When the Little Trees II were planted this last May, the west end was never mulched. I went out and weeded it a month or so ago hoping to finish it. But as usual, life intervened. The weeds had come back some so to finish this area I’d have to weed it again.
So on Wednesday morning around 9AM, I got out there and got started. Once it was weeded, I needed a truckload of mulch.
So I got the truck into position, got the Kubota out and started loading. The little Kubota is just big enough to clear the sides of the truck.
I got it spread and then decided to weed the rest of the area. The east end was particularly bad. We’d started mulching there in the spring and weren’t sure how far the mulch would go, so it wasn’t put down as deep.
There was a good amount of crabgrass between the peach and the chokeberry.
The west end wasn’t as bad, except for the unfinished area. I finished it around noon and unloaded the rest of the mulch onto it. Then I went up and reloaded the truck.
My granddaughter was to come at 1PM to collect as many gourds as she wanted for her school. But alas, her mom was so busy she forgot. So I decided to rest until my general helper got here at 5:30PM. She could help me unload and finish the little trees.
We actually mulched more of that east end than I thought we would. Hopefully now it’s deep enough to keep the grass at bay. Then we did a couple errands and we were finished by 6:45PM. A very late day for me.
Here’s how the little trees look four months later, after a May 10th planting.
Reliance peach
‘Viking’ Black chokecherry east
Kahinta Hybrid Plum
‘Viking’ Black chokecherry west
Pembina Hybrid plum
‘Regent’Juneberry
The little trees in this area did pretty well. Some were rather bug eaten. The next job is to get the cages out and put them around them with a burlap wrap to protect them from deer in the winter, and too much cold wind.
Louise Swenson grape west
The grapes are in a different area, behind the clothesline. This west one has already started to drop its leaves, as are the wild ones behind it.
The trellis never did get built for them. Maybe in the spring…
Louise Swenson grape east
The east one is still green and doing well. They are 20’ apart and it always amazes me how such a small distance can make such a difference.
On Thursday my helper friend is here midday. I still have a half a truckload of mulch left. I think I am going to start on the first set of Little trees. They never got any attention again this year.
They need serious weeding and pruning and new deep mulch put down. I plan to start down by the Juneberry and work south.