Phew!

After a whirlwind few weeks home, Husband has returned to work. This time he took the camper and his nephew and will be about a two hour drive away. We have stayed at the campsite before--it is clean, has a playground and kids' swimming area. The boys are super-excited to go visit Daddy in the camper.

We worked hard while he was home, and we also all came down with a cold. Despite being under the weather we accomplished much of what I had hoped:

• 3 raised garden beds built, soil amended with compost, and planted
• all excess lumber stacked and mess from garage-build tidied 
• topsoil leveled behind garage and small garden area tilled
• countless hours picking rocks, twigs, glass and metal out of the topsoil so we could seed lawn. We got over half done and seeded. I still have a patch to finish. Which I dread.
• apple tree bed built (ringed with rock)
• planted 2 apple trees, hydrangea, hazelnut, pear and pollinator trees, flowering crabapple, raspberries, moved hedge rose
• planted sunflowers and potatoes
• harrowed the road to smooth out winter's ruts
• seeded blossoming clover as cover crop on the west half of the yard to keep down weeds and add organic matter to the soil
• new 3 compartment compost bin 
• planted out chokecherry trees and cedar from my mom
• watered 120 blue spruce along our road
• flowerbed alongside the shed, planted 1 mugo pine, a peony, reed grass, phlox, burning bush, and other things from seed packets which I forget

We have finally had some warm weather and the leaves are back, our lawn is growing grass and weeds, and some of the garden is up. We spotted sunflowers, onion tops, radishes and a few potatoes. It was a real relief to see that things are going to grow (it would be my luck to have a gardening blog and a garden that doesn't grow)!

Yesterday I was able to sneak off to the greenhouse with my mom, where I bought some annuals and my tomato and pepper plants. I've never had much luck starting tomatoes, but I have a small indoor greenhouse and a heated tray so next year I would like to try. We had a bit of rain last night so I will plant the tomatoes, peppers and herbs when it is dry. Until then I think we can stay busy doing up flower pots. 

What is growing in your garden?

In the Garden

Today we had a major find in the garden--not as epic as coming across a new marble, but remarkable nonetheless.

By noon we had roto-tilled a potato patch and planted 3 rows of red potatoes (so much for keeping better records this year as I already forget what type and I threw out the bag before writing down the name). Also planted 10 raspberry canes, one apple tree and a hydrangea. I moved 6 hedge rose from where I planted all the extra trees last year, placing them downhill from my swale in hopes that their roots will bind the topsoil and prevent more erosion.

Before it began to rain, I turned the soil in two of the raised beds. I worry that one has too much clay, but I will try to amend with compost before planting. I am waiting to plant the rest of the garden until closer to June--it has been a cool spring and I don't want to lose anything to frost this year. There is much more to plant but rain is welcome. In the past few days of rain we have done more work in the basement and been pleased to see our lawn begin to grow.

Wherever you are this weekend, may you dig a hole and find an awesome rhinoceros (or the happy equivalent thereof). 

Fruit Trees and Shrubs

Got a lil carried away placing my order for fruit trees...so many beautiful shrubs caught my eye as I went through the on line catalogue at T and T Seeds out of Manitoba. I've spent the winter thinking about the yard and feeling, well, tentative about where to start. Now that I have ordered some trees I am super excited to get started in the yard.

Last fall I began work on a stone path flanked by two raised rock flower beds. Husband and I also started a stone path that will lead from the covered porch to a water feature on the south side of the yard. At the moment, my yard is mud. We will most certainly have another heavy snowfall (or two!) but the day is coming, soon, when we can return to giving our yard structure. The trees and shrubs that I ordered will go a long way in doing that. I ordered:

2 apple trees (honeycrisp and odyssey)
1 Golden Pear, 1 Hazelnut Tree
2 highbush blueberry, 10 raspberry canes
5 grapevines

Elderberry Black Lace
Cranberry Blue Muffin (Couldn't find an image but read lots of comments reporting that this shrub doesn't bloom without a companion--trouble with disease--the list goes on. It seems I always find these things after the mastercard has been swiped! But it will be a learning experience)
Euonymus Fire Ball
Hydrangea Vanilla Strawberry
Lilac Bloomerang

I'm hoping that these shrubs will provide visual interest year round. We have a blank canvas right now so a bit of height here and there should help the eye stop and focus (here's hoping!).

I also sent for 2 Hostas that like the sun, a peony, Astilbe, and Reed Grass. I plan to post when they arrive and I get planting. The weather has dipped below zero again (yesterday was -16C without the wind! Awful!) so the thought of these lovely shrubs and fruit trees is giving me hope that warmer days are ahead. How is spring shaping up in your neck of the woods? Are you making any additions to your garden this year?

Tree Update

This summer, before our house even arrived, we planted a shelter belt of trees along the main grid road approaching our acreage, and along the lane way to our yard. If you have been following the blog you might remember that I had ordered 180 one-year-old maple, 200 one-year-old poplar and 120 three-year-old spruce. This chunk of land is extremely rocky so it felt like we had to dig 3 holes for every tree we planted. It might not have been that bad, but by the time 500 trees were in the ground we were T.I.R.E.D. We had a lot going on at the time--if you're interested you can read more here.

We rented a post-hole auger for the weekend and Husband dug the holes. I followed with a bucket o' trees while we kept the boxes of trees moist in the shade. It is important to not let the roots dry out.

We began by staking a twine out in a straight line and using a measuring tape to space the trees. But our land is so rocky we ended up pacing off the distance and doing our best to keep things straight and evenly spaced in spite of the rocks.

You can faintly see the row of dark circles--holes waiting for Colorado Spruce

Spruce trees were spaced 10-12 feet apart, with a 16 foot spacing between the next row of trees (Northwest Poplar). We checked that the roots were loose and not bound up in a coil, and planted them to the depth that they had been at the nursery. In the picture below, you can see the darker line on the tree stem. Once it was planted and the hole filled I stepped all around the tree to ensure there were no air pockets in the hole. Then on to the next tree.

The trees are hard to see, but the row
 goes beyond the orange pail in the distance

The trees needed a deep watering once they were planted. It took almost 4 days to do all the planting and watering--in part because of the rocky terrain and also because we were using a long trailer to haul the water tank for watering. It was awkward to get into position so that the gravity-feed tank and hose could even reach the trees. I'm very thankful that we now have a water tank in a small trailer that I pull behind our quad. Once we were living at the house and had running water it was much easier to care for the trees.

We tried to water every couple of weeks during summer. It is recommended to water once a week during the first year, every two weeks the second year, and so on. For deciduous trees, give one last deep watering in August, and then stop. You do not want new growth to begin before winter. For evergreens, water late into fall and a generous final drink after deciduous trees have lost their leaves. The Government of Canada had a very helpful site, but since the prairie shelter belt program was cancelled the website no longer exists. You can still find plenty of information on line; I use the Alberta Ag and Rural Development site if I have any concerns about our trees.

All of the trees in these photos were purchased at treetime.ca. I was very pleased with the condition of the trees when they arrived, and I was especially happy that delivery was free. The trees arrived in 3 very large boxes, so delivery was an issue for me. Along with the poplar, maple and spruce, I also ordered Amur Maple, Siberian Larch and Paper Birch. I planted all of these in a plot so it was faster to water them. This year we will decide where to put them as we work on landscaping the yard. As of the fall, all of the larch had been eaten off by insects or animals, but the maple and birch appeared to be doing well.

birch trees in the summer

We have had some extreme winds this winter. In a two-story house it can seem especially windy, so I am considering where to plant trees this summer in hopes of blocking the west winds in the future. I don't want to block my view so will strategically place trees along the edge of the lawn. More on that when the time comes! This is an existing yard site so we have mature spruce and lilacs to the east and a hillside and bush to the north and somewhat to the west. Along the north, as well, our shelter belt trees curve along the lane and along the hill. When those trees grow up we will have wonderful shelter.

This winter we had enough snowfall to bury our little spruce trees in a nice insulated blanket of snow. Around Christmas things warmed up and a lot of that snow melted, and I got concerned that they would be exposed to the cold and wind--and there has been plenty of that! We have had more snow now, though, and the trees are once again tucked into a snow bank.

 Above, a spruce tree in the snow. Below, you can barely see the top of the next tree over. It is the little point to the left of the center of the picture.

I am looking forward to seeing how our trees fared over the winter. There are a few spruce that have browned off, so I might get a few replacements when I can assess how many I will need. I would also like to find some native trees in ditches and out in my dad's pastures to see if they do better than nursery-grown seedlings. But I will leave that post for another day!

Reality Check

Today it has been two weeks since we departed our old house and moved to my parents' farm to await our new home nearby. In that two weeks:

• our road and the pad for the house were built (pictures to come, I'm having trouble getting on the Internet here so only infrequently borrow the desktop)
• road has now been gravelled
• 3 year old became ill and was soon diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome (under control now, with a 6 month treatment ahead of us)
• Husband returned to work
• 13 month old sick and wheezy, on nebulizers, clearing up now but still coughing
• we planted over 400 trees
• we received over 800 more trees yesterday
• cupboards, counter tops, closet shelving, trim and doors have been installed in our wish house

I knew all along that it would be hard work planting all of these trees. Without a well (we are anxiously waiting for the well digger to return and finish. He did a test hole in February but now his equipment is broke down and I need a well!) we are hauling water from the community well down the road and watering what we can with a short, heavy, stiff and awkward hose. We water the rest of the trees by hand and, with two sick kids and my mom already overburdened, we need to set up a better system. Worried about my kids, I came to the conclusion that we need to concentrate on what we can manage this year. The trees that I paid for are in the ground and need watered. We intend to focus on those and plant as many of the shelter belt trees as possible in our garden area. It is so much easier to water a large area of trees rather than carrying 5 gallon pails to the shelter belt. Next year we will prepare the land and plant out those trees when we are better able to water and care for them. I also plan to give away as many of the trees as possible.

If I had more time I would have tried to contact the shelter belt program to pass the trees on to someone who might not have received any. But I was at the doctor five days in a row last week and a 3 hour drive to a specialist this week, and the trees had already been sent. All I can do now is try to give many of them away and ensure that the rest survive to be planted next year.

Our house looks beautiful. My kids are recovering and we finally have appointments to see the specialist to be tested for asthma and allergies. We love the way our new yard is shaping up, and it will be breathtaking when the trees begin to grow along the road as we have planted them. We are fortunate beyond belief. This past two weeks has reminded me to take nothing for granted. As things fall into place for the house to be moved to our yard in July, we are remembering to savour our time together rather than worry about time frames and deadlines. Have you ever heard of nephrotic syndrome? If so, I'd be very interested to hear about your experience!