This weekend was an off weekend for mowing. I was going to edge but other factors stopped that, ha. The biggest goal though was to get the three citrus trees planted.
When I left for the farm, it was 75 degrees and overcast. So I stopped at Home Depot on the way.
Loaded up my Jeep with soil and compost. Yeah, we know, someday we need a pickup, ha.
I had forgotten how hard it was to get the beds lined up. These three new beds are going in between the other eight but of course they have to be lined up, if I was off it would be harder to mow around, etc. Plus when Google Earth takes its next picture and I see them out of alignment, it would drive me crazy, ha!
So I had tape measures, angles, and landscape timbers to measure space between.
I layered the compost and bags of soil and then stirred it around and leveled it off.
The sky was darkening so working fast, so I got two of the three beds filled and then I decided I better go ahead and see if I could get trees in them.
I planted the lime and the orange and just after finishing that, it started raining. It was back to the porch to start wrapping things up and that's when the wind started. I went to the backyard (where the trees are) and saw that the trees I just planted were starting to lean over in the fresh soil. Oops! I ran to the shed and got some twine and staked them off from three directions. I know not to leave it like this of course so next weekend I'll do something less abusive to the trunk.
All three trees have tiny fruit so I'll have to pluck some of those off. Of course, citrus trees will produce large amounts of fruit while growing in a simple pot so we'll leave a few on each tree just to see what happens.
This was the sky as the rain started and the temperature dropped more than 20 degrees. It was 54 by the time I left. We almost broke the all time low record high for the date going back to the 1800's. No freeze, thankfully, but wow, the weather is changing that's for sure. On the upside, at least the trees got watered.
I didn't have time to edge so this coming weekend, Mother Nature permitting, I'll probably have to mow and edge and then will get the last tree planted.
After this, the next part of our raised bed mini-orchard is to clean up the beds of the random straw that started sprouting over the Winter and figuring out what to do at the base of the trees. Companion plants maybe? Or just weedblock fabric and mulch?
We'll see.
Hope you had a great weekend!
Awesome! I am so very jealous! Annster's Domain
ReplyDeleteThank you they should do well in our Spring and Summer (and Fall) but let's see what happens next Winter, ha.
DeleteThe best thing to tether young trees are ladies tights! 😀
ReplyDeleteCool thanks for the tip!!!
DeleteYour new tree plantings look so good. Your little orchard is going to be so productive - and so much fun!
ReplyDeleteWe will now have eleven fruit trees behind the house. There are a few others scattered around too (I need to put up a post on those, ha). If they all produce someday, we should do well with lots of fruit in our future.
DeleteBeds look really nice. Just think what they will be like when full grown.
ReplyDeleteWeedblock while the trees get established, not too much good mulch as you want the roots to travel down to establish. They look good little trees.
ReplyDeleteGill
When I do a new raised bed I lay some wet newspaper on the grass (to smother it) before adding the dirt; by the time the roots are reaching down to the bottom of the box the grass has been smothered and the newspaper decayed and the roots just go down.
ReplyDeleteIf you use a 4-6 layer of mulch, there should be no need for weedbarrier. Then, if you decide to companion plant later on, just push aside the mulch, plant, and rearrange the mulch.
I love the symmetry of your layout.
We have just two citrus trees, Meyer Lemon and some kind of orange I've forgotten ... We didn't know about removing baby fruit so left them and at 5 or so years old now, the lemon produces 30 - 40 lemons per year even though only about 3' high. The orange has never produced as we were told it's being poisoned by some oleander tree grown in tree shape ... don't know, but all of a sudden this year it has more buds than ever before ... so being lazy and waiting to see if it died may finally pay off!! Hope you have much better luck ... we just stuck them in the clay soil here and have them on drip irrigation (Tucson AZ) so with all your nice soil and loving care you should be able to finance the new house from their juice at your roadside stand!!
ReplyDelete