Planting Summer Shrubs in November

..we purchased these shrubs months ago ( July ) but with the start of the cold weather we wanted to get them in the ground.

• 2 lowbush blueberry
• 1 highbush blueberry
• 1 Red Malus Crabapple Tree
• 1 Fire Mountain Pieris
• 1 Barberry
• 1 Russian Sage
• 15 hostas

We did not buy the hostas but split them off of hostas all over the yard and property ( we had some at the end of the driveway which we ‘removed’ 5 years ago..but if you don’t get all of the hosta when you grab it you have a full plant again in 2 years!). The hostas we are treating as an ornamental mulch of sorts..or peppered around areas where we have weed issues in the hopes of protecting the soil ( not to mention constant catch-up with weeding ). Our goji and haskap bushes have never really taken off like they should due to constant weed pressure ( not to mention a healthy dose of neglect ) . We are hoping that crowding the shrubs keeps the area more hydrated and week free…we will see the results next year…not to mention the other areas we planted the hostas where we are only hoping to stave off extra weeding in the beds. We love shrubs and shrub beds but A* loses her shit weeding beds..so we like to try to find creative ways to make things look OK without needing to tend too much.

Hopefully all of the plants start to add to the high ‘food forest’ we have been working on…We added 2 cherry bushes in the spring so much of the fruit production in the future.

 

More Beds. And some Hugelkultur

..it is not just bush and perennial beds we are making. Also in the mix are some new garden beds. Last year we had 1 big bed and after today we have another 4 beds which should be ready to grow in the spring. The soil is MUCH better in the big bed than it was last year at this time..we have been augmenting the soil and it is much the same with the new beds we made..it takes time to build better soil when the base is soggy clay everywhere..but time and effort should help things out.

There are 2 beds which were started today too..one of which I loaded with 8 inches of softwood bark from splitting kindling…which should aid in the soil augmentation. We also had bought some asparagus to plant but wanted a more dedicated area…so we created one too. A little over crowded due to me putting in some grape and dappled willow cuttings ( I trimmed and figured putting some rooting compound on and sticking them in the bed was better than throwing them away )…we will let the meager results speak for themselves next year!

We are building soil to grow better and more veggies..and are hoping that this is only the start!

 

Dismantling Our Original Garden Bed

Well, some fall augmentation of beds. Our 1st bed at our place was dismantled. It served us well but we like our new semi-raised bed model..and we also have some nice ground juniper in behind the bed so now we will be able to tend to it. The area cleared and not quite level or done… One last job for the backhoe before taking it off the tractor. 10 minutes to get the backhoe off this time, such a massive improvement over the previous 2 hours ( which was an improvement over the 6 hour original ordeal ).  The tractor does make it fairly easy work…messy but easy.

..and the ‘bog’ area will stay until next spring..at least I know where the water is going!