It is my goal for our home to be as self sufficient as possible. In order to do this, I need more trees. Why? Well, I hate to tell you this, but I don't think pine trees produce enough edible fruit for us to munch on. I DO like the pine straw I get from them though.
These last few days I have been as busy as ever. Doing what? Why planting of course! I really shouldn't have bought so many plants from those dang catalogs, but the sooner I get them planted, the sooner we'll be eating our own home grown food. Right? I'll figure out how to pay for them once the bills from the credit card companies get here. I know, it was a VERY bad idea. I don't use them much anymore except to buy gas (so I don't have to go inside to pay) so it shouldn't take long to get them paid off anyway, I hope.
The kids were excited to help since I bought some of their favorites. We have 2 different kinds of cherry trees, 4 different types of blueberries, 2 kinds of strawberries, 2 kinds of asparagus, 3 kinds of grape vines, as well as Manchurian apricot, paw paw, elderberry, persimmon, cold hardy kiwi, and rhubarb. The raspberries haven't come yet, but that's only two plants worth (BOGOF) so it shouldn't be a big deal.
The packages started flooding into my house the day I began putting the soil amendments into my lasagna veggie garden so that project got put on hold to get all of my lovely plants into the ground. Doesn't it figure? That was good for me though since we were supposed to get several days worth of rain in a row and I needed to work quickly if I wanted to take advantage of God's abundant gifts. I'll finish the veggie beds when it stops raining. (Please keep raining until Monday like it was forecasted!)
I grabbed my spaghnum, manure, mushroom compost, and topsoil from the stash that I bought last year and set out to work post haste. The blueberries didn't get much added to their holes since I have heard that they like sand. We just added some spaghnum and pine needles to the sandy soil we had already, planted the bushes, and mulched them with the abundance of pine straw that was laying in nearby piles. No piles left anymore, it's all either mulch for the lovely blueberry patch or in the bottom of my new veggie garden!
The other plants were treated to my soil amendments to varying degrees. It depends on if the kids were planting them or if I was. I suppose I should have provided them more guidance in this area, but I guess I learned best from my mistakes. I just let them go off and to their own thing with one of the types of cherry trees. I'm hoping that everything takes root and I can show the children some proper ways to care for the trees once they begin growing.
It was a lot of hard work, but we managed to get it all planted without getting rained on. I'll let you know when my little "sticks" (as Cheesehead refers to them) have begun to wake up. He laughed at the size of my plants, but this was the only way to get such a wide variety of plants fit into our yard. Big plants are awfully expensive for a tightwad like me! I sure hope it was worth it.
Looks like I have some arbor building in my future too....
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
13 comments:
Good deal on planting your own food. It is a really smart move and congrats on getting it all planted prior to the rain!
Exciting news Cindy! I look forward to seeing your newly planted sustainable forest! gail
Hi Cindy! I enjoyed reading your post. Never heard about blueberries liking sand.Heard about cottonseeds for them, but never managed to find it in stores. Sand is easier. Hm... I should try. Thank you!
This is thrilling, Cinj! We have dwarf apples, pluots, pears, and peaches, as well as persimmons, pawpaws, grapes, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, elderberries, hazelnuts, hickory nuts, butternuts, and black walnuts here. Still working on getting cherries, plums, cranberries, hardy kiwis, and hardy pecans! But my dream is to have five acres, with two in production and three in woods so we can grow our own fuel. Maybe some day! Anyway, congrats on making such a great start at self-sufficiency!!! (And by the way, smaller trees are usually easier to establish than bigger ones, if that makes you feel any better about your "sticks.")
You worked hard! I am sure it will pay off in bucket loads of fruit and veggies!
Tina- Thanks. I thought so too. WHo knows what chemicals they use on those commercial plants?
Gail- I'm hoping to be harvesting so much stuff I'll have to give a bunch away. (Or maybe sell some if this whole subbing job thing doesn't turn around soon.) I'll keep you posted!
Tatayana- I think sandy loam is the exact term they use. One thing my sand has going for it is excellent drainage, another plus for my trees. Most of them don't like wet feet from what I hear.
Ben- I put in four types of apple trees last year. (Well, fuitbearing types anyway.) The raspberries have eyt to arrive. Maybe I've said that already? I don't know if there are any peaches of pears that will grow here, but I know there are probably some plum trees I'd like to try too. At least I've got a nice start. Cheesehead would never be a wood burner, it was hard enough work getting those three trees moved for my garden. He'd probably ask for a divorce if I said I wanted to burn wood. LOL.
Cindee- I sure hope so! I may have to move a few of them, I think I planted a few of them a little too close together. I'll worry about that Tuesday though. Got a job tomorrow. YAY!
Wow Cindy you have quite the orchard going there now :-) So many great fruits. I think it is marvelous and wish I had the room for some of them. Not much you can do with 3/4 of an acre.
Cinj, we got our dogwood tree when it was just a "stick" and now it's a beautiful tree, so hang in there!
Hi Cinj, I so want to put in a postage stamp orchard, I'm looking maybe next year but like you I'm getting there! Slow but sure. A+ on all the hard work!
Lona- I hope I'm able to keep them all alive so we can harvest those yummy fruits!
K&V- I think sticks are the best things to buy. He'll see in a few years what a wise investment they were.
Dawn- Thanks. It has been hard work, but I'm hoping it will be worth it all.
That sounds like a nice assortment. When PW sends plants to me, they are very small. It takes about two to three seasons before it grows to a good size. If we were all rich we could buy them full grown. Yea, right!
Anna- It is great. I hope I'm able to keep them all alive. I think small is better anyway, then I can say with pride how I raised these little babies.
You guys are gonna be eating very well with such a nice assortment! Very cool.
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