Orchard

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This article is about the planting of trees in agriculture. For other uses, see Orchard (disambiguation).

A community apple orchard originally planted for productive use during the 1920's, in Westcliff on Sea (Essex, England)

Sour cherry orchard on Lake Erie shoreline (Leamington, Ontario)

A persimmon orchard in northern Kansai region, Japan

An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs maintained for food production. Most orchards comprise either fruit or nut-producing trees (see fruit trees), for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive purpose.^[1]

Most temperate-zone orchards are laid out in a regular grid, with a grazed or mown grass or bare soil base that makes maintenance and fruit gathering easy.

Orchards are often concentrated near bodies of water, where climatic extremes are moderated and blossom time is retarded until frost danger is past.

The forest garden is a food production system that is closely related to the orchard. A move towards more ecologically-friendly coffee production has led to forest-garden production of coffee. Brazil Nuts and rubber are being produced in such a method in some areas.

Often, mixed orchards are planted. In Europe Quince is sometimes planted along with apples.