Planting Wildlife Orchards (for people too)

This spring we will be planting several wildlife orchards for clients around Central Illinois. I myself have more gill-like tendencies than a green thumb...but the other guys at HB spend most of the year enhancing recreational properties for not just people, but wildlife as well...

Anyhow we will be getting lots of fruit trees shipped in at the beginning of March and if anyone is interested in tagging along on the order we can add on to it no problem over the next week or so....just call or email me nate@hblakemanagement.com for pricing, but most of the trees I am getting in are 5-6' and each cost in the $25 range...

The orchards for the most part break down into 1/4 acre sections or packages....we will be planting 8 apple trees, 4 crabapple trees, 8 pear trees, and 4 persimmon trees per 1/4 acre. The trees will all be of several different varieties of apples and pears...each spaced about 25' apart...

We do this for several reasons, cross pollination being one, diversity for at least partial success, and also to provide ripe fruit basically from July thru December!! Keep in mind the animals dont have to eat all the fruit, you can eat some too...

Anyhow the varieties of apples we will be planting are Honeycrisp, Arkansas Black, Deer Gold, Gala, Honeygold, Empire, Northwest Greening, Autumn Rush, and Enterprise.

The varieties of pears are Ledbetter, Kiefer, Senator Clark, TS Hardy, Gate Pear, Galloway, and Dixie Delight.

Crabapples will be Callaway, Dolgo, Transcendent and Dozier.

The complete 1/4 acre wildlife fruit tree package costs $600. It does require some maintenance, but I can have one of the guys walk you through that completely or they can help you with it or even do it for you if desired...While it does require maintenance, the fruit tree wildlife orchard is one of the most fun longterm projects you can do on your property and it benefits not only just the deer, but the turkeys, humans, and most other forms of wildlife....

So then another optional 1/4 acre permanent food plot we plant next to the fruit tree orchards consists of several species of dogwoods, wild plums, and dwarf chinkapin oaks. 30 of the dogwoods, 30 of the plums and 15 of the dwarf oaks costs about $200 for them and they dont require nearly as much maintenance....

These permanent food plots initially cost more than traditional annual food plots, but actually in the long run are much cheaper! Once established, they provide 30 years or more of wildlife food and add a nice flavor to every property! For some reason I am craving an apple grown from my own piece of land!!