Thursday, April 15, 2010

New Arrivals......

This photo of my deck taken earlier  just kind of sums up my jumbled, somewhat productive, yet destructive day.  It started with a super-gross spraying of the apple trees.  This stuff truly is nasty and I don't ever want to use it again...but, then again, I do want edible apples.   I was all ready to try and go organic but then I read several accounts of apple truth and came to the conclusion that I had pest problems last year, and I didn't even have apples yet.  Sigh.  And to make things worse I burned 1/2 of the first tree I sprayed.  Not sure if I did a poor job rinsing the container out after the last Dormant Oil spray, or if the concentrate was not evenly mixed in the sprayer.  I know I measured the poison correctly because I sacrificed my favorite little kitchen measuring cup to do so.  Just a bad experience all around.  Yucky, yucky, yucky.

Then, I got some of that "put off potting-up" done.  Cow pots and a weak fish feed have put me back on the road to garden success.  The fridge is still untouched for any of you who may be wondering.  Next the mail came with live goods and a book, The Backyard Orchardist.

One of the "LIVE PLANTS" boxes had the sweet tator slips in it, a bit earlier than expected.  I was caught by surprise so their bed wasn't ready yet....off I went to throw it all together.  In the end I made 2 hills, covered with black mulch.  I amended with a bit of Potash, K-Mag, and acid loving organic fertilizer.   The slips are quite crowded, but after last year's disappointing harvest I am not willing to give them any more space to prove themselves.  The Georgia Jet slips are now tucked in under row cover with a strip of plastic thrown over for good measure, though it doesn't completely cover the bed.....I better change that (find a larger piece) sooner than later since night temps are still getting quite low around here.  So, -  hills, mulch, and row cover.  I hope it is all enough to keep them going until June comes around!


Aaaaaaand the remaining rhubarb came today as well.  They are still sitting in the box....


......and that is where they will remain until I figure out where the heck to put them.

5 comments:

Erin said...

You are right, that spray is stinky stuff! I will be doing mine this weekend. I didn't have blooms last year but I've got them like crazy this year and I want to do whatever I have to so I can photograph actual apples, lol!!

Michelle @ Give a Girl a Fig said...

Lots of good stuff! I wonder how they dealt with apple pests before we had poisons? Any ideas?

Kelly said...

Michelle- They relied on other chemicals, turpentine, tobacco etc. from what I have read. But the biggest factor is that apples were once relied on for cider only, not for eating when people first came to this country.

Thomas said...

I ended up burning all of my plants when I sprayed them with the organicide. I'm sure I got the measurements right too but I think the problem was that they hadn't hardened off yet.

The rhubard crown looks huge! Will you still have to wait a year before harvesting?

Dan said...

I have heard apples can be a real challenge, especially in the East. Never grown or cared for one but would love to have an orchard some day. To answer you question about my tunnel I did build it. I did a post on how I built it here: http://veggiegardenblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-i-built-my-poly-tunnel-finally.html