blueberries

Spring is here

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I managed to get the first wave of weed spraying completed on Friday. I have done every fence line but the one down by the schoolhouse. Now we wait 7-12 days to see what happens. It is the only real downside to using Roundup, there is no instant gratification when you drive by a few hours later. I was able to get done by 1400 and it didn’t start to rain until after midnight. In a week or two I will need to set the sprayer up to start laying down 2-4-D and Milestone to get ahead of the thistles. We have been battling various types of thistle since we returned. There are four different kinds of thistle present on our property.

Saturday first thing I helped unload concrete from the progeny’s house. My contribution was driving the tractors! I got both tractors and as I dumped one the Gingerman loaded the other one. It was pretty quick to unload six buckets of concrete. I have been using it to stabilize the embankment. After those two horrible floods our bank got seriously eroded. We just built the dirt back over the culvert and now something was needed to keep it in place. So I have been systematically alternating dumping on each side to widen the coverage along the embankment. It doesn’t look the best but it is a lot safer now crossing in that area. It was getting too soft to cross with the pickup. Now I would feel confident that the pickup would not just slide down the embankment. It is deep and steep enough that getting the pickup out uninjured might not be possible.

We are still feeding the cows. They are supposed to have babies in April so as they transition over to green grass I want to keep them full of nutrients. The sheep are going up and eating the grass every day. They put themselves up in the barn every night. If the weather is nice they sit right outside the barn on the small hill. This makes it very easy for us as we don’t have to do anything with them now. I will need to go out and count lambs again eventually before we move them anywhere.

It is just past the middle of March and the trees are starting to bloom, one is an apricot and the other is a peach I think. I was out adding gravel and fresh compost to the blueberry bins. Annmarie tested the sheep compost piles for me this weekend to see if I can use them for filler. Nope, they are smoking hot and filled with a bunch of nitrogen. So much that not a single weed will grow on the piles. I am going to have to get the manure spreader up and running so I can spread it out this year and not pay for fertilizer. Fertilizer is very expensive currently. I did order diesel for the farm but it’s over $5.75/gallon at the pump currently so I have no idea what it will cost. I figured I just better get it done now and when it needs it in August/September again maybe the price will be lower. I have to have the 150 gallon tank filled twice annually. It is only used for the two tractors.

I took a couple of hours on Friday and Saturday to work on the rock wall. I am starting to make progress and want to get it done so we can start planting bulbs on the left side and getting ready to place the new small metal fence on top of the wall. I am finally starting to see a difference. It took a lot of work to get there. My exercise plan is working!

Winter duties completed as spring arrives

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Mr Rainman came out last weekend to help out and on Sunday I decided that the we should actually finish the last of the winter duties since spring is here. We tore the bird netting off of the raspberries and tame blackberries. The berries had thoroughly integrated themselves into the netting, it just had to be cut away and rolled off the top. The berries needed to be trimmed anyways. So we hacked out everything in between the rows then started to trim them back. Removing the dead out first always makes it easier. A few of the raspberries have migrated over into the blackberry row. We cut some out but others just got left.

The netting did its job and kept the birds out so we could actually collect a crop. It’s the raspberries that the robins love. As soon as they start to turn colors the birds eat them without the netting we get none. It was not fun to remove but the year before we did not get any berries so it is worth the hassle. I learned to cut the raspberries short and tie them to a central wire. It helps control them and makes it easier to pick. After talking to Mr Rainman everyone treats their raspberries differently. I had no idea, I learned from my father so that is what I do. I do use sisal or cotton cord so it can just rot on the ground afterwards. It makes cleaning up easier.

Annmarie went out and checked on the bees again. They survived the winter! We have one hive only right now. We are buying another nuc the first of May. We had some moisture get into the hive over the winter and this is a bad thing. I am going to install a gutter on the back of the bee enclosure to keep the wind from blowing water from roof into it. I am also going to cover the back. We have been talking about a tarp but I am afraid the wind may tear it up. I am still thinking about what to use. I have some old tin that with four support boards I could just install along the back wall. I am also trying to be a cheapskate and use stuff we already have on the farm. I am hopeful we will get some honey this year. She did not get stung and the bees got sprinkled with freshly made powdered sugar and another chemical treatment for mites. The sugar helps the bees shed the mites which fall through the mesh bottom then the chemical knocks down the rest. It is an eternal battle.

Our bulbs are starting to come out of the ground and are now blooming. If we don’t get rain soon I am going to have to hand water the flowers to make sure they get enough water. Also we now have six of the big bushy roses planted alongside the side fence. In three years they should totally obscure the fence.

I want blueberries next and someone in Pendleton is offering 10+year old plants for $120/each. The price of a pack of blueberries in the grocery store is $8/ea. It will not take long to save money on owning our own plants. I have four 3 foot metal troughs set up in the orchard on the other side of the berries. I drilled holes in the bottom so they can drain and have filled the bottom with four inches of gravel. I am hopeful that I can get the plants next week and get them into the troughs. We really like container gardening. Not having to get on your knees and bending over all the time is wonderful and as we age it is even more wonderful!

The strawberries are trying to take over their container. I just started grabbing dead leaves and pulling. I figured as prolific as they grew last year they would have no trouble filling in again this year. The bamboo poles are where our asparagus plants are located in the bed. I bought a few more metal troughs at an auction last year and am going to create an asparagus only bin. We read that you could overgrow the asparagus with strawberries but the type we were given (free) are super aggressive and just grew like weeds. It was hard to find the asparagus. This should be our first year that we can harvest asparagus if it grows. Hence the reason for asparagus only bin, it will be obvious and we can fill it up with plants to get a nice crop from. I have a 12 foot circular bin! I cut the bottom of the bin off, it was rusted through, so the plants can go down further into the soil if they want. They have to be planted 18” deep to begin with so I figured growing down another 18” would be easy for them.

The horseradish that was given to me last year survived the winter. I planted it in the ground, away from the sheep and it is just now starting to peek out of the ground. I will dig some up in the fall and see how it tastes. I am told that fresh horseradish is amazing.