spring plantings

Now that most of my spring tree and bush planting is finished, i was finally tabulating up what i had managed to get planted this year. I've been awfully busy trying to get everything in the ground as soon as it gets here, and things stayed dormant for a bit longer than normal due to the late ice-storm coming through. However, now i'm at least getting to see the budding and get confirmation that the plants are, in fact, still alive! A watched me plant the apple trees, and comment that she didn't think it was a tree - it just looked like a stick to her ;-) She's highly impressed now that there's actual leaves forming on it. And yes, as you can see, it's a shrimpy little twig, but at least it'll be easier to acclimate to my hillside, and won't go into quite as much shock as a large transplant would.


I've still got my strawberry bed growing, it's almost time to gut it and put in all new plants,... but i'm trying to eek one more year out of the current plants, which are runners from 2 years ago. AND,... i haven't had any problems with the kids picking the 'flowers' this year!! (they've got plenty of dandelions to spend that urge on!)


The biggest project this spring was tilling under the front area along the house and the sidewalk, and then planting blueberry bushes both there, and next to the retaining wall, and i even planted some ground-cover blueberry shrubs on the back hill. All total, i planted 16 blueberry bushes!! We'll see what kind of return we get though, with the wild-life we've got around here. My vegetable garden this spring has been getting decimated by the rabbits - it's almost incentive enough to get a dog!


I also got quite a few trees planted - 2 apple trees and 2 pear trees in the front side yard. And then 2 walnut trees and 2 hazelnut trees in the backyard. I don't know how the ones in the backyard will do with the clay soil we have, and also being in the midst of the area where the kids play, but they at least seem to be leafing out. Their leaves are an interesting thing to watch form and unfold. I love going back there to see the new growth.


The last planting project for this spring was for that strip of ground behind the garden. It was a royal PAIN to plant, as i had to dig and trace back the thorny bush/tree that kept coming up back there. It had a strong root system that just permeated the whole area - it took me hours to dig it out and trace it back through the ground. It'd been trying for the past 3 years to get rid of that thing: cutting it back everywhere it came up and then using stump and vine killer - but it just KEPT coming back! Hopefully i've taken care of it now - but it was a vicious battle. Anyway, once i got out the roots, i planted 9 cherry bushes back there - 5 Hansen's Bush Cherries, and 4 Sugar Sweet. They had buds and sprouts on them when i put them in the ground, however, we had a late freeze that shriveled them up, but they're coming back now. I'm very thankful for reisilient plants!! Now we'll just see if i can maintain my upkeep on everything. Maybe i'll start farming off some of the tasks to the kids - It'd be good to teach the kids where their food comes from!