Yes today was my planting day. It opened with showers that we just barely south of us, and a little cool. So I started off with getting the laundry out, which kept me busy till about 10 am. Which is when I figured it would be best to get started as I did not want to work the soil before it warmed some. Yesterday when we picked up another straw bale for the chickens I "mucked out" the coop to use in the soil mixing I was going to do today.
So This is the "mix" I used for my plantings today. What it contains is:
Peat Moss
chicken manure (straw included)
wood ash
homemade charcoal
oyster shell
leftover compost from last year
local "soil" which is mostly clay
The manure and the soil needed some breaking up to be usable and mixed in. The manure still had some straw that wasn't composted as yet. The layer closest to the top was this way.
This is my new Pecan seedling, it's a
Stuart Pecan. From what I have looked up it says that it is a Moderate producer. Which isn't all that bad for me. I like Pecans, but I think one tree will suffice for us. They also seem to grow to 100ft tall if they do well.
I planted this one in the end of one of the trenches we dug for the apple trees that aren't coming. We had to back fill a little bit just so that it would be at ground level. This little "guy" was a surprise when we went to the farm store the other day. I had not seen them selling Pecan trees before so when I saw it and noticed the price I felt it was worth the cost to get it.
When we planted this I put some of the nearby branches and brier into the hole before we back filled. I know that they will eventually decompose down adding more nutrients to the soil there so it'll help. When I finally got him out of his wrapper I noticed quite happily that this little one was not root bound at all. It also told me just how young this seedling is too.
We wound up putting 2 gallons of water around it. The peat moss really soaked it up. I also added some of the fresh straw to the ground at ground level around it. Just to help protect it. We had to berm up some of the straight soil next to it as we didn't want the soil or water washing away.
Here it is fully into the ground:
Isn't it cute? I know it's tiny, but my thought on that is; it'll grow up with our home. It came with a tiny bamboo stake to tie it too until it gets stronger. Probably a good idea around here as I have seen trees here that are growing tilted or sideways. I image it's due to the wind we get here.
Also this was the first thing I planted, I figured due to the size best get it in the ground first so that it'll have the most time to acclimate before night. That tie on it? It came with the plant. I also discovered that there was a second one inside the "bedding" it had.
Funny story about the ties these kinds of plants have on them. Like most this had one of those pieces of metal tieing it shut. On time many years ago I cut it off... instead of untwisting it. I learned my lesson there...
The next plant we put into the ground was a Red Current:
We did get this one from the same store as the Pecan. Now I am a little concerned that this one won't due much as last time I bought a "boxed" plant it didn't do hardly anything. Those were the grapes I bought from SAMs club before moving here that we planted when we moved here. Thing is they never grew, and from what a local grape grower told me. The ones SAMs sold didn't do anything for her either. This woman grows them for sale to the public so she knows how to treat grapes. ... but those ones didn't grow either. That tells me a great deal.
This lovely little lady has been planted near my up and coming berry patch near my pond. Actually if you were looking right at the pond from the driveway it would be on the back side of it. Partially obstructed by a tree stump that we left to use for growing things over.
I am growing my berries near the pond as the blackberries along the road were the biggest near the stream running across our road. So my thought is why not try to duplicate this by growing the berries near the pond? Worst thing that happens is that the plants don't grow huge berries. Ok, technically the -worst- would be that they don't grow, so far my blue berry does though. So that gives me hope that the other berries will too. I know the wild black berries do.
This one and all the other "non-garden" plantings are getting stakes around them to prevent kids and people from crushing them...
Seeing as how most of the plantings I have done that I recall where the plants are... no one else can. Even when they have helped me plant them. See the little leaves? I also noticed when I unwrapped her that there are some "sucker" plants starting. If it becomes a massive bush I have no issues. I want to have as many plants as I can as fruits I can dry or can. Canning as jams and just syruped fruit.
Before anyone asked, no I have not had currents as of yet. However I have not tried a berry that I didn't like as of yet. Besides if they are dried and mixed with other fruits, I doubt that if I don't like them that I would notice the flavor much. Especially if I mix them with strawberries.
Speaking of which, they are doing very well I am hoping to take a few pics for my next posting.
Now here is something interesting to note.. while the Pecan is on one side of where the house will be and the current is by the pond, the next plant is going near the pecan. However I planted it 3rd. The reason is, we needed to gather a bit more compost so as we had to go close to where the current was going to be planted we just did it while there.
The next plant? Why that's my
White Niagara Grape:
I had to take a picture of this one on the table as with all that growth I didn't dare put it in the wheel barrow to do so. Yes, another "boxed" plant. My thoughts however in this case is that with that much growth (including the starts of 3 bunches) It may do very well.
This one is being planted right next to where my outdoor kitchen is going, it is going to be trained up the side with a goat panel. We still need to get said goat panel. This way we'll have a nice green screen on one wall of the outdoor kitchen. It'll also benefit the grape as that spot gets a great deal of sun.
Tomorrow I need to go back and do some trimming around it, as I didn't have time to as yet. I'm sure the bramble won't choke it just yet. It has a "hook" on the stem that we pointed so that it is growing in the right direction from the start.
Lets just hope if it grows well in the next month I won't have to do much prying to get it where I want it. As from what I hear it's not easy getting a wayward grape to go in the right direction if it gets too big. These first three plants were all bought at the same store, the grape is what decided me to get any plants. As I could not pass up how healthy this one was.
So we had the hole for this one dug well before planting as Silver dug it while I was prepping for the current.
The funny thing is the rest of my plantings were harder in some ways than planting these three plants. We moved on to the garden next.
What we did first however was to make a barrow full of the soil mix and dumped it on the spot that I had planted the Rhubarb that hasn't shown signs of life. We planted some horseradish in this. After which we both figured out we might want to get the hose out and set it up to use. AS it would be a big pain to water in the garden with jugs and buckets.
We have 2 good hoses and 2 bad ones, or more like 2 "useable" ones and 2 bad ones. I say "useable" as one of them leaks like a sieve at the connection point. Other than that it may last the year.
We moved onto my "middle" bed in the garden, and while Silver wrestled with the hoses I loosened the top soil. I had to use my pickax for it.
The track hoe tore up half the soil in the bed so I had to loosen it all up and respread it. I also added a little bit of the soil mix to help add more to the soil. These are my 12 cabbages. They are on the outside of the bed.
I am planning on putting 2 squash plants in the center when they can be planted. My thoughts are that the cabbages will help keep the soil cool if we have another bad heat year. The squash will also help the cabbages in the same manner.
What I did with the plantings is I went one green one red all around the edge of the planting bed. I then planted onions between each one, and a line of "spring onions inside the bed from the cabbages.
These were plants that were grown locally by a nearby nursery, the only thing I didn't like was that they were grown in a carton that all the roots grow together. So I had to cut the plants out.
This is what the bed looked like when I finished with it. I took the picture when I was watering the bed. I also watered the potatoes when I was out there as they looked a little dry.
When I was setting up the bed I had to remove a bunch of clover, which my ladies were very happy. I'd say about 3 pounds of clover to them to inhale. Which is what they did.
I know my soil is getting very good now as when I had to dig it up some I found tons of worms in it. SO I must be doing something right.
After finishing all of this I went up front and after making lunch I cleared another of the tires and planted my garlic in it. We have yet to grow it, so I am hoping it does well.
We moved onto the sprouts and broccoli next.
I reused the buckets from last year's tomatoes with the sprouts and the broccoli as well as the remainder of the ONION and the rosemary. I capitalized the onions as again I bought way to many so I have onions growing every where right now.
I have 5 of these "supplement" buckets, these are buckets where the farm stores sell a feed supplement to farmers. They sometimes bring them back to the farm stores and then they in turn resell them for people to use to plant in.
I have noticed if you need to cut up your plants it's best to let them get a little dry first as I don't recommend cutting them when they are wet. It's like cutting paper when they are a little dry.
Our Rosemary is 2 pots of three plants in each pot so we are hoping they grow big, and together.
I had one more thing to plant.
Tulips!
I like Tulips, I have as yet to plant some before now. These I bought "spent" for $1 at Walmart before they would be tossed out. The cashier was happy to see someone buy them. As you can just plant them in your yard after they stop blooming.
Each pot had 6-8 bulbs in them, also a few of them had baby bulbs growing. I had 5 pots worth of them. I planted 2 pots up by our house sign, 2 pots by my rose, and one pot by the pond.
So I finished at about 2:30pm so I spent hours planting. My feet hurt as does my back.. but it's a HAPPY hurt. I accomplished something today, getting my plants in. Silver also set out the boards we bought yesterday to plan out our bigger well house and where the floor of the outdoor kitchen will be. We had to buy pressure treated as they were cheaper than landscape timbers.
Yesterday if you didn't figure it out Silver got out Wheel barrow fixed. We had to buy an inner tube that was bigger than the one that was on it. However it worked and now we have a wheel barrow again.
That's my fun and busy day, I have to post my pics on pintrest then I will be making dinner!
Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...
This is one of the flowering strawberry plants we now have by my Elderberry trees. Who by the way are trying to take over the spot here. It does not bother me that they are trying to take over there as eventually I want them to fill the space in. Technically Elderberry is a shrub not a tree, however for a shrub it grows very large.
This minor monstrosity is the combined planting of the Thyme,Marjoram,and mint. As you can see it is just a mass of green right now. I think the thyme is going to be choked out. While the mint and Marjoram will be fighting the remaining space out between the two of them.
I do not know if you can see this one or not, however if you can. That's not onions. That would be my first attempt at growing garlic. They seem to be doing just fine, however they seem to grow slower than my onions.
