Enjoying Every Little Bit of Dry Weather

Between rains, I've been outdoors as much as possible lately. With the warmer weather, there is much to do!  Things are waking up and growing again, but unfortunately most of those are things I would rather not have growing!  Like weeds in my flowerbeds and between the paving stones of the front walkway and the patio.  Slowly and steadily, I've been working on pulling those after each rain spell.  At least the soft, soggy ground makes weed removal a bit easier.

It hasn't, however, made it very easy to plant the additional fruit trees I ordered to expand my little orchard with this year.  Both my online nursery order, and my order from the local soil conservation district came in last week.  I've been anxiously checking the soil in the orchard daily, watching it go from saturated sponge-like, to standing water eight inches down a hole, to 'yay!  I think I can plant these trees today!!'

It has been ten years since most of the trees in my orchard went in.  I had intended to add a little more to it every few years, but, well, the economy got in the way and finances didn't allow for such trivial things as more trees.  This year, however, things are looking well (at least, not death-grip on every penny anymore), so I went ahead and ordered some trees.

What I had all ready:

• Apples

1. Granny Smith
2. Cortland
3. Red Delicious
4. Macintosh

• Peaches

1. Elberta
2. Reliance
3. Red Haven

• Pears

1. Maxine
2. Bartlett

• Cherries

1. Montmorency
2. Black Tartarian or Bing (planted both, don't remember which was which and one died)

What I added this year:

• Apples

1. Honeycrisp
2. Fameuse (aka Snow apple)

• Plums

1. Alderman
2. Superior

• Cherries

1. North Star
2. Stella

 After transplanting all my new young fruit trees, I gave the entire orchard a dose of fertilizer, aka composted horse manure, applied from the base to the drip line of each tree (the root zone).

As the wind (some really windy days this month; I'm tempted to dig out the kids' old kites and just play. . . ) has permitted, I've been laying old newspapers down as weed barrier between the rows of my strawberry patch.  This is slow going, as I keep having to dig last year's strawberry runners up from where they rooted between rows and transplant them into thin spots in the strawberry rows.  Not to mention weight the newspapers down so they don't blow away before I can get some mulch tossed on top of them.

Another non-rainy day outdoor task has been recovering the old trampoline that has been recycled into a chicken pen.  The stitching finally rotted out on the cover that came with it, and chickens don't stay penned up too well if there is a humongous gaping hole just a few feet above their heads.

This is the time of year when my chickens aren't allowed to free range because they do too darn much damage!! They love to dust bathe in the freshly mulched flowerbeds, tearing up my perennials as the shoots come up, and eating the seeds of the annuals I plant.  They also wreak havoc on the garden as it gets planted, scratching for worms and bugs--tossing my freshly planted seed potatoes and onion starts willy nilly in the process!  Not to mention also eating up all the veggie seeds I so carefully lay out in April and May.  No, those chickens are menaces to a freshly planted garden, so they get sentenced to chicken jail in the spring and get penned up during their outdoor hours.  They will get paroled once the garden is well established for the season.

Now that the chickens are corralled, I can also plant the red raspberry canes I ordered from the soil conservation district.  Raspberries, tame ones that is, will be a new crop for this little place here.  We have wild blackberries, dewberries and black raspberries galore, but no red raspberries.  So, since I'm splurging on improvements this year, I decided to order several Latham red raspberries to start my raspberry patch with.  Perhaps in a few years I can add raspberry jam to my list of offerings at the farmers market.

Which brings to mind a point.  Or, rather, something I often fail to think about until someone else points it out to me.  I don't have a lot of fancy landscaping.  Most of what I have invested money into has a function other than beauty.  The vast majority of my plants fall into the edible category.  Not only do my trees and shrubs look nice, they provide shade and habitat for wildlife as well as food for my table.  And, as they get larger and bear bigger crops, I can take that extra my family doesn't need for our own bellies and make money from it at the farmers market.  My flower beds contain not just pretty blooms, but things that attract pollinators and other beneficial insects and birds to this little place here.  Mint and rhubarb fill one of the terraces in our retaining wall behind the house.  Chives, oregano, basil, thyme, chamomile and dill reside in another.  I have also, some years, planted garlic beds and salad gardens in one or more of the retaining wall terraces.

Functional, not just aesthetically pleasing.  Investing money, not just spending it.