Keeping an orchard honest

An orchard is a structure. It has aisles, a height, a harvest, and a winter diagram that should still be beautiful when the fruit is gone.

We keep the rows legible. Grass is welcome, though not so much that the trees lose their order. The house takes shade from the nearest rank and gives the garden a wall to lean on. In spring the blossom is the facade.

If a tree cannot be reached, pruned, and picked without theatre, it is in the wrong place. The prettiest plan is the one a gardener can repeat in an ordinary year.