Journey11's Garden Journal 2014

[journey11]

We had the most wonderful taste of spring today! It got up to 65 degrees here and sunny. I got to go outside and worked on some of my pruning! That makes it the official start of the new garden season for me. I really look forward to pruning. It's one of my most favorite things to do because it makes things nice and tidy and it stays DONE for a whole year!

The kids actually played very well together and let me have some time to myself, so I got quite a bit done.

Started with my blueberries. These are going into their 3rd year since planted. Blueray, Northland, Patriot and Bluecrop, but which is which, I forget...hmm, labels seem to have disappeared, except for one. :/

A couple before. ((And you were sooo right, Thistle! My neighbor did hack his maple trees to death! Firewood now.))

And here's one after...

Took out all the puny canes, anything touching or damaged, removed all laterals from the lower half and tipped those tallest new canes back a little.

Went ahead and set up the EMC hoops and gonna go buy some netting tomorrow to keep the deer from improving upon my efforts.

Now, that's my thornless blackberry patch in the background, in sad state. That's a battle for another day though.

Worked on my Bonnie Best dwarf apple...going into its 4th season. Note the terrible crotch angles. Can't do anything for it now, but hope for the best. Saw some mistakes I made last year and corrected them. Tried to pay special attention to where the new buds were pointing. I think it will look nice next year.

Well, now I've got spring fever. And we're supposed to get another 3" of snow tomorrow. Wonder what the ol' groundhog will think of that?

 

[baymule]

Your pruning efforts look good. I'm thinking about all the snow dumped on you now......for the umpteenth time. :/

 

[journey11]

So far we haven't gotten any off of this new storm. I'm just far enough to the north and west to be out of the way. But we'll get a little. It's above freezing today, finally! The ice/snow is starting to break up into patches. I can see grass...brown, dead grass, but hey, I'll take it!!

 

[journey11]

Well, spring is slowly creeping in now. Supposed to be gloriously warm and sunny this Monday and Tuesday. I'm going to plan to spray my dormant oil Monday if the wind is low.

I have a little bit of apple tree pruning left to finish today, the tops of the trees. I was looking everywhere for my dad's pole trimmer, but it turns out I had it all along. It's not like me to forget to bring his stuff back! But I guess it wasn't missed anyway.

Yesterday I had to rework the pruning on my 2 pears and 1 peach tree. They are 2nd and 3rd year trees and weren't very big. Neighbors' stupid goats chewed on them. Goats appear to be contained for now... I'll cage the trees just in case.

My snapdragons and Ava's flat of assorted things are up and growing under the lights now. Today I finally got my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, swiss chard, bok choy and some other assorted things into flats. My last frost date is between May 1st-May 10th so I'm really not too far behind. They've got 6 weeks to hang out indoors. I'll wait another 2 weeks and start the cukes, squash and melons.

 

[journey11]

Ava, helping me plant onion sets on Thursday. They are going in a couple weeks later than I usually plant them, but the weather hasn't been agreeable until now.

My Brown Turkey Fig is so nice and green! I hope I get lots of figs from it this year. It broke dormancy earlier than it did last year, so I brought it up to the sunroom. I am really enjoying seeing something green and growing right now. I'm going to plant it outside permanently this spring though, because it is getting too big to manage in the pot.

 

[Wishin']

Wow, I am jealous of your onion bed. It looks so neat and nice. I am glad everyone is finally getting to garden.

 

[journey11]

Thanks, I need to shore it up a little though. The stakes I used to hold the raised bed together are rotting out.

 

[thistlebloom]

That is some rich black soil in your onion bed! Good looking fig tree too!

 

[baymule]

I bet Ava is just a glad as you are to get outside and dig in the garden!! Isn't is more fun with little helpers?

 

[journey11]

I had originally filled the bed last year with a truckload of "garden soil" that DH bought at a stone yard. He just took their word for it and wouldn't know, but it turned out to be river bottom sand mostly! I had added some compost in there too, but it didn't help much. So I went to Tractor Supply and bought eight 1cu ft. bags each of top soil and composted cow manure which really helped make the soil fluffy and workable. I tested the pH the other day and it was 6.6 so hopefully things will grow well now.