It was our first day of the season doing a little cleanup and weeding in the garden. We added wood chips to the extra area on the east side that was created by putting up the archway and deer netting last year.
The beginning of spring seems to be here. It was 69° today. The plum tree blossomed this week.
Tomatoes are finally in. Here’s one picking.
We also picked 10+ gallons of purple plums from the tree across the street.
It has been a very rainy month, but then yesterday was a high of 88°. The plum tree is done blooming, and now the pear tree is blooming.
The onions are growing really well. Heather planted a few more a couple days ago.
Today Heather transplanted cabbage, and she seeded some bush beans. It might still be too early for beans, but we’ll see.
Three artichoke plants survived last summer and through the winter. I finally mulched them with a thick layer of wood chips. Hopefully that will help them out this year.
Heather started parsley in trays a month ago, and it finally sprouted (parsley takes a while). She also has a bunch of lettuce starts waiting to be transplanted.
Here’s our entire plum harvest for this year:
But the blackberries– wow! It’s a bumper year!
The pole beans are late but looking really lush:
I pruned the plum tree today. I removed suckers and headed back vigorous growth but didn’t remove any large stuff. I’m starting to develop some growth down low that will hopefully become productive someday.
Last year we didn’t get many plums. It could have been due to the aggressive pruning or the every-other-year tendency of fruit trees.
I read up some more on pruning. Winter (dormant) pruning spurs vigorous growth because the energy stored in the roots is concentrated into fewer branches when spring comes. Summer pruning slows growth because it reduces the amount of energy-producing leaves. So, I probably need to do less winter pruning and more summer pruning on the plum tree.
I transplanted six broccoli plants to take over as my pea plants die back. Heather transplanted a Vietnamese coriander plant.
I picked the first two gypsy peppers of the season.
I picked the first plum of the season. It will be a smaller crop this year, but that’s ok — we had way more than we needed last year!
I pruned the grapevines, plum tree, and pear tree. I think the grapevines are starting to look more like they should.
I pruned the pear tree lightly, after a heavy pruning last year that resulted in not much fruit.
I pruned the plum tree heavily this year, trying to open the canopy so lower branches will grow and bringing down the overall height of the tree. We’ll see what happens this year, but last year we had more plums than we could handle.
Today was also shearing day for the three wool sheep. We had them fast from food and water for about 18 hours before shearing. The shearer said it might be better for these sheep to be sheared twice a year to avoid felting. He also said their hooves are looking good and dont need trimming, and they’re not too fat or skinny, but to not reduce their feed. Shearing cost $100 for the three sheep. The sheep look kinda funny now… and not nearly so big and imposing.
Our plums surprised us with how quickly they went from looking unripe to being ripe. The tree is loaded.
So far, we’ve figured out that a 50/50 combo of plums and blackberries mixed 1:1 with sugar makes a wonderful jam. We canned about 8 quarts tonight. We probably need to do about that much again to have enough jam for the year and to give away.
Planted fruit trees: apple (5 varieties), peach (), nectarine (), peach-plum. Mulched with wood chips. Pruned the plum tree (a lot).
