Horticulture Archives - Page 4 of 7

Our Cute Visitors

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First, I wanted to share some cute pictures of our recent visitors. Last week Sarah looked out the back door and saw a rabbit inside our fence. We both started watching as it ran back and forth along the fence several times.

Then we realized there was another rabbit on the outside of the fence. They were trying to figure out how to get to each other.

We then saw a third rabbit come in from the left side of the yard. It was just too fast to get a picture of it. It was as if it was trying to lead the one trapped inside our yard to the escape route in our picket fence. Two sides of our fence are chain link and two sides are a white wooden picket fence. Sarah was amazed that the rabbits were able to get in the back yard through the fence. She admitted she now understood the need for a garden fence. Finally, the trapped rabbit found its way out and our entertaining visitors were gone. What kind of protection do you have around your garden?

Tired of Weeding? Cardboard the Eco-friendly Weed Barrier

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Are you tired of weeding? Have you spent countless hours pulling, cutting, and digging weeds? I know I have. Now, we have the chickens we can at least put the weeds to good use.

Weeds aka Chicken Treats

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Peach Trees First Fruit – Remove or Not Remove?

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There seems to be a debate about whether to remove the first fruits of a peach tree (or any fruit tree). Some say removing the first fruits of a young peach tree will allow the tree to focus its energy on growing strong roots and developing its size so that it will produce larger amounts quicker and be able to provide adequate nutrients to its fruit in future seasons. While others say this is true, but not necessary. The argument is that it does no real harm to the tree to allow the first fruits to grow and you do not have to wait another full year to see some literal “fruits of labor”. The first fruits will not be as plentiful and maybe not as large, but it would be something.

About a month ago we bought 2 peach trees from Tractor Supply. These trees had already been pre-pruned to give them the U-shape that is desired for peach trees. They were good size trees with a descent thickness to their trunk (approximately 1 inch diameter). They were already blooming when we purchased them. Initially, I would have guessed the trees were about 2 years old.
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Transplanting Mint

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Jon and I had discussed we wanted to plant a few herbs this year. We both thought oregano, basil, cilantro, and parsley to start off small with the basics. But I also wanted mint. Jon is not really a fan of mint and just doesn’t understand my need to plant it. I just cannot wrap my head around him not liking mint.

I love mint ice cream, Andes mint chocolates, peppermint patties, peppermint hard candy, candy canes, mint tea, mint gum (but it has to compete with cinnamon). Did I mention mint ice cream and Andes mint chocolates? Yum! Mint is such a refreshing and clean scent. I even put it in my wallflower scented plugin. Who doesn’t love a minty fresh mouth from brushing your teeth? Did you know that mint repels ants? I bet Jon will start liking it now. We have a serious ant issue at our house. Hopefully between the chickens and the mint we’ll rectify that.

So, a couple of weeks ago we picked up a 4 pack of peppermint plants at the farmer’s market. We planted them in a pot and set them out on the deck. They are doing quite nicely.

Peppermint Plants

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Bare root raspberry growth after 2 months

Bare Root Raspberries 2 Month Progress

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Early in February we bought 4 bare root raspberry plants. As mentioned before, last year we did not have any success with some bare root raspberry plants we purchased online.

The raspberries from last year were shipped with some gel on the roots. Although this year we bought our plants at Tractor Supply Company, they were also bare root packaged in peat moss. Just a little over 2 months ago, we planted the raspberries outside and covered them with lots of pine needles.
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Winter Onions – 5 Month Update vs. Annual Onion Sets

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Last year we planted our first garden late in April basically all at the same time. We did have some successes, but we had some failures as well. For instances, our onions we planted in late April from seed! Our oldest even laughed at us for that. He knew we were not going to have any success from them.

Among several things that we have done to amend the soil for this year we were also determined to have a good onion crop. Back in November we planted some winter onions that Mama gave us. Then we bought onion and garlic sets from Tractor Supply in February. We planted the onion and garlic sets in late February and they are doing wonderfully! We are trying to mulch in between rows with leaves to keep the weeds down.

Left: Onions From Sets. Right: Winter Onions

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The Blueberry Bushes are Flourishing!

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The blueberry bushes are flourishing and the fruit trees are growing like mad! Every day Jon and I like to “walk the grounds” to look at everything. This time of the year there are so many changes that spring up over night.

Last year we planted two blueberry bushes. They grew nicely last year. The blueberries and the grapes are the only thing that survived from our two large orders of trees, vines, and bushes. The blueberries are looking awesome already this year. Maybe we will get a few blueberries this year!

Blueberry Bush

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Planting Strawberry Plants

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Spring has finally sprung around our place! We have been blessed with several gorgeous sunny days in the high 60’s-70’s last week and this week we have had a few days of 80’s! The birds are singing and all around our little place there is new growth to be found…except for our 10 bare root strawberry plants. Sigh 🙁

It has been 2 weeks now and there has been absolutely no visible change. They still look exactly like they did when we planted them.

Bare Root Strawberry Crowns At Planting

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Plant Trees Not Sticks

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Last spring Jon and I started discussing and had decided that we wanted to plant some fruit trees. While our grapevines and blueberry bushes have done quite well, nothing else in the long list of bare root vines and trees had any success. We watered and mulched and watched them all year, but absolutely none of the bare root trees survived!

We left all the “sticks” planted until this season just on the chance they were some how still dormant, but it is evident they are dead.

Dead Not Dormant Peach Stick

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Planting Bare Root Strawberries

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I was wanting to try growing our own strawberries this year. I said I would never try bare root plants again, but here we go. Tractor Supply had Ozark Beauty Everbearing Strawberries for $4.99 for 10 plants. I figured even if they did not turn out well, there would not be much lost.

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