Your own nursery, step by step

1. Site and fence

A nursery is a small field behind the house: for a family homestead 20–40 m² is enough.

1. A site by the house — Full sun, deep and well-drained soil, a gentle slope and shelter from wind. A tap or water butt within 20 m, so you don't carry water in cans.
2. No old fruit trees — Choose soil where fruit trees haven't grown for at least ten years or so. The site of an old raspberry or strawberry planting carries root diseases.
3. Preparation in autumn — Clear perennial weeds (couch grass, bindweed, bramble), dig deeply to 30–40 cm and add 3–5 cm of compost.
4. A rabbit fence — Wire mesh fencing 1.2–1.5 m high (up to 2 m against deer, 2.4 m against white-tailed deer), the bottom buried 20 cm. In one night a rabbit can strip the bark from a hundred grafts.

Why: Young plants need attention often, so the nursery goes where you pass every day. Where the same species grew before, fruit trees grow poorly (replant disease).

• Plan for 30–50 % more young plants than you need: some won't take, and the surplus is good for swapping with neighbours.
• For blueberries make a separate acid area or use pots.

2. Nursery layout

The nursery has four parts and a place for heeling in.

1. Stock area — Stock bushes of currants, gooseberries and aronia, stock blackberries and a bed of stock strawberries. It stays 5–15 years and takes up about 30 %.
2. Rooting and seedlings — A bed for hardwood cuttings and an area for softwood ones under 50 % shade netting. Next to it a seedbed and a stratification box, each part about 15 %.
3. Grafts and heeling in — Rows of rootstocks, buds and rooted cuttings in their second year take up about 30 %. The heeling-in place, table, buckets and tools have a permanent spot, about 10 %.
4. Rows and paths — Rows run north–south, 70–100 cm apart, so you can get a wheelbarrow through and work from both sides. Mulch the paths with wood chips or straw.

Why: Permanent parts stay for years, while moving parts shift round the nursery each year. That way the soil gets a rest and you always know what is where.

• Where young plants stood for a year or two, sow a green manure or grow vegetables for a season before planting young plants there again.
• Every year note on the nursery plan what is where and until when.

3. Soft-fruit stock planting · Locked

Buy the Your own nursery for fruit trees and soft fruit module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 25 steps.

4. Care through the season · Locked

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5. Lifting and grading · Locked

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6. Heeling in and handing over · Locked

Buy the Your own nursery for fruit trees and soft fruit module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 25 steps.