Our tree order from the Cumberland County Conservation District arrived today – we had ordered 6 pear trees and 10 White Pine seedlings, but when we went to pick the trees up, they had extras for sale, so we bought 2 additional pear trees and 10 Colorado Spruce seedlings. Anja and Duff had given Jeff 4 of these pear trees as a birthday present and Jens and Grace had given us two peach trees for Easter.
We mowed the field on the road side of the garden and measured two rows, 20 feet apart, then drilled 5 holes in each row – also 20 feet apart…and planted our trees, which are probably 4 feet tall and are dwarfed by the large field. But we’ll call it our orchard despite the tiny trees.
- 4 Bartlett Pears
- 4 Bosc – Golden Russet Pears
- 1 Elberto Semi-Dwarf Peach
- 1 Belle of Georgia Semi-Dwarf Peach
The pine seedlings are still wrapped in newspaper waiting to be planted. But we did plant one pack of Melody spinach seed, which we had forgotten the other day.
On Saturday we added a blueberry patch to our collection of small fruits. We planted them in front of a fence by the barn, that had been home to a large compost pile. After leveling the compost and working it into the ground, we dug holes for the 12 plants, and watered them with an acid fertilizer. We added a mixture of peat moss and potting soil into the holes and around the plants, which were two year old bushes. We’ll keep working on that ground to keep the pH around 4.7%. We chose to put the blueberry patch in front of an existing fence so that we’ll only need to add a few more posts in order to fence it in and cover the bushes with netting, once we actually have berries. We ended up planting the following varieties:
