Expanding The Orchard

We had our first bulk delivery of 11 yards of soil delivered to the new property this week, and in a few days, that pile will be joined by 12 yards of alder chips from a local sawmill.  The majority of these piles will be used for the hugelkultur in the orchard and under our berry bushes, though some soil will hopefully form the base of a growing area for tomatoes next year. There's no budget right now to buy more amendments, and the trees need more TLC because we will hope to benefit from them for the next 20 or 30 years.  Case closed.

The delivery truck's arrival took me back to our last property, where the neighbors must certainly have thought we were odd - every year the sound of beeping would accompany the arrival of loads of mulch or gravel or soil delivered to our driveway - depending on the given project.  I'm sure they wondered where it all went. Days would pass while we loaded endless wheelbarrow loads in the evenings, to haul our materials around the back and into the garden. Sometimes we were lucky enough to have volunteers who actually wanted to move gravel and dirt - they were special people! I posted a picture of our load of soil on Facebook, and my former neighbor - a fellow gardener who harvested our garlic for us as we loaded the last moving truck - gave it a thumbs up. She certainly remembers.

Our current orchard includes both plums and cherries. The Italian plums are somewhat self-fertile, but would benefit from the addition of another European Plum variety for fruit set (European and Japanese plums do not cross pollinate). I verified that the nearby small nursery was bringing in bare root Peach Plum trees (a European Plum), and told them I needed 2. Oddly enough, the Bing and Queen Anne cherries that are planted here are not known to cross pollinate, and I believe wild cherry trees and a couple of tiny sour cherry trees in the orchard were the only thing ensuring a crop. We decided to add a Lapin and a Stella Cherry, both of which will essentially cross with every cherry we have. 

Knowing the bare root plants were due to arrive in late November, we had planned ahead and dug 4 holes (3x3x2) with adequate spacing in the area of the original orchard several weekends ago. When the nursery called to say the plants had arrived during the freeze this weekend, we drove over and picked them up, ready to get the tender roots protected in the soil. We wanted to mix some of the newly delivered garden soil and a bit of rabbit manure in with the original soil from the hole to give them a good start, but still encourage the roots to expand outward seeking nutrients in the future. 

I was patting myself on the back for planning ahead, glad we didn't have to try and break frozen ground - and then we came to the realization that those piles of dirt beside our nicely dug holes were quite frozen.  Adrian and I managed to chip apart the hard shell of dirt and ice to mix some of the underlying old dirt together with the new, and we hammered in rebar salvaged from around the property (those that weren't essential to holding up the crazily canted fence posts), so that we have a support to tie the tree to once we have finished tamping and settling the trees in their holes over the next few days. In our area, planting at this time of year generally assures that nature will water in the new tree over the rainy season while it is dormant (and rain is due later this week).  Planting in the spring or summer would require careful watering several times a week to keep a new tree safe from damage from exposure.

The stick across the hole shows us the level of the soil, allowing us to position the fruit tree graft above the soil line, to discourage the root stock from trying to grow.

Planting trees in sub-zero weather? Metal.

A Touch of Frost

The weather report says that it's 6 degrees outside, but the deck is seeming a bit frosty - as in, I slipped walking to the door. Why have I been outside after 11 at night in the pitch black and cold you ask? Well, Joe the wood guy - the one who said it was too wet, then called back to make sure we still wanted the wood - after I called several times with no answers - who then called after another period of silence to explain he had been in bed with the flu for a week.... well, he called at 9:30 this morning, to verify our location and tell me he would be by with wood. Today. And we would be very happy. He had to pawn his computer for gas money to go and *get* the wood. Yeah. We didn't hear from him all day, and I had begun to assume there would be another call in a few days with another reason for delay. He just left a few minutes ago, calling at 10:15 when he was turning on to our rural road. He was a funny guy, but was trying to pawn off his pickup truck (maybe) 3/4 of a cord, as being worth $200 - when I could *show* him the 2 cords of already purchased and stacked wood right there beside the driveway (minus what we've used over a few cold weeks). Really. It's. Right. There. That makes me feel a bit frosty myself. A cord of wood is supposed to measure 4x4x8, and I guarantee by the time we stack it, it will be sorely lacking. He did bring us a few stumps for splitting wood, so that will help us in our wood pile management.

Our neighbor has fairly simply said he will fell whatever trees we would like, because 'it's the neighborly thing to do,' so hopefully we will somehow barter with him to help us stock up with our own wood for next year's fire season, and get some better sun exposure on the property while we're at it. It's hard to know who to take at face value, when you've been getting the runaround. I don't like confrontation and I don't want to snub a neighbor, but I also come from a background where labor has value, and I'm willing to pay or trade with someone I like and can trust to do the work. What to do? It will be interesting to see how we manage to deal with actually getting things done and feeling like everyone was well-treated in the bargain. How many dozen eggs can you trade for felling 20 trees? In reality, I hope to ask for his help in getting the trees down, and his patience in teaching us proper handling techniques to manage cutting lengths with our own chainsaw before splitting. I see a hydraulic splitter rental in our future.

Our other neighbor actually came by to borrow milk in the dark (which is relative, when the sun is setting at 5 p.m.), and we've advised him to check back regarding the rabbits we will be butchering, and told him we'd like to have him and his family for dinner sometime. Hopefully, a 'test' rabbit will encourage them to buy or barter for rabbit meat in the future, and no real harm done if they don't like working with it.

While we were considering what trees to take down, some of them were happily shedding branches in a heavy windstorm we had this past week. Power was out all over the Island, and we just missed losing ours by a block or two. Hydro was out working on lines just down the road.

We're also preparing to *add* some trees. 2 new plums and 2 cherries, to offer better cross pollination for the existing trees in the orchard. The nursery is due to have the bare root stock in by the end of the month, so we've been digging our holes in case the ground freezes and makes that a problem. Planting fruit trees in the fall means that Mother Nature takes care of watering them in, and we just have to protect them from hungry deer and elk wandering through.

Our location options are somewhat limited, but taking down some of the evergreen trees along the property line will benefit the orchard, and so we're adding them to the existing fruit tree plantings to the southeast of the house. Adrian started a couple of the holes last weekend, hitting a layer of heavy clay. With a bit of exposure during the week, we were able to complete digging the first 2 holes as well as completing our second set of holes this past weekend. The average size is 2 1/2 feet deep, by 3 feet wide, and it took longer than you would think. At least we know if we want to work on a pond in our future, there should be enough clay soil on site to help fashion the bottom of the basin! We continued laying cardboard around the trees, in preparation for dumps of soil and alder chips. We can take our time during breaks in the winter weather, transferring that to the areas under the trees. I have daffodil and snowdrop bulbs just waiting to go into the ground as soon as some of the hugel berms are ready.

Dig!

I Woke Up To Frost This Morning

My body clock seems to think that 6 a.m. is a good time to wake me for the day - regardless that I had just spent several hours the previous day helping reinforce and extend fencing in full sun and was feeling the effects. I grumpily trundled to the bathroom to splash some water on my face, looked out the window, and noticed that the canopy on the gazebo in the yard was sparkling in the morning sunshine.

Crap.

Out to the kitchen to look at the thermometer, yep - Zero degrees, and yep, there was a thin crust of ice on the barbecue cover.

And I put the mason bee cocoons out yesterday morning because I had been watching the weather forecast which lied to me.

Checking in with the chickens and rabbits, I stopped by the bee house to lift the cover and see if anyone had been woken from hibernation yesterday, and at a glance all of the cocoons are still whole. Hopefully, the weather will pick up today, as it is supposed to, and we will have no more of these chilly nights. If I had woken up a half-hour later, the frost would have been burnt away, and I wouldn't be left wondering if there was any negative impact on my cherry trees....time will tell.