Friday, April 17, 2015

Spring tree planting, raised bed building

Well each spring I attempt to plant as many trees as I can. I have some still coming that are on order, but so far this spring I have planted 3 pear trees, 2 peach trees, 2 apple trees and a plum tree.

I am also rebuilding a raised bed. I had one in a bad spot a few years ago and Joel ripped it out with the tractor, breaking up some of the wood and bending screws and brackets..it had to come out but it was a chore to reassemble.

The orignal one was high in the center and low on each side...

The new one which I moved over by my hugelbed, is 18" deep 3x4' on the North end and 12" deep 4x8 ' on the south end..I am adding a 4x7 arbor over the north end for grapes and putting in a post and wire system on the s end for thornless blackberries..and I'll put in some strawberry plants and kiwi vines as well.

the north end has been filled, bottom 6"  with mulch and bark and sawdust and the top 12" with soil and manure..I have 400 pounds of soil to put on the south end but will have to get some more, I have about 6" of bark and sawdust and mulch on the bottom as well as burying compostables in the bed..but I still have to dig for 4 more posts (2 are in)..

When we put up our fences here we used landscape timbers for posts and they are all rotting off and falling over..so I have to BUY a bunch of 4x4 treated posts to repair my fence..lots of it is falling down..this will be a huge job for this spring/summer.

My family has a lot of knee problems, so i had planned on putting in a cement sidewalk this year but am rethinking it into possibly a ramp for they guys..just need to work out the details and then get the materials and build it, later I'll do a sidewalk from the end of the ramp to the garage (now we have stepping stones)