Dug out some pics. April 2013, one year after we planted them.
Plums in tubes, and had a couple extra for 2nd row. The rest of that second row is hazelnut, which we also have native on the property. The plums have easily out-competed the hazelnut; the hazelnuts are still there, under the plums now, but they aren't thriving. This spot is wet clay, but needed a screen between the ag field/road/neighbors, and a little plot. You can see a few pines if you look close; they didn't make it. We also planted some unprotected elderberry in this initial planting and very few of them made it past the heavy deer browsing. I've since added a few hawthorn and crabs along the back (right in this pic), and they are doing well.
Spring 2022. The weeds under the trees are dense in the summer, but they get beat down when plums are falling.
Hard to show suckers because some of the smaller stems you see are hazelnut or elderberry.
One end of the screen is especially wet and heavy clay. I'm finally getting some silky dogwood and hawthorn established there, but still a big gap left until they get some more size to them. Taken from the plot, screen behind my son, gap to the right side of pic. (And yes, grassy, weedy plot, but they eat there.)
Pic from this summer, taken from same point as first pic in this post.
