Tending to Fruit

* another old post I found that didn't get posted . . .

I mentioned in my last post that last fall the rabbits started attacking the fruit trees early. I didn't have much time to hunt down rabbit guards in fear of my orchard completely being destroyed. (My fruit trees are just seedlings and not much wider than the diameter of a pencil.) Not wanting to spend a lot of money or take the time to run into town, I started brainstorming. Somehow the thought of feedbags came to me. I gave a quick call to the Master Gardner's for their opinion on my idea, got an okay, and got to work.

All I did was flip the feed bag over the top of the trees (cutting a hole in the bottom which was now the top for the few tall trees I had), poke a fence post threw the bag and into the soil, and then use the stitch from the bottom of the bag to secure the feed bag to the top of the fence post - to keep winter winds and snow from laying the bag over and breaking the trees. It worked great!

Today, during nap time, I went around and took off all of my feed bags. The trees looked wonderful underneath. And I actually could have taken them off sooner since a few were starting to bud. (I need to find out the exact time to remove winter coverings - when cold weather bark splitting and rabbit chewing are not longer a threat.)

After I was done with the trees, I took the rabbit guards off of my blackberry vines and peeked at my blue berry plants. They all looked good, although I need to do some research on blueberries. I hear they are particular with their soil.

I finished a bit earlier than I had though, so with some nap time left I also planted my black raspberry vines in their permanent location. I have around 25-30 vines now. I'm excited to see what they do this first season. I'm also excited to watch them spread!

Next in line with my fruit is planting my grape vines (that are growing and spreading in our kitchen) and transplanting strawberry plants from my parents' place. Although the holes for the grape plants are dug, there is a bit of work to get the strawberry beds ready.

Can you tell I like my fruit? :)