With the help of the tractor, a wagon and the four-wheeler, we managed to spread a thick layer of mulch on the entire blueberry patch this evening while it was not raining. Also trimmed off all the blueberry blossoms, to allow the plants to spent energy on growing roots for another year – after all, the life expectancy of blueberry bushes is about 50 years, so it is worthwhile giving the young plants an extra year of just growth for a good start.
Spent time in the small elderberry patch today, which is situated in an area of our property which tends to “flood” when we have excessive rain (which happened quite a lot this Spring). There were an amazing number of “baby elderberries” (or suckers) on these one year old plants, which we promptly dug out to start a second patch of berries. The new patch is on the bank between our two ponds, one row follows the path on top of the bank, the second row was started along the edge of the “wetlands” which border the lower, smaller pond. We managed to get 24 new bushes started this way, plus we took root and stem cuttings, which we planted in small flower pots – if they grow, we should have another 2 dozen bushes to plant later this year. (our Elderberry wine is the best! so here is hoping for lots of berries)
Jeff planted our corn this weekend – on what used to be a pasture, but recently plowed under, field – right above the “pea patch”. We planted two varieties this year, 5 lbs of Silver King and 2 lbs of Sugar Baby.
Silver King is a sweet white corn, about 82 days to maturity, ears should be about 8″ long.
Sugar Baby is a sweet bi-color, early maturing corn – about 65 days to maturity. This is a new one for us, we are just experimenting…whereas the Silver King has been great for us in the past.
 |
| Baby cherry tree in bloom |
 |
| Apache berry planted last year |
 |
| Recently planted Triple Crown berry |
We thought a long weekend over Easter would be ideal for leaving the garden and yard to fend for itself – after all, it was rather cool yet, all cold weather crops had been planted, and nothing much should get out of hand. We were only gone for one week and left PA in cold, foggy, drizzly weather.
We did enjoy a wonderful week in Hilton Head Island – lots of swimming (yes, the pool and ocean were warm enough), biking and running on the beach. It was glorious.
But during this one week, the weather in PA decided to skip spring, and went from cold to hot – with lots of rain. When we returned everything had gotten overgrown – literally. We got home early Wednesday morning and by that afternoon, we were running both lawn mowers and the bush-hog, trying to find the yard…
Luckily, the days are getting significantly longer, and each evening since then was spent weeding another flower bed or garden section.
Today Jeff ran the disc through the yet unplanted garden to knock down the weeds, and we planted carrots, red beets and about 1/4 row of dill. Also used the rest of the lettuce and spinach seeds for a second batch (the early batch has been growing in the kitchen garden). Jeff also ran the disc through the grapevines – very slowly and carefully, as is barely fits. Did not loose a single plant, the grape patch looks much better with all the weeds knocked down.
