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Spring Planting 2018 : Part Three
The final portion of this year’s order came in today! A lonely nectarine tree which needed to be planted immediately even if it was raining out. Nectarines are better than peaches in my opinion ranking just below apples. Exciting we’re now at 15 fruit trees in our backyard Orchard… Well some are in the front yard so not sure that term is correct.
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Spring Planting 2018 : Part Two – Citrus
We’ve been going back and forth with wanting to get indoor plants to help purify the air (I’ve got allergies) but have never actually gotten anything. The wait is now over as we’ve gotten Citrus Trees for the house, why simply have plants when you can have citrus! Limes, Lemons, Tangerines and Calamondin Oranges are in our future. We’ll need to make sure we water them and get them proper lighting but for now we’re setting them up in the bay until they get a little larger and aren’t prone to easy breakage from the kids and pups running around.
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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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Unexpected Growth in the Garden
Was wondering around the garden today taking a look at how the strawberries fared over the winter when some greenery caught my eye. After a few minutes of head scratching I realized the garlic I randomly planted last spring are sprouting. I wonder how their placement is going to change where all the raised beds were going to go…
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Cherry Clean-Up
With all the new beds going in last years plantings are looking a little shabby. Time to spruce (cedar if you will) up the Cherry Trees and Bushes. A quick cleaning and some new mulch goes a long way. I do hope the Hanson Cherry Bush that split recovers, time will tell.
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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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Beds and Trellises Round 2
With the first rounds of Trellises and Beds looking good in the yard now for Round 2! With the late snow new spring plantings are delayed. One of the great things about ordering with Stark Bros is they don’t ship until the weather is good for planting, looking at chain stores and even nurseries their stock has already bloomed and the continued cold spell is not treating the plants well. Sunday and Monday was full of chopping 24 2x4s to make 3 more trellises and 10 beds. It’ll let us get all the new plants and the cherry trees boxed but still leave the Apple Trees. I guess there will…
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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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Raspberry Beds/Trellis
With the Blueberry Beds complete time to get the Raspberry Trellises together. The best part of straight joins is the ability to pre drill the screws. With the Trellis post centered on the edges decided to make the ends joined on the outside. It makes the overall footprint skinnier but better supports the post. Also decided to add some corner joints to make sure it doesn’t torque. After getting the bed assembled.. more staining, and more still to come to get full coverage.
