Hi all -

Sorry to post in the fruit tree section when some of my broader questions cross over, but answer anything and everything you can, throw out advice. We could use the help!! My wife and I are starting a homestead up in the Queen Charlotte Islands. We understand that it is a challenging area to be doing this but we are hoping that some of you more experienced folks can help us out with information!

So it never gets horribly cold, never gets terribly warm. It is quite windy, which we are hoping to use for wind power. And is cloudy 3 days a week during the sunny season (6 days a week in fall and spring). We aren't sure how much land we will finally be given (this is on a Native Reserve...can't beat free land!) but it would probably be no more the 15 acres. We don't intend to cultivate all of it, as a matter of fact we are going to start small and grow each season. What we would like to have is...

Several dwarf or semi-dwarf apple trees - Enough for a couple (or Jr. Trio LOL) + enough to bake and sell some apple fritters, pies, pastries at the local co-op/grocery store.

This is a small, small town so we are thinking of a diversity of product so we don't saturate the market and as always biodiversity means, hopefully, something will rippen even in bad years.

We'd also love maybe just a duo or trio or Cherry and pear trees. Varieties? Are these feasible with this weather? What about plums?

We know that crab apples go crazy up here, and that a few people have had the odd cherry tree or little plum(fruit size) trees...but we are pretty sure they just planted em for fun and so don't spray, don't fertalize etc... for instance with 1 4 yr old sweet cherry tree my wife's grand parents harvest a five gallon bucket. Is that a lot, a little...does it tell you anything about the area?

It seemed like it would be feasible to plant under the trees something chickens would enjoy grazing on and just free run (or chicken tractor) a bunch of chickens under the trees to control weeds, bugs, slugs etc...as well as to fertalize the trees. Is this a good idea? Bad idea? Upsides? Downsides?

We also want to grow root veggies, potatoes are almost an invasive species up there and grow 10months out of the year (or more)...but what else should we be considering? Carrots, parsnips, potato, lettuce, maybe a berry patch? In the herb family mint comes to mind...any others?

Lastly, if this isn't the best place to post can someone recomend a good part of the forum to post under?

Here is a link that might be useful: Our weather