A second peach tree is in the orchard

This afternoon Wifey and I had a thought that we needed to add another peach tree to the orchard.  After a short trip to the plant nursery, we came home with another peach tree, some mulch and some plant compost to add to the hole.  Add in 45 minutes of digging and we have ourselves another tree near to the first peach tree.

More garden work

I had a little bit of time when I got home from work so -- big surprise -- I went out to the garden.  I rototilled parts of the garden that were developing weeds as well as an area that had been stomped down when I was adding Leafgro to a few areas that hadn't received enough compost last year.

Once all that was finished, I weeded around the spinach and lettuce (planted a month ago, but just now coming up) and planted two types of carrots adjacent to some radishes (planted a month ago).

Sorry.  No picture.

Finally some stuff is planted!

We had a pretty steady rain for a good chunk of the day today.  As a result, the soil was relatively moist without being overly muddy.  I took some time when I got home to go out and get some seed planting accomplished. 

Since beans fix nitrogen in the soil (replacing what tomatoes and peppers consume), I planted beans in a decent chunk of space where they tomatoes and peppers had been planted last year.  I need to buy some more of the green 8' garden support posts; I ran out.

Since I ran out of support posts, I planted some lettuce along with the heat-tolerant greenery.  There was a small swath of space between the sections of greenery so I added some radishes.

Peach is in

We bought a Loring peach tree this past weekend to add to the orchard.  Unfortunately, it's a dwarf variety but at least it's something we can depend on.  We have a sneaking suspicion that the dwarf variety we have in the front yard is some oddball type that won't ever actually produce normal peaches.  We'll most likely get another peach tree to plant nearby later on.

Garden progress

I took yesterday afternoon and all day today off of work to get some work accomplished around the property.  Yesterday I deturfed one of the garden paths.  It had been an issue last year with the grass and weeds encroaching into the garden areas adjacent to the path so this year it was time to address that problem.

Today I made many trips with the mower and wagon and delivered all the turf pile (left side of the picture by the fence) to the woods then pitched everything in there.

Once all the turf delivery was done, I rototilled the garden to get prepped for planting.

Chickens are gone

I'm sorry to report that our nearly 2 month-old chickens are all gone.

It's been a few weeks since I've reported on them at all, but they were unmanageable at this time and not due to anything they did wrong.  Unfortunately, the coop needed a lot more work than we realized when we first got it.  Because they weather hasn't been cooperating, we haven't really been able to dig into doing repairs.  It wasn't until a few days ago that Wifey was able to have a warm enough, dry enough stretch of weather that she could apply the mold killer needed to head off respiratory issues for the birds.  As she was doing final prep work, she realized exactly how bad a shape the floor was in, that there was mold on the side panels, and discovered that the wall framework needed to be completely replaced.

In other words, we needed to completely rebuild the coop.  Because the birds were almost 2 months old, they were creating a ton of bird dust (grit + atomized dried poo) which was causing health issues for the family.  Ordinarily, they would have been out in the garage (or coop) a week or two ago, but with it being as cold/wet as it was, we were worried about the birds' health.

This morning, we decided that there was just too much to do to get the coop rebuilt (a new one built from scratch) in a very short timeline that we were getting stressed out about the whole thing.  As a result, we decided to "punt" on doing chickens for now and just focus on the yard.  We'll likely give them a try at a later date (maybe this time next year), but certainly not right away.  We want to do things the right way.

We were able to find a family through our church who was willing to take them (they're big into livestock, anyway) so at least they have a good home until they stop laying.

Kiwi support posts are in

Today I sunk the two 6"x6"x10' kiwi support posts into the ground.  They're "planted" 20' apart out in the orchard, each 3' into the ground and each with three bags of quick-set concrete holding them in place.

Ideally, they would have been considerably closer to the woodline, but they're intolerant of juglone (from black walnut trees).  So, despite Wifey's violent protests, they're where they are.  In a few years once the apple trees grow up and leaf out the posts won't be nearly so noticeable.  For now....

Elderberries are in

I got some time today to work in the yard.  It was a nice day outside.  I'd purchased some elderberry bushes during my lunch break and managed to have the time to get them in the ground.

Thankfully, they supposedly grow successfully adjacent to black walnut (juglone) so I planted them by ours.