I got a photo of the oak with the sun on the flowers. On Thursday I was out early. I had a lot to do before we could plant the trees.
First I got all the hoses out. Certain ones work best in certain areas, so I got those in place. What was left over would go to watering little trees.
Next I got all the materials and equipment out I thought we might need to plant. This included a load of loam in the Kubota.
I had one more pile of sods to shake out and while I did it, I ran water into each hole, filling it up.
We have thin layers of clay in places and it was under the western most holes, 4 of them. I got the sods done and holes filled with water. I was ready by 10AM but had no helpers until 11:30. So I sat and rested for an hour and a half.
In the New South garden the first iris has opened. These large beautiful white iris have a very heady scent.
Behind it the giant alliums ore opening.
The New West garden is running slightly behind the New South around the corner from it.
The verbascum in the New West garden is a nice spot of color.
The Star of Bethlehem bulbs don’t open to mid May and they are bright spots in many gardens now.
My helper friend arrived a t 11:30 and we started planting trees. He made up a mix of 10 shovels of the dirt, 1½ shovels of the amendment mix, and 4 shovels of the bio-char compost. We put 2 wheelbarrow-fulls in each hole.
I went and got each plant. They were kept inside where it was cool until they were planted. Then we added another wheelbarrow full of mix and ran more water into the hole. Then we filled the rest of the hole with plain dirt and made a large moat around each one.
We managed to get the Reliance peach, ‘Viking’ Black chokeberry, Pembina Hybrid Plum, and the 2nd Viking’ Black chokeberry planted before he had to go.
I rested for the afternoon and around 6:30 I went out and figured out where to plant the grapes. I marked the places for the posts for the arbor and where the grapes would be planted.
Then I went up and cleaned out more compost for 2 more totes full for Friday’s planting.
On Friday I hope to finish the planting and get the driphoses around the trees. My son needs to pick up the sods and then we’ll be done. I also need to find wood chips to put down as mulch.