover to use?

thx

And people wonder why we have mudslides here.

[chairmanoftheboard]

Tomatoes, zuchinni, kale.....