Backyard Fruit Orchard Tour | Design, Irrigation, Fruit Varieties (and more!)

[@Mike_Genisys]

Simplicity is it's own beauty.

[@robyn147]

The work you guys do is stunning, and Chip cam is the icing on the cake 💖🐶

[@JohnandBobs]

He really is such a character, we love him! Thank you so much. 🌱

[@anth115]

​@JohnandBobs many organic soil experts say its not good to speed up the microbe process. That when they've tried to speed up the breakdown process they've failed and ots better to wait the years. What's your take and do you find any downsides to speeding it up with blend etc

[@anth115]

​@@JohnandBobsquestion above on speed of results...

[@kathleenmcmaster2605]

I laughed so hard when you showed us your photographer ❤😂

[@JohnandBobs]

That was funny! He's quite a character, often making the crew laugh.

[@gelinda2718]

Chip is on his nap break ! That Boy works hard so from now on chip nap breaks are a must . Lol

[@JohnandBobs]

He naps as hard as he works 😉🐾

[@girirajasuta]

John! I felt very very sad watching this video. But before I go into details of that, let me first wish joy for the owners of this orchard, and my heartfelt good wishes for the trees themselves. Now let me address the sadness part: in the last two years of having my own yard to take care of, what I've seen is, there are mostly ignorant rogues masquerading as gardeners and landscape people in business. So far I've spent upwards of 5k - closer to 10k actually, on different projects in the yard and irrigation is one of them. I cannot tell you what a shoddy job they've done. It is anything but reliable, there isn't a way for me to see it work like in your case here, because our dude has used a drip for my fruit trees, and it is pathetic. Less said the better about the irrigation he's set up for my 14 raised beds!! I've been hand watering my 0.25 acre yard in this 110 degree heat everyday for the love I feel for my plants. Unless a homeowner takes the time and effort to develop a certain degree of expertise in the projects being done aka become a master gardener/landscaper good enough to actually direct these ignorant rogues, or else it's almost guaranteed that we'll be taken on a costly ride. So, yesterday when your video was posted I showed it to my husband and we were contrasting it with our own and chatting about it. And my husband said something that struck me - he said, "all Fernando knows and does well is to wield a power tool and shape shrubs into dumb spheres. And he feels that's all there is to gardening and landscaping because he's likely not worked under anybody like John to have received any kind of professional training in his life!!" My rage towards Fernando turned to sadness and I feel frustrated and helpless for myself. I wouldn't share all this in such a lengthy comment here just to whine about things, John. I'd like for you to please see a business opportunity for John and Bob's in this - pleeeease develop some kind of basic training series for the likes of Fernando and certify them. And I've seen about 5-6 of these dudes come and go, each one messing up more spectacularly than the earlier. They simply have no knowledge of the basics. And my feeling is that people just endure them because the alternative is that it falls on the owner who is already over-stretched for time. We as homeowners have no way of vetting out services other than the costly trial and error method. For starters, the training could be an online course or even for free, just on youtube. But it needs to be something structured and targeted specifically for these "gardeners/landscapers". Thank you so much for these videos, for your products and all your team and you do to educate plant-loving people like myself. Warmly, G

[@JohnandBobs]

Thank you for this comment. We aim to bring information to gardeners and homeowners in a way that they can apply to their own properties. We have discussed doing some sort of class or "gardening master class" online... it's not a bad idea! Perhaps something that we need to give more thought to. I'm sorry to hear about your frustrations when it comes to your hired gardener..that's really too bad. What is the status o f your orchard at this time?

[@girirajasuta]

Thank you for your willingness to consider it, John. I have a handful of friends that are disarmingly honest about admitting how they actually feel about their gardeners. They've shared with me about how they've stopped engaging with them when they show up, simply because it is so unpleasant. And they keep a 'do whatever the hell you do and leave, but don't quit on us!' attitude. These are some of my elderly friends who have shared this. So, please know that there is a desperate need that you guys can fill in this space. Talking about the status of my orchard at this point, they're all alive and well. I was seriously worried if they'd survive the heat what with our "masterly" set irrigation system - LOL - and given that they were all planted in the ground only this March. I bought them as bare root trees in December of 2022. But one of the 4 stone fruit trees bore fruit (peach). My garden beds have gifted me some eggplants, beans and okra to keep me from crying and totally losing heart. So, for the fall planting I'm working on cleaning the beds, ripping out the dysfunctional irrigation that's there and putting in a ready to use sq ft irrigation system that I've discovered. And I've plans of getting some prep work done for shade cloth sometime in spring 2024 in time for the next summer.

[@hakansaribal5093]

They should’ve pick a darker tone for the ground. Light colors reflects the light and makes it double hot 🥵 it’s not good for trees or any plant. Covering with grass works perfectly, protecting soil from drying out quickly, protecting ph level of the soil, basically creating a nice environment for other plants.

[@elmo5355]

May I know which online vender did you use to purchase trees? Will you be doing an update video?

[@JohnandBobs]

We purchased most of the trees from our local garden center, except for the Pixie Crunch Apples, which nobody had in my local area. I searched online for Pixie Crunch Apple trees and ended up buying from a grower in Michigan, but I don't remember which one. We do hope to do an updated video, not sure when exactly as we'd like to let the trees establish themselves a bit more first! - John & Bob's

[@Pinkhair332]

The smart soil products you showed, do you use all 3 of them mix together? Or we should just pick one?

[@JohnandBobs]

Good question! I used and recommend 4 of our products for the new fruit trees. Optimize, Nourish Biosol and Maximize was applied by using our proportionately/premixed "Blend" and then after planting I applied our Penetrate Liquid Biotiller to all the basins.

[@Pinkhair332]

What is the spacing between each tree? 6 ft?

[@JohnandBobs]

In the rows the trees are only about 9' apart which is close, but will work because all the trees are semi-dwarf and because the rows are about 16' apart. Good question! -John

[@robertcasper4257]

Did you test for hardpan in this orchard?

[@JohnandBobs]

We did a lot of demolition here prior to planting so we knew there was some hardpan, but not terrible. All the trees are semi-dwarf, so that lessens the concern somewhat. We were able to manually dig good size holes without encountering hardpan and the holes all drain well. The owner is concerned about hardpan at the site of the dead tree, so when we replace it we are going to over-excavate to about 6'. -John

[@robertcasper4257]

@@JohnandBobs I use to live in what had been an orange grove. We had hard pan problems a lot. I made a water probe using a 10 foot iron pipe and punched holes. Seemed to really help our trees.