I Love to Plant!

Yesterday I actually focused on the side of the door to the motor home and recognized that I had the remains of the 20 blueberry plants ordered in May that have been heeled in (badly) and somewhat neglected since then. So I went to set flags where the top bed of blueberries will go.

I laid out the first row yesterday, then pulled up the flags in order to work the other direction (Phil's suggestion: great advice). After laying out the four rows this morning with the boys, I asked Phil if he thought we'd be able to drive the riding mower next to the swale. It worked on paper (inches to spare!), but actually looking at the layout on the ground was a different matter. So I pulled the flags again, not with good grace, and Phil helped me lay out the entire space again.

Specifically designed for our equipment, keeping in mind weed control, future mowing, where the mulched strips will go, and what we'll plant in the swales.

We've been learning this year.

Joe had a great time helping me dig holes. He hefts a full-size shovel over his head like a weight-lifter, and cheerfully accepts compliments ("Yes, I strong. I big boy"). Due to my negligence, I had only 13 yet-living blueberry plants, but I also transplanted the two larger blueberries I had bought at Costco, and 15 bushes in the ground out of the projected 42 in that bed is a good start.

I love to plant.

I then cleaned up around the motor home. The compost in boxes where the blueberries have sat was filled with the most amazing worm castings. I gave handfuls to the blueberries, but that felt almost too generous. Those precious castings! And I gathered all the red wriggler worms I could find, and put them in a shoe-box shaped shipping container. I have no idea how long a cardboard box will last with moist tea leaves and apple cores inside, but I am eager for more worm castings and more worm babies. I want boxes and boxes of them!

We'll get there.

Joe and I then transplanted the only four living hazelnuts in the peach orchard, of the 117 I planted in May. That's not a good success rate, but I heeled them in late and badly (I've had almost 100% success with those I planted the day they arrived). I moved the four in between apple trees. The sheep have done well grazing between the rows, but in the rows, the weeds have grown thick and undisturbed. No longer. At some point, I will put hazelnuts between the trees, as a bushy weed deterrent. For now, the idea of weeding tough, two-year-old weeds around 300 trees is a huge project. I weeded around seven today.

After helping me, Phil worked on a winter dry lot for the cows. The dry lot in years past has rotated around the finger. This year, it will be just downslope from the motor home, across the driveway from the greenhouse. And rather than only in the opening, he's extending the cattle panels into the woods and to the property line. We hope the trees offer the cows some measure of protection from the elements.

Gramps (Phil's grandpa) found a nifty wire bender tool, and Phil figured out how to use it. It basically spins the wires around each other swiftly and perfectly, rather than the tedious twists with the pliers that he's been doing the last two years.

Phil didn't quite finish by dark, but the amount he accomplished was quite impressive.