Orchard Helper

Planter Box Porch Railing

Our back porch had a trek deck railing around it. This railing was not particularly sturdy. The posts were cracked and it was beginning to lean precariously. Once the end post snapped I finally took action and removed the railing completely. Then I had to decide how to replace it. I finally decided on making a planter box railing. I thought this would be much sturdier and much more attractive. Plus I liked the thought of having my herbs closer to the kitchen (which is right inside the door to deck).

What to make that planter box out of was a challenge. I originally settled on 1″x12′ boards. However, I couldn’t find them in any of our stores. Ordering them in was also quite expensive. Prohibitively so. Around this time my husband began taking the cross pieces of telephone lines apart.

Here are a few pics of the materials used for the box. They are from telephone poles. My husband stripped them down and they worked just great!

Here were these sturdy and FREE boards in need of a use. I immediately appropriated them for the planter box.

I had to start by leveling out the lawn area.

Our great pyrenees is a horrid fence jumper and we finally resorted to chaining him up to keep him in the yard. The area he was chained to was this lawn area and it quickly became a dirt and mud pit as he stripped it of vegetation. We finally electrified the fence and cured our GP of his fence jumping ways. We were all happy not to have to chain him any longer and now I could fix up the lawn area. I started with the leveling and then seeded it with grass. The seed took wonderfully and we had a lush grass lawn. Then came the realization that we were going to have to mow it and our only mower was the tractor. Grass was not going to work. So we tilled and planted clover. You can see that in my Yard Reboot post.

Back to this railing. I leveled the area, trenched a level area for the boards and pounded rebar into the already drilled holes.

I then started stacking these wooden boards, cutting and drilling where necessary. Unfortunately it turned out we did not have enough to go the full 5′ required for an appropriate height railing. So I made the board box level with the porch. I bought pig panels and 2×4’s to make a trellis/railing instead. Then it was filled up and planted with herbs.

Oh, can’t forget the kiwi vine plan. In the corner of the box I installed a wood post and planted the kiwi vine right next to it. I’ve strung wire from the pole to the house and I am looking forward to a kiwi vine shade barrier.

That barrier is obviously years in the making.

We aren’t completely done yet though. One side of the porch is being extended and made into an outdoor kitchen and I still have some work on the railing to do, such as painting and finishing off the top with a nice 1×2 board.

BABY PEACOCKS ARE HERE

I have 2 india blue peahens and an india blue blackshoulder peacock. Last year the hens hatched out 6 eggs combined. All of the babies they hatched died. They were driving me crazy with how terrible they were as mothers. The chickens hatched out pea eggs last year and they had 2 survive. So I was pretty sure it was the hens who sucked. This year I took all but 2 eggs from the peahens. I did let them brood them until we saw they were peeping, then we took 6 from the one peahen and put them in the incubator.

They began hatching out immediately. (Note that I had chicken eggs in the incubator already.)

All 6 hatched.

One chick has spradle leg and we have it taped up. We will see if the chick recovers. You might also notice something a bit….odd.

Albino?????

Water harvesting in mini Kraters

Our mini Kraters are doing well. In fact we haven’t had to water yet. The cover crop seeds are coming up. The bushes are flourishing. The trees are coming out of dormancy. It is an exciting time!

Every single Krater had standing water in the bottom of it. This will dry up fairly quickly but it is an AMAZING water source!

I did water the bushes after planting. They were leafed out on delivery and I didn’t bother to harden them off, thus they needed water.

So much water in the kraters that you can see it from a distance.

This is a plum tree that is doing amazingly well. Very happy with it! I did have a fair amount of death over the winter. I blame myself, I pretty much killed them all.

The good news is the rootstocks are alive. So I’m letting the rootstocks grow to be re-grafted later.

The unintentional pond was pumped dry but it has since refilled a bit.

A complete yard reboot

We have never paid much attention to the state of our front and back yard. The front has been mostly unused and the back is where the dogs are kept when we aren’t home. Simple as that. At least it used to be. Now we have kids and our space has taken on new meaning. I have been excited to create a playground for our children. It has been going quite well and I’m happy with the results of my labor. Unfortunately the grass and weeds have been a large problem in accessing this playground equipment. We have a mower but it attaches to our tractor and is quite large. Keeping the grass and weeds short around the toys is difficult at best. So we took drastic action.

We rented a tiller, took a day off and tilled the front and back yard. As you can tell, our back yard is humongous. We did make it for the dogs and we figured we might as well go all the way to the barn with the fence. Most of this space is underutilized, except by said dogs. So we decided to cut a part of the back of this yard off and put the cider orchard there. So on top of tilling we also did a small swale in the back section.

I ordered a large variety of seeds. I picked subterranean clover for around the toys and where we walk the most. This clover grows thick and short, we should never have to mow it. Then I ordered multiple species of clover: persian, rose, arrowleaf and ladino are what I remember off the top of my head. This went in the less traveled areas and in the cider orchard. The third bucket is full of wild flowers and vetch. This I sprinkled all along the fence line and in the very back of the cider orchard area. We do have trees in the area already, planted before we moved here. Since they will be too large to put a fruit tree near I have no problem spreading lots of flowers and tall vetch around them. It should be a beautiful location when everything grows!

Of course I was racing to get this done. There was a storm coming and I wanted that rain on my newly seeded yard areas. I made it just in time.

And boy did it rain a ton!

My current plant and tree sources

I have bought many, many plants for our property from many different sources. I thought I would recommend a few here.

Starkbros.com

This is where I bought my very first fruit and nut trees. I ordered in July, and had them sent to me immediately; all of my trees arrived well packaged, alive and grew amazingly well. I am very satisfied with all of my interactions with this company and have spent far too much money buying all of the amazing trees they advertise. Every time I go to their site I’m like a kid in a candy store. Someone, please, help!

This year’s order was extremely large and I had some mild complaints. It was nothing they could control, the weather was freaky bad and many people had nursery plants struggling. Stark took some of the plants I had ordered off as they were not up to standards. I hated that but I understood the reasoning.

Arberfoyle.org

I bought my first 10 grape vines from this amazing website. I bought 5 Frontenac and 5 Valiant. The grapes arrived in perfect condition and even held over while I wasted time preparing the ground for them. These grapes did not survive though. I do believe that is more of my user error than the grapes themselves. I had a huge problem with mold and fungus and I don’t believe I was watering enough. Then I transplanted them and yeah, bad.

Oikostreecrops.com

This was recommended by someone on Permies.com, so I clicked over and began perusing the various offerings. The trees are sent much smaller than those bought on Starkbros but they are also much cheaper with a different selection. I bought an apricot, some persimmons and various nut trees from this site. They all arrived in great condition and have been doing very well outside.

Cold Stream Farm

I loved this nursery for bulk orders. I ordered a bunch of hazelnut, black locust, oak, mulberry and maple from them. I also ordered a witch hazel which is beautiful. I have to get more!

Gurneys.com

I bought 10 Reliance grapes from Gurneys. They arrived and I planted immediately. They are coming out of dormancy now and all appear alive. I was very pleased about the size of the roots on these.

Greencoverseed.com

This is where I bought a variety of cover crop seeds. I loved their selection. It was kind of addicting looking at the selections. I did have problems ordering but again, it was me, not them. Shipping is expensive but it is everywhere. I had some pretty big orders and they all arrived well packaged and labeled. The seeds are coming up and I’m very pleased with them.

Circle S Seeds

This company sent us our Delaney Sainfoin. We planted it and it sprouted and is coming up all over in a week’s timeframe. In fact, if you heard how we planted it you’d be shaking your head. We simply took the grader-scraper to the soil and then broadcast seeded. I’m really happy with these seeds!

Johnny’s Selected Seeds

I bought a fair amount of kitchen garden seeds from them. Time will tell how they do but I think they were pretty great.

Ebay

I did a lot of shopping on Ebay. What can’t you find on Ebay? I bought bamboo, Russian almond, pomegranate, mulberries, grape cuttings, pineberry seeds, grape seeds, kiwi plants and on and on. I made sure to check the sellers rating before buying but I am really happy with how it all turned out. You can see a lot of those plants in my “Gardening in Winter” post.

NONE of these are affiliate links of any sort. This is simply my experience stated for your benefit.

A brief tire hill slide update

The tire hill slide is perfect. The grass I planted on it is filling in well and I am very happy with the results. Obviously the grass on this is a month old and I need to fill in lots of patches before it looks as lush as I want it to be.

However, I thought I would share a few pictures of it.

This is a view of the steps up to the top of the slide.

Front of the slide. I’m not including pics of the terraced area because it needs a bit of work still and I’m not happy with it. I’ve planted spreading plants there and I hope they take over as right now it is more dirt than grass on that side.

The hill slide looks like a jewel when surrounded by nothing but dirt. Of course, we did plant clover everywhere so soon this will all look lush and green! The clover planting will come in a later post.