And the times, they are a-changin......

For those of us in Maryland, the Winter Solstice was at 5:44am this morning.  As a result, the days are now getting longer.

More daylight = more Vitamin D.  

More daylight = more happiness.

It also means that we're slowly getting closer to gardening season.


Wheeee!

Deer damaged the apple trees!

While blowing leaves from the far field (soon to be the orchard), I got a closer look at the apple trees.  I'd noticed that the foliage disappeared on them early last week, but hadn't been able to get over to check it out.  Since we'd had rain and wind, I figured that's what caused a lot of the leaves to disappear.

I was wrong.

Upon closer inspection, there's actual damage done to a number of the branches.  Apparently, the rain we've received in the last few weeks washed away the deer deterrent stuff I'd applied to the area.  Or it never worked. 

Regardless, I'll have to try something else because what I've done to this point hasn't worked well enough.

Another garden box is in the ground. More garlic = more happiness

We had another relatively mild weekend in Maryland.  The highs were right around 50 F.  Thanks to some rain this past week, we finally had almost all the leaves on the ground.  With a non-scheduled weekend and nice weather, we tackled cleaning up the last of the leaves.  Some even got mulched.

I took a break from some of the leaf-work to build another garden box. With some help from The Boy, I got the hole prepared, box in and relatively level, added bagged topsoil and leafgro, mixed it, planted 9 heads of garlic, and covered it all with mulched leaves.

Clearing out the front garden, part 2

Continuing the series from here.  

A while back, The Boy and I removed a juniper from the bed in front of the garage.  I don't appear to have mentioned it on the blog.  Yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call from Wifey telling me that they'd been back at work in there.  Thanks to their hard work, two more junipers are ready to be pulled out.

I still need to figure out what will go in that front bed and what the layout will be.  I have some ideas, but want to make sure that I'll have enough in there without having overcrowding.

Learning about plants - Proper Pruning Produces Plentiful Produce

I don't know if it's the engineer in me, but I typically try to find the most efficient way to do something.  I'm always trying to figure out a better way to do something, particularly in the garden.

Since I started gardening, I've made a lot of mistakes -- particularly in the first few years.  Here are some things I've learned regarding pruning of my vegetables.

Trimming Suckers

Suckers are little growths that sprout from the crotch between the primary trunk and a primary branch/offshoot.  When allowed to persist, they end up creating volume in your plant and give extra medium with which to grow the fruit from the plant.  I see them particularly in tomatoes and pepper plants (which are related).

Because suckers help you grow fruit, they are a very good and necessary part of crop production, however, they can also be problematic.  From what I've read -- and my experience corroborates what I've read -- as suckers develop and are allow to persist, the plant psychology (if that's even a thing) seems to be given the message that it's fruit-making time.  If you want short plants, you can allow the suckers to develop as happens naturally.  If not, then you need to pinch off the suckers to keep the plant in "growth mode" rather than "fruit-making mode."

I generally prefer to have taller tomato and pepper plants.  By doing so, you have taller trunks which will eventually lead to more overall plant volume to bear even more fruit. 

Pinching the suckers off is typically an easy process.  When the suckers are young, you actually pinch them with your fingers.  The only care you need to have is to ensure you don't accidentally pinch off the primary shoot.  In my enthusiasm, I accidentally did that when I was first learning about sucker-pinching.  I ended up with a beautifully-developed tomato plant that wouldn't produce flowers (and, thus, no tomatoes).

Remove the low-level offshoots

From one point of view, it's nice to have bushy plants.  Particularly when you're very new to gardening, any growth is good growth.  It's definitely a triumph over your noobery.  

Unfortunately, low-level growth is generally a bad thing.  There are a couple of reasons why you want to remove vegetation that's close to the ground.

1. Low-level vegetation traps moisture.

Yes, plants need water to grow, however, by trapping moisture close to the ground you inevitably develop fungus problems.  Once you do that, it's a constant and often losing battle for the plant's survival.  Also, you're robbing energy from the plant that could be better put into growing tasty produce.  It's also annoying for you to deal with and is very discouraging if you're still quite noobish in your gardening.

This is the single biggest reason to remove low-level vegetation.

2. Low-level vegetation helps encourage pest travel.

Thanks to a heavy application of companion planting, I don't typically have a whole lot of pest problems with my tomato and pepper plants.  That being said, you don't want to help out any pests (especially insects) to get to your produce.  Low-level vegetation usually ends up touching the ground and will give critters another avenue to get farther up your plant stalks.

 3. Low-level vegetation can help introduce disease to the plant.

Soil and other nearby plants can have any variety of diseases and fungus.  Leaving low-level offshoots to exist can have them droop after rain or planned watering which will only help to bring problems to your plants.

When pruning off the low-level stuff, I typically prune all horizontal vegetation from the bottom 12" - 18" of my plants.  That gives a respectable pathway for evaporation of ground-level moisture and encourage airflow.  I don't do all this pruning all at once, but do it gradually as the plants grow upward.

Clear out other vegetation

The concept of removing low-level vegetation from your plants also extends to that of other plants around the base of your crop-plants.  Below, you can see where I've pruned off horizontal shoots from my tomato plants.  Nearby, there are volunteer tomato plants as well as some volunteer cosmos plants starting. 

If those volunteers (or weeds in other cases) are allowed to develop, they will end up crowding the crop plants.  That will cause moisture to be trapped around the leaves (encouraging fungus problems) as well as forcing the crop plants to put more energy into competing for light rather than growing in a planned method.

Pinching off flowers

As with suckers, there are times when you want to pinch off flowers.  On crop plants, the flowers become the fruit.  If your crop plants are allowed to continue growing flowers, the plant "psychology" will be to fully transition into "fruit-growing mode." 

As you see the flowers start to form, you need to persistently pinch them off in order to encourage the plants to put energy into growing the plant, not developing fruit. 

Once you're generally happy with the size -- both height and girth of the plant structure -- let the plant continue with flower generation.

More garlic is in, preparing the space for another garden box

Our temperatures in Maryland continue to stay Fall-ish with highs remaining largely in the 50's. I also had a little bit of time (and daylight) yesterday to get some work done outdoors.  

With that being the case and weather reports indicating actual rain coming, I purchased some more garlic and filled in the empty space from before.

Since that went faster than I anticipated, I roto-tilled the space for a third garden box.  Unfortunately, I haven't made that third box, yet, so I couldn't get one in the ground.  At least the soil has been loosened considerably.  Hopefully, I can get that box made tonight.

Mulched the boxes

With Wifey being otherwise occupied, I had to hang out for a contractor doing work in the house.  While he wrapped up his work, I sucked up and mulched leaves from the yard.  

Not only have I finished cleaning up the pile in the driveway, but I've also gotten a bunch of leaves away from the front of the house thanks to the front that blew in on Saturday.

And the onion and garlic boxes have nice layers of mulched leaves on top of the dirt to boot!

Waiting on the wood chips

Still haven't received the wood chips from Asplundh.  After making a phone call, I've learned that none of their crews have been working even remotely in my area.  Until then, I have to wait.

Nuts.

Added another "Helpful Site" to the sidebar

A few weeks ago, I was cross-referencing some plants on the internet and came across Edible Wild Food.  Sure, the website is mostly about flowers (EWF calls them "weeds"), but they're helpful for attracting pollinators.  Thanks to their website, a lot quite a few of what they have on there are a list that will eventually be in our garden.  I'd never realized how many of the herbs I see as teas or seasonings in the grocery store actually come from a very attractive plant.

Aaand we have food in the ground!

Today, I had some free time so I got some work done outside. 

As far as the garden was concerned, I got two more posts in the ground and planted a bunch of walking onions and garlic.  In the picture below, you can see two bulbs on the right and a shoot coming up on the left. 

As with the garden plot, I used what I call the "finger-poke method" to get them in the ground.  Thankfully, since the soil was already rather loose, it went very well.

Unfortunately, I both ran out of the garlic and onions and a cold front blew in or I'd have covered the garden boxes with leaves.  Maybe tomorrow if it's not too cold.

First two garden boxes are in

Although we've been very busy addressing general house neglect from the previous owners, I've been working to try to make as much progress on the garden as possible.  I want to be able to hit the ground running in the spring and don't want to be hamstrung by a lack of progress this fall.

With The Bear being under the weather, I took the afternoon off of work to help out.  Upon my arrival home, I found that things were much better than either Wifey or I had anticipated.  With that in mind, she turned me loose on the yard.

I mowed the lawn (minus the field/orchard) and tried to orient the mulched leaves into areas that would be easy to collect for use in the garden.

Once that was complete, I roto-tilled the area where the first two garden boxes will go.  They are located outside of what will be fenced, but since my fence posts are 8' apart, it wouldn't be a big deal to extend the fence area if needed.  I don't expect the onions and garlic to be appealing to deer since they are frequently used as an organic critter-repellant, anyway.

After the area was tilled, I excavated some of the soil to be able to sink the boxes into ground a few inches.  That being completed, I mixed roughly equal parts of the native soil, bagged top soil, and LeafGro then watered each box to get the soil to compact somewhat.

Next up is to collect the leaf piles from the lawn and be prepared to put on top of the soil after planting my Egyptian Walking Onions and Garlic.  


Notable:

The Walking Onion bulbs that I'll be planting came from my parents' garden.  Their bulbs came from our garden plot.  Our original bulbs came from an organic farm in southwest Virginia.  I love being able to save money through seed-saving as well as having knowledge of the genealogy of the "seeds" since ~2012.

Filling in the "dinosaur pit"

I forgot to take a picture right when it happened, but I had the day off of work on Friday to memorialize Veteran's Day.  I spent a good chunk of the day outside doing some hole digging to prep for sinking the fence posts.

One thing that The Boy and The Girl worked on was to fill in a large hole that they called "the dinosaur pit."  Kids being kids, they had had a grand time using their imaginations playing in and around the large hole that was left after digging the largest juniper out of the central bed in the side garden.  Unfortunately, the time had come to fill it in as part of the prep to turn that space into our vegetable garden.

A good hour of work moving dirt and the "the dinosaur pit" is just a memory.

More garden posts are in, mulching leaves

I got another 4 posts in around the perimeter of what will become our side garden.  The tar really didn't want to go on well considering the temps were flirting with 50 degrees (and dropping) by the time I had the time to tackle this task.

 

Meanwhile, Wifey and The Boy worked on sucking up some of the big leaf pile on the driveway pad.  The leaf blower she bought for the maple leaves at our old townhouse has a bag and chopper option; it mulches leaves quite well.  They mulched about half of that pile and then dumped it on the planter area in the middle of the side garden area.  There's still half of that pile as well as another pile in the front of the house to go.

Getting some wood chips!

A few weeks ago, I saw an Asplundh tree company work truck hauling a chipping machine while I was driving down the road on my way home from work.  On the side was a small sign (like a bumper sticker) that said "Free chips" on it.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  After all, I just recently bought a number of bags of wood mulch for transplanting the apple trees and blueberry bushes and then to mulch on top.

Could it really be true that they're giving away free wood chips?!?

After checking out the FAQ on their website, I found that indeed, they do!

I just put in a call to the local Asplundh office and found out that they do deliver to my area.  After a few minute conversation with the pleasant receptionist, I have a delivery of a truckload (they don't do less than 1 truckload) of chips scheduled.  The job foreman will give me a call before the drop it off.

I don't know how large a truckload is, but I'm guessing its a few cubic yards. With all the chips we'll need to put down for garden paths and around the new orchard plantings, I think I'll be able to use that without any problems.

First fence posts are in!

A week ago I posted that The Boy and I bought the first fence posts for the garden.  Since then, a variety of things conspired to keep me from actually sinking any.

Thanks to my parents watching The Boy and The Girl so Wifey and I could sleep train The Bear, we had some free time (aka The Bear's occasional naps) to get some work done during the day.

While taking a break from tarring our portico roof, I was able get four fence posts sunk around the partial perimeter of what will become our vegetable garden.  

 

The plan is to have all the fence posts approx 8' apart.  Maybe I'm overthinking things a bit, but I deliberately spaced them rather far apart to create the envelope.  I deliberately spaced three of the posts 24' from one another with a fourth being 16' from its neighbor.  Later on, I'll just sink the follow-on posts at the interior distances (8' from the exterior posts.  What is shown only represents roughly 1/2 the total envelope of what will become our garden.

While I'm planning out when I can sink more fence posts, I also need to negotiate with Wifey regarding what color to stain the fence.  I also need to draft some proposals for how I can make the fence functional while adhering to the nebulous directions provided through Wifey's chant, "It must be pretty!  It must be pretty!  It must be pretty!"

I already suspect that her reaction will be less than uplifting given her crushing response (and that of my mom) when I proudly showed her my groundbreaking (literally) achievement.  

"Those are tall.  Are they supposed to be so tall?  I don't know how you can make them pretty."

Such is my accepted lot in life.  I knew life would be interesting when we paired an engineer with an artsy type.  

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Milky Spore: another way to kill grubs

Wifey is amazing.  There are many reasons she's stupendously fantastic, but one of her qualities is that she does a great job researching things.

At some point in her meanderings around the internet, she learned about milky spore.  Milky spore is the common name for a naturally-occurring disease for japanese beetle larvae (aka grubs).  Since we have a healthy population of grubs in our property, it's another way to, hopefully, deal with them.

This morning, we finished applying the spores.  It's a really tedious activity over a 1/4 to 1/2 acre piece of property when you need to do it 1 teaspoon at a time. 

Once applied, it needs to be watered in.  "The watering in" part of the task is also tedious when the far side of the property is a few hundred feet away from our nearest water spigot.  Watering cans.....oy.


Eventually, we finished the job.  Die grubs, die!

Slowly making progress on the garden

Yesterday, The Boy and I made a trip to Home Depot to get some materials for a few permanent planter boxes.  We're going to put in onions and garlic initially.  Of course, I need to make the boxes first.  One thing at a time....

Diatomaceous Earth is down in the field/orchard

As I've mentioned before, we have a grub problem in the field/orchard.  I've seen quite a few as I've planted the apple trees and blueberry bushes and, more recently, evidence of moles on a hunt for a meal.

While at the townhouse, we learned about diatomaceous earth (food grade) and its many uses.  Apparently, it's great for humans as well as as a "green" pesticide.

Given we had mole problems in both the front and back of the house, we tried it and had fantastic success.  With that history in mind, we're trying it on a much larger scale in the field.

Wifey did an application yesterday around the apples and blueberries, then spread out as far elsewhere as she could reach before running out of the bag we had on hand.

Since it's raining as I type, it should be getting absorbed into the soil now.  I hope it helps!

Four blueberries are in

Yesterday, The Boy and I spent a bit of time and planted the last blueberry bush in our burgeoning orchard.  

Now, we continue watering diligently and deal with the moles who appear to be hunting the grubs I've seen while planting the trees and bushes.  We have used food grade diatomaceous earth with great effect in the past and will do so again.

Three blueberries are in the ground

Nothing all that notable here.  Another blueberry has been planted.  One more to go.

So we have a fig tree and no figs

One of the permaculture trees that we inherited is a single fig tree near the house.  We had a conversation with the previous owners where they mentioned that it hadn't fruited.  While they didn't explicitly state how old it is, I gathered it was a few years.

A few months later, there are still no fruits.  I've been doing some reading to see why that may be the case.

Here's what I've found:

A fig tree likes full sun.

Currently the tree is shaded by a smallish maple.  I already know that I need to do a good bit of pruning to it, but this adds more incentive to do so.

 It may be "immature."

From what I've read, most fruit trees need a few years to reach maturity to begin fruiting.  Some fig trees, apparently, can take as long as six years to reach maturity.  Considering we don't know what the variety is, we can't know about the maturity with this tree. 

There may be too much nitrogen.

I don't think this is the case because we haven't done any fertilizing of the tree.  Also, based on what we're finding with the house and yard, I strongly suspect the previous owners never fertilized, either.

There may be water stress

If the tree has too much or not enough water, it may not produce fruit.  The summer was very dry, so this could be the issue.

It may be the "wrong" kind of fig.

There are some varieties of fig tree that requires cross pollination by a special wasp to set the fruit.  If winter temps get low enough, the wasp can't survive the winters.  Without the wasp, there will be no fruit for that variety of fig tree.

In sandy soils, root-knot nematodes could cause problems with fruit production.

I don't think this is the case since it's in a raised bed and our soil trends toward clay, not sand.

So.....I think we're looking at a lack of sunshine and likely not enough water (could also explain the miniature peaches we had) at the minimum.  It could also be the "wrong" kind of fig as well as being an "immature" plant.

Since we're working on a plan for redoing the large bed in front of the house, it may serve us well to plant another fig in that location.  More to come regarding the developing plans for our front bed.

First two blueberry bushes are in!

Yesterday afternoon, The Boy and I got the first two blueberry bushes in the ground.  As with the apple trees, the plan is to have the earliest blooming plants closest to the house with the sequence of blooms heading east-bound.  The rationale is that as each new set of plants begin to flower, they can be pollinated by the previous plant in the series.

I currently only have four blueberry bushes (represented by the blue circles), but will leave some space for others in case we care to add more. 

In doing reading about spacing, I was surprised to find that it's recommended to have the bushes very close together.  A common reference of 6' apart was mentioned.  I would think that that would lead to there being issues with fungal growth.  Regardless, I have the first two spaced 6' apart.

I also couldn't find anything about how close (or far) to space them from other plants.  I ended up planting them 10' from the apple trees.  Considering the tallest blueberry is expected to be "up to 6' tall" and the apple trees should be at/under that, I figured that would be a safe distance.  If I'm wrong, I'll have to trim and/or transplant the bushes.

I need to figure out where I want to plant raspberries.  I'm leaning toward putting them between the blueberries and walnut trees.  While additional blueberries may be okay at that distance, the fact they don't like the juglone exuded from the black walnut makes me a bit nervous.  From what I've read, that distance should be okay, but perhaps not.  I'd rather not chance it.

Unfortunately, I've also read that certain varieties of raspberries are intolerant to juglone.  Fuuuun.....

I've got a fever! And the only prescription is more fruit plants!

Yes, indeedie-o.  We bought more fruit plants for the orchard this weekend.  Blueberry bushes, this time.

My wonderfully patient and accommodating Wifey succumbed to my requests to go visit Behnke's Nursery again.  We just happened to be back in that neck of the woods yesterday.  Pure coincidence.  I'm just sayin....

Once there, we meandered around the nursery, but ultimately ended up back where the fruit plants were.

While I was taking a look at our options, a nice employee asked if we had any questions or needed help.  He very helpfully answered our questions about amending the soil (do the same as with the apples), highbush vs lowbush (highbush for this area), and whether fall vs spring (fall wins) is a better time to plant.

After he left, I got the "green light" from the wife to pick some out.  After I finished begging all the haggling was over, we got one plant each from four varieties.  In this way, we can span a rather lengthy period of time of the summer growing season with some overlap in productivity.

In most cases, there was only one variety to choose as an option, but there were a few types to choose from in certain time spans (such as late June through early July).  I also avoided hybrids.

We purchased the following:

Patriot Northern Highbush

• large berries
• delicately sweet flavor
• harvest in late June to early July
• grows 3'-5' tall and wide

Bluecrop Northern Highbush

• large berries
• sweet, slightly tart berries.
• harvest in early to mid-July
• grows 4'-6' tall and 3'-5' wide

Blueray Northern Highbush

• very large berries
• rich flavor: sweet, but slightly tart
• harvest in mid-July
• grows 4'-6' tall and 3'-5' wide

 Jersey Northern Highbush

• small/medium berries
• mild to sweet, juicy
• harvest in late July to early August
• grows 6'-8' tall, 5'-6' wide

I have a sneaking suspicion that we will want more bushes at some point.  Perhaps not.  Regardless, I need to take that into account when planting so I have some space to accommodate a few more if we end up wanting to add more.

 Until I can start planting, they're hanging out on the driveway pad.

Learning about crops - Paw Paw

One of the many advantages of this property over the many others we evaluated is that there are some food crops already in residence.  One of them is the paw paw.

In my reading, I keep coming across variations of the phrase of "North America's tropical fruit."  In looking at the leaves, I can certainly see why it has that description.   

 




For those who know nothing about paw paws - or, like me, had never heard of them before - paw paws are a deciduous fruit tree.  They have rather large eye-shaped leaves in a medium shade of green.  

The fruit are the most intriguing part of the paw paw. You can find them dropped from the trees (they're ripe) or can pick them directly and ripen for a day or so until slightly soft.  They only keep for a day or two after being removed from the tree.

The fruit flavors are very complex.  They have a custard-like quality with a mango/pineapple/banana flavor.  While it is somewhat appealing, I'm not a fan of mango.  While I have no intention of removing the trees, I'm not planning on actively spreading their growth, either.  In our household, we're currently planning on using them in smoothies and, perhaps, as a flavor for homemade gelato.


Growing Paw Paw
Paw paws prefer full sun, but can live in part-shade areas.  For reference, mine are typically found near the south-facing edge of the woods-line on my property.  They grow in Zones 5A through 9 and typically prefer wet-to-moist soil.  At full height, they are 25'-to-35' tall.



Nutrition Information
According to Kentucky State University's Cooperative Extension, regarding a respectably-sized paw paw (think kiwi-sized):

They are high in vitamin C, magnesium, iron, copper, and manganese. They are a good source of potassium and several essential amino acids, and they also contain significant amounts of riboflavin, niacin, calcium, phosphorus, and zinc. Pawpaws contain these nutrients in amounts that are generally about the same as or greater than those found in bananas, apples, or oranges.

Specific nutritional information is found on KSU's Table 2 after following the link.

10% of your RDA of Vitamin B-6, thiamin, riboflavin, folate, and niacin.  In addition, the fruit has 30% of Vitamin C, 35% of your RDH of magnesium, 22% of your RDH of copper, and a whopping 74% of your RDH of manganese.

There can be only one.......left.

Today was another day of planting apple trees.

In my drive home as I turned on to our street, I saw that The Boy had been busy again.  In addition to the four apple trees there this morning, the far field (soon to be The Orchard once we have two fruit varieties there or sufficient quantity) was populated with a bag of mulch, a bag of composted leaves, three shovels, a wagon, and a stroller.  I don't know why, but there was a stroller there.

Eventually, I found out that The Girl wanted to help push something to the field so she got to push an empty stroller.  Well..........okay.......moving on.........

Again, the two big kids helped me plant another tree.  Enterprise, this time.  The only change is that The Girl helped dig the hole while The Boy schlepped buckets of water and an extra bag of mulch from the house.  Genius strategery on the part of dear, ol' dad to keep the kids from messing with one another.

In the end, another apple tree was planted in the field leaving only one left all alone on the driveway pad.

Added another "Helpful Site" to sidebar

For anyone who checks the blog periodically, I just added another "Helpful Site" to the sidebar.

In doing some more research about establishing permaculture on my property, I came across Living Off Grid Guide's How to Grow Fruit and Nut Trees article.  There's a lot of great info there about different types of fruit and nut trees, how to plant them, where/when, and what each needs to be successful.

Four apple trees in, two to go.

Yesterday, we planted the fourth apple tree in the far field.  The Boy eagerly prepared the activity by using his wagon to bring the mulch, composted leaves, shovels, and two buckets of water out to the site.  All that in the time it took me to get recalibrated from work-mode to home-mode.

After a bit of time and some hard work from The Boy and The Girl, a fourth tree joined the mix.

 

A third apple tree has joined the mix

Yesterday was another clear fall day with nice temperatures in the mid-60's (Fahrenheit).  Since Wifey was holding her own with The Bear (aka the baby), I took the big kids out to the field to plant another tree.

The Boy was a big help.  The Girl was very enthusiastic but was best suited for the role of cheerleader from the seat on the riding mower.  Everything took longer than the day before -- we planted one tree in the time it took to do two the day before -- but it was more about teaching the kids and getting them excited about having an orchard than being productive.

Regardless, another tree is in the ground.  This time it's a Honeycrisp.  Three trees to go!

The first two apple trees are in the ground!

A few weeks ago, I purchased our first candidates for the fruit orchard -- 6 apple trees.  I held out on planting them because they require daily watering for at least the first week.  With our being out of town last weekend, I didn't want to chance damaging them.

I was finally able to pick them up from Behnke Nurseries in Beltsville, MD the other day.

With a finite amount of time after work yesterday, I only wanted to get 2 in the ground.  Thankfully, a riding mower was included in the price of the house.  It comes with a small trailer so hauling those two trees and soil amendments to the field (future orchard) was easy.

Since I'd pre-dug some of the holes, widening them was rather easy.  Planting instructions vary.  While all recommend digging to the depth of the root ball, some vary the diameter either stating that 2x or 3x the size of the ball is the way to go.  I went with 3x+ just to allow for plenty of expansion of the roots right away.

The help people at Behnke's recommend amending the soil before/during planting.  Since we have a lot of clay in Maryland, I went with a three-part mix of native soil, leaf compost (LeafGro), and pine bark mulch.  The mulch is much less dense than the other two parts and allows for air and water to get down to the roots as well as to help the roots to expand to a larger diameter as the tree grows. 

After a few hours of work, I have the first two trees in the ground.  To help deter deer from feeding on them, I'll be draping plastic mesh from the trees.  I will also do some research into buying a trunk-wrap material.  I don't have that stuff right now.  Soon, though.

Laying the ground work for the orchard

Along with the garden we are planning, we also plan to start a fruit orchard.  Once all is said and done, we plan to have apples, persimmons, raspberries, and blueberries.  There may be more to come.  For now, apples.

Unfortunately, as with most things in our life, there are complications.  Unlike other issues with the house, these aren't water-related.

With the far field, the issue is related to the black walnut trees that are on the woods-line.  I didn't know it until paying one of the area plant nurseries a visit, but, apparently, black walnut is very toxic to a variety of plants.  Its not just the walnuts, it's the leaves and roots too.  According to reading from the nursery (corroborated elsewhere on the internet), the distance of 1.5x the diameter of the tree canopy is considered toxic.  Making matters more difficult is that apples and blueberries are intolerant of black walnuts.  The good news is that plums, cherries, black and purple raspberries, nectarines, peaches are okay.

Today, we bought six apple trees from Behnke Nurseries.  Unlike the other 3 nurseries we visited in the area, they had a number of fruit trees that were also in very good shape.  We purchased two each of three varieties of apples: Enterprise, Jonathan, and Honeycrisp.  We chose the Jonathan because it is sweet/tart, harvested early in the fall (Aug-Sept), and is self-pollinating.  The Honeycrisp and Enterprise are also sweet/tart and pollinate mid-way through the season.

The picture above shows the two black walnut trees in red.  In order to keep the apples away from the walnuts, I laid out the plant locations per consensus as found from resources on the internet.  Thankfully, two of the varieties are semi-dwarf and one is dwarf; due to the smaller size of those two types, they don't take up as much space.

I will be picking up the trees in two batches this week.

Setting Up the New Garden Hits A Bump in the Road

On Monday morning, Wifey contacted Miss Utility to have them come out and mark the locations of all utilities coming to the new house.  We thought it'd be a good idea (and legal) to have them mark everything before I potentially did bad things with the roto-tiller.  We also contacted the electric dog fence people (yes, there was one already in place from the previous owners) to mark the location of their lines.

While it was necessary to do, we've found that much of all that is problematic to getting the garden in place.

The picture above shows two runs of orange stripes, some red marks, and an arc of flags.  The flags are the electric fence lines, orange are cable and phone lines, and the red are the power (barely seen in the grass by the Japanese maple in the middle).

The good news is that the power lines are buried 2' down so they won't be affected by the roto-tiller.  At its deepest, it'll dig 1' down.

The bad news is that the cable and phone lines and electric fence are all only 6" deep at the deepest.  They also run across the entire middle of the yard.

So the plan is to remove the electric fence line for certain.  We could likely do it ourselves.  We can certainly have the electric fence company come out and do it according to the guy who marked it.  In the big scheme of things, though, it's less of a problem than the cable and phone lines.

Tomorrow, I'll call the phone company (who we don't use) and cable company (who we do) to see if I can get them to reroute the lines.  They may not be willing to even if we're willing to pay for it to be done.  If they're not willing to do that rerouting, I'll have to use the orange-marked lines as guides for where to put permanent paths in the garden.  I hope I don't have to go that route, but it may be the only option.