We have tried to keep all of the trees at least 5m apart, but have had to work around two existing trees. It is difficult to know how to lay out these trees – should they be in lines or should they be random. We ended up with a sort of mixed approach. I did put out some orange cones to mark the positions of the trees before planting them. This enabled me to check what the alignment looked like from various locations (i.e. from the roadside, out of the kitchen window etc). I hope that the layout is a reasonable compromise as the trees are going to there for some time!!
All of the trees have been planted with strimmer guards as well as a plastic surround to protect them from the occasional deer that wander into the orchard.