Garden

And we have a bumper crop of weeds to show for it. Much more diverse and robust than the weeds covering the hill last spring.

Winter was busy with holidays, birthdays, other seasonal events along with transitioning into retirement. Things have been happening, but not with any pattern that would make for a decent paragraph or two.

The garden area has been greatly expanded with permanent fencing on three sides. The first row of the orchard was planted and blackberries and raspberries were planted along the new fence. The dwarf citrus trees were moved from pots to the space between the fence and the driveway side. Additional raised beds have been built and are ready to be installed in the garden area.

The parakeet flock has been active as well. A pair of bourkes produced two clutches of four. Unfortunately they skipped a critical step and it was just eggs. On the other hand, Jade and Jasper, the red rump pair, finally settled down to raising a family. Unlike their behavior the past two years, this time Jade brooded the eggs and chicks and Jasper behaved properly – at least until the three chicks fledged. Jade started a new clutch as soon as the first batch started venturing out from the nest box. Expecting more chicks any day now.

The citrus which have been growing in containers were planted along the driveway. Each is surrounded by a wire cage to reduce damage should deer decide the trees looked like lunch.

The orchard trees started arriving right after Christmas. The empty garden beds provided a suitable place to keep them until all was ready for planting.

One of the thirty four bareroot trees for the orchard. Not so much in the way of roots for the part that is above ground.  Chickenwire cages were put around each tree to protect the roots from gophers. After planting, the trees needed to be pruned so that what is above the ground is better balanced with what is below ground.

The fence posts have been put in place. The initial holes for the trees have been enlarged.
Planting the trees is waiting for the completion of the fence. While it was unlikely Bambi and Thumper would dine on the bare root trunks, we were not going to take that chance.

The fence in the front stops back from the house so we can have additional work done on the house later in the year.  A gate was included on the downhill side to allow a way to get out to the rest of the property and our neighbor’s property and home.

Wire is on most of the new posts. Some of the T-posts from the old fence are re-used to extend the temporary fence to the new permanent fence which will be completed later.

We spent part of Thanksgiving weekend digging fence post holes and holes for the initial phase of the orchard. The machine also had an attachment for trenching so the bulk of the trenching for the water system was also done.

The new fence line at the base of the hill proved to be trouble for post holes. even the machine had issues getting through the ground there. There was lots of rock as well as some sandstone spots that were encountered.

Some of holes drilled for the trees also did not want to happen. It was good to find that out well in advance rather than as we were planting trees. In the cases were there will be four trees planted closely together (an alternative to having four grafted to a single trunk), the higher elevation of the uphill trees will be used for the entire group. That should help potential drainage and issues with rock. Things seemed a bit better as we got further from the road, but still there was a lot of smaller rock in the soil.