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An Unexpected Bounty of Strawberries
Lo’ and behold August and I were hoeing the garden to plant some watermelon seeds when we had to double take what we were scraping up. To my surprise there were Strawberry plants growing 25 feet away from my Strawberry Patch. As far as I can tell a squirrel must have sat on the fence eating some strawberries last year and seeded the area with more strawberries. Time to move the plants down to the existing patch. Now with the plethora of strawberries “planted” time to work on the Watermelons. On the scale of snacks it goes #1 Apples, #2 Watermelon and #3 Cherries. I prefer to hoe the planting…
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Rising of the Black Raspberries
The Black Raspberry plantings were making nervous as they were the first plantings this year and haven’t been showing any growth. Their color has always been good but today I decided to dig in the mulch and low and behold their they were. We just might get to pick 3 varieties of raspberries this year.
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Cherry Blossoms! and more
Spring blossoms are so rewarding! I love enjoying the outdoors but there is something especially nice in seeing plants mature and thrive. Last year we got a few apple blossoms but nothing from the Cherry Trees. This year 2 of the cherry trees have a few dozen blossoms. Wait a few years and the whole yard will be a bloom! Take a moment and stroll the yard with me.
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Spring Planting 2018 : Part Four
Introducing Thompson Red Red Raspberries. Or simply put traditional Red Raspberries of the unknown variety. Our neighbors have raspberries growing around their garden and were kind enough to let us dig up a few plants to complete our Raspberry patch expansion. As of now we have Red, Pink and Black… we’ll add some purple in the future but the patch is complete for 2018. Now to water, weed and watch them grow. Which they are already doing.
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Spring Planting 2018 : Part Two – Blackberries
I always buy one or two things more than I intended when placing orders and this year it was 2 varieties of Blackberries. I love picking these wild so it’ll be interesting to see how the bushes mature in the Trellis. Elaine keeps picking that I’m building a wall around the yard. I’m not I swear it just is the best placement that lets us keep room for the kids to run around and they need a lot of space.
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Spring Planting 2018 : Part One
With the Stark Bro’s order arriving today its déjà vu time starting the day off with staining and assembling of the remaining Raspberry Trellises. The kids sure are a lot of help and take turns between painting and riding their bikes and scooters. They’ve been cooped up too long. Low and behold right after lunch the Pears, Plums and Black Raspberries arrived and the kids are biting at the bit to play in the dirt. We decided to start with the Black Raspberries, which in hindsight might have waited to last as there was a lot of beds to get dug out and leveled. Kids were entertained digging for worms while…
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Delivery, Hackley Legacy Pink
The In-Laws stopped by yesterday with a bucket of Raspberry out shoots. The best part of Raspberries are they are resilient and multiple like crazy. Brian dropped off a whole 5 gallon drum of 1 year plants. Even with the sleet last night the ground was more than soft enough to work. The Raspberry patch is on the hill so the largest task (after construction) is simply getting them level (or near to). After working pealing off the top layer of grass and mixing in some fresh garden soil (our native soil is pretty much clay under 2 inches) we’re ready for planting. After filling the bed I’m debating moving…
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Cleaning up the Blueberry Patch
April Weekends are for yard work and today we installed the new Blueberry Beds. When we planted the bushes last year we put them a little to far down and so this means burying the beds partially into ground which will also help keep them from moving. Pick-Axes sure do come in handy working around the yard they are perfect for taking the top layer off of an area. A quick dig and some mulch and the patch is complete. Rounded off the day getting the Raspberry Trellises assembled and rough placed around the yard. Doing a quick count of things left to make and it looks like 30% of…
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The Staining Continues…
Another day comes bringing with it more staining. The good news? all the blueberry beds are ready for installation. Excited to highlight the bushes and overall less management this year after this spurt of work.
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Building Continues on the Blueberry Beds and Raspberry Trellises
The great thing about working remotely is that in addition to being able to work from home, there isn’t any “set” hours to the day beyond those I define. Which makes it perfect for tackling all the Spring Yard work. Today we’re continuing the blueberry beds and raspberry trellises. After all the prep work yesterday I found myself in production mode: assemble, assemble, assemble. Its good to be outside and working with my hands. A little more staining and getting the bases for the raspberry beds together and we’ll be ready for the new arrivals… maybe, we still need to get the beds created for the cherry and apple trees.
