patterns and spindles

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Filling gaps retrospective. April

April. Spring is here. Tulips. Did I miss all the kinds, I was just looking at them. and then, oh yes.., forgotten to take a picture and they are gone. Fiery red and yellow like a burst of flame.
 did not get them in full bloom, oh well, next year.
Ice plan has came.
 And late spring tulips. This year was warm.
 Here is my galanthus, all done blooming a while ago and resting.
 Still some of the blues. I inter-planted these with day lily, so they cover them from summer heat.
 New orchard.
 And alas iron clorosis damage. it takes half of the tree, then another. One can not have clorosis susceptible trees in alkaline soils with free lime.

Orchard is planted with moss, compost, composting worms were also added so they help too. I 'hired' plenty of them in my garden and reproduced plenty in my worm box in winter. all from several dozen of wild ones I found under rotting straw bales.

 Time to pick rocks. Literally. little I knew what was that pile before I figured, oh, that's a good place for an apple trees... yeah...


Some of my radishes come up. what survived red robins. I came to hate these pests, they dig, make mess. ruing seeds...
 Peas thankfully seems to be mostly ok.
 Sorel - chavel, that's a Russian spring and summer staple. Compared to lettuces this does not turn bitter and does not get attacked by aphids like kale does. Also a nice perennial..
 Lavage came through. And onions being harvested.
 White currant
 rhubarb.got planted last autumn. somewhat risky to plant it that late. so it was mulched heavily.
 peas fixing nitrogen for tomatoes and cucumbers
 mulch piles significantly reduced.
 This is another loss from prev folk landscaping efforts. They must have gotten super cheat trees that had bad trouble taking root for their size. So all the pines were lost. They never took root. 1 year and it's gone.

 This is a smaller replacement. This size tree has a lot better chances in our area with our harsh climate.
 Tulips. these are late kind.
 And the results of 'picking up rocks'.
 Ice plant now is in full bloom
 And here are some of the fancies

 Lily.




 Micro climate with an herb garden and day lily
 Pests...
 These wild rabbits are nasty pests  when it comes to bushes, they love clipping bushes over the winter. Lost good deal of berries, some were flush with the ground. Logenberry and thornless blackberry were badly damaged.
 Roses started showing
 And lilac.
 Dushitsa. A form of marjoram, just Russian kind.
 Saved pine.
 New planted raspberry. The area had to be worked on and large digger... well I did try to save some raspberry, but in mid winter... so over-planted what did not make it in the pots.
 these were not touched.
 Last year bar root apples. First 2 before I set the new orchard.
 Grapes are coming. Inter-planted with garlic. Rabbits do not seem to like garlic, so... everything goes.
 Surviving blackberry after rabbit damages
 Another survivor. Clipped by rabbits flush.
 And this one I though was a goner like many other bushes rabbits have damaged.
 Crocus now is over, tulips have come.

 lavender is starting to show. One new one did not make it through winter. I'll have to figure out what kind was planted so it overwinters. Not all lavender is a perennial here.
 Shaded galanthus and other early spring plants
 Red current will have some this year. Hope...
 Sorrel.
 Raised beds are coming. There was some good damage in alpine strawberry. Snow-less freeze. Hard hit, Gone. I'd say over 50% lost.

 black currant.
 Maple. Poor tree has bad clorosis. There is almost no hope for it.
 Another current in the shadier area.
 Fighting weeds
 like these ones. and plenty of them
 Boxes experiment. early greens in them
 Pines. and coffee :))
 What is left of mulch pile
 And here are new seeded worm factories.
 Pit moss, when planted with this trees survive better in our area. We have alkaline soil and free lime. Not all lives in this kind of dirt. Many plants fail. Pines get mulched with pine needles.

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