Fruit Trees!!!! I've got Fruit Trees!!!!!

This has been a long time coming...

I've wanted to plant fruit trees since we moved to this property 10 years ago. We tried to go the less expensive way and buy bare root trees. We brought them home and immediately placed them into water for 12-24 hours, as was suggested by the producer. Then we planted them.

They Died.

The next year we tried again. Again we followed the producers instructions, even check marking off at each step. AND!

They Died.

I gave up. Well obviously not entirely, cause fast forward to this year - 2011. I was driving past the farmer style store (obviously not fast enough - I'll have to work on that.) on my way home about a month ago, and there was a sign calling out my name: "Fruit and Shade Trees." I stopped and talked to the man in the greenhouse area. They were NOT bare root. They were three years old. They looked healthy. They were budding out appropriately for the time of season. They were outside, and had been outside for several weeks. I left. 

I obsessed about them for two more weeks. I went back to the farmers style store. I bought six trees.

1. 1 Sweet Sixteen Apple
2. 1 Granny Smith Apple
3. 1 Lapin Cherry
4. 1 Rainier Cherry
5. 1 Bartlett Pear
6. 1 Sungold Apricot

We planted them yesterday. 

Quincy helped.

Oh, and this time we used a Miracle Grow product to "fix" the roots system and help them establish easier.

I still need to buy and plant:

• 1 more Apricot - for cross pollination. They didn't have another type, so I didn't buy a second.
• 1 more Pear - for cross pollination. Same deal.
• 2 plums - I want one Italian and one Red type.

I'll be watching, and watering and worrying about them for quite awhile. Sure hope this works.

 

Oh, and we also decided to plant a couple children to see if they would grow more:

1 Boy Tree
1 Girl Tree

Yeah, cause that's what we need. More children.

Planting in the Yellow Greenhouse

Here we go... Planting in the Yellow Greenhouse this past weekend is FUN!

I started 40 Super Beefsteak tomatoes and 40 Roma's.

 I would have done more, except that I ran out of paper pots. 

I could have sworn that I made more, so back inside to collect more of my dear husbands read newspapers... It's important that he's already read them. Take note!

I bought this wonderful little tool at: www.underwoodgardens.com

PotMaker

I tried to use a drinking glass one year, but this little guy (gal?) is just easier to use. It was created for this purpose, after all!

This is a super important step in my "Plan to Can" everything that grows in our garden, for our family.

But perhaps the best part of the day still remains that I got the first flower of Spring 2011 from my sweet baby girl!

Our Yellow Greenhouse

I should have posted this earlier, as we were making it. I publicly and officially apologize for my lack of foresight on your behalf. PLEASE forgive me. But as life goes on the farm sometimes, I NEEDED to just get it done! Especially because it's Spring and planting season is just around the corner.

So enough apologies, I'm telling you about it NOW!

You see we wanted a greenhouse. For years we've wanted a greenhouse. I can't really say that it was a need, because obviously we've survived without one, although every year we address the fact that we want one. And for years we've said we'd buy one with "our next income tax return." But for some reason the income tax return would always cover our immediate needs, but never our wants. (God IS Good to us!)

We own a yellow school bus (long, boring story) that we've been using for storage. We NEVER have enough storage buildings. Okay, we only have ONE storage building; and it's full! Envision sides bulging out.

So I've been (obsessively) thinking about what we could do (cheaply and affordably) to "create" a greenhouse out of things we already have. Or at least mostly have (I did have to buy some things... like duct tape and plastic.)

Our Yellow Greenhouse!

Our bus is parked with the rear door facing south so that it gets sunshine all day.

We lined most of the inside of the bus with heavyweight plastic, held up with duct tape. 

A LOT of duct tape!

We bought the heavyweight plastic (weatherproofing that was on sale for half-price!) at WallyWorld. The only time we had to cut plastic was for the front entrance and rear emergency exit.

At the front walkway and at the rear "emergency exit" we overlapped the plastic so that we can get out easily. 

In the hotter part of the summer, we'll remove  (and store) all the plastic to reuse in the fall and winter. 

Our heat source is a cheap little ceramic heater that we already owned. We brought power to the greenhouse with a long extension cord through the driver's side window and duct-tapped it shut.  

This will work until it starts warming up, and then it's easily removed so that the window can still be used for air circulation. I'm am thinking about putting a small fan that we already own in that window later on in the spring/summer. 

Held in place with duct tape, of course! In the really hot summer, we may have to abandon the greenhouse, but we'll see... I might come up with something yet!

Perhaps an air-conditioner????

 "Husband? Can I buy an air-conditioner for the greenhouse?" (Yeah, right!)

Avocados In Winter!

One of the things that I’ve really missed about living in this house is plants. I mean, we have two small Aloe Vera plants that I just recently bought, but other than that, nothing. Really, where would we put them? The only window that faces south, is in our girls room. Our east facing windows are in the boys room, living room and kitchen (where the aloe vera lives.) One window to the north, also in the kitchen. And two windows to the west, in our master bedroom (again no room.)

I miss plants in my house!

A couple years ago, I decided to grow a Avocado plant from seed. They are easy, fun and inexpensive to grow. I started it shortly after the first part of January, when the snow was deep. I decided that it would be the positive thought that would keep us going through the rest of the winter and spring, and lead us to getting our addition project under way. Ah! The power of positive thinking! Well, it really didn’t work out that way. We just couldn’t swing the addition that year.

Since it got to big and gangly to live indoors, due to a serious lack of daylight, I had to move it outside during the summer. And it was getting into the fall, and I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to babysit my Avocado plant during the winter. It died. I decided that I wouldn’t do that again. It kind of turned into one of those “not such a good idea” things.

I have a friend from California who told me about how incredible the smell of orange blossoms are in the Spring. I’ve never experienced that myself, but her description was wonderful. Ever since then I’ve wondered if I could grow a couple of those miniature orange trees (a lemon, and a lime too) so that we could experience that smell in Spring in Washington. I know that I would enjoy their look, and just watching them grow. It would add interest to our dreary winter days.

I hope that we can do the addition this year. We so badly need the room, and the encouragement, too. I really can’t wait to grow some more avocado plants for our bigger, improved home. I think it would be so wonderful to see them grow taller and fuller. And, maybe... just maybe, we can grow avocados in Winter.