by Francis Jock

Created on: February 08, 2009   Last Updated: May 02, 2012

There's a full moon shaping up, a welcome sign of renewal and completion. It's time to look ahead and contemplate the coming of spring and the things I can accomplish in my backyard orchard this year. Last year, I discovered that almost everything I have ever read about gardening and caring for fruit trees is truly good advice. Here is my list of things I plan to accomplish this year and the top 10 things I've learned for keeping a backyard orchard and garden.

First and foremost are the reasons for having a backyard orchard and garden. Having created some extra yard space behind the house, I'm going to put in a series of raised-bed gardens that will yield enough food for the family with a little extra for the neighbors or anyone else in need. Last year I was impressed at how little time people have to grow their own food. Work and after-school sports are greedy consumers of our time, which, in my opinion, would be better spent teaching the children how to sustain themselves through gardening than learning how to get along with others through kicking a soccer ball.

Secondly, I'm going to devote some extra time for caring for my backyard orchard. It seems that I learn something new about growing fruit trees every year. Last year the lesson was brutal: If you don't protect the fruit and the fruit trees from ravaging insects and rot, they will destroy as much as they can. More for them, less for us, as they will return year after year once they have discovered an abundant source of food. Wouldn't you?

Here are the top 10 lessons I've learned from last year's backyard gardening:

1. Raking up the moldy leaves from beneath the fruit trees and burn them.

2. Don't use oak, hickory or butternut leaves in your mulch pile, as they contain acids that aren't' friendly toward the soil.

3. Strawberry plants must be protected from invasive weeds, or else they will become overgrown. I think it's better to grow strawberries in raised beds.

4. There's a trick to growing a fruit tree from a seed, such as a peach or plum seed. I'm going to try it out and see if I can get a tree to sprout. If you don't have the time to do so, buy a healthy tree with a warranty and don't over-water it. Newly planted trees don't need as much water as you think, and more trees have died from too much love than for any other reason.

5. Blueberries and raspberries may be a good investment, although they take a few years to grow large enough bear fruit. In the long term, however, they might just be worth it, but

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