Winter 2024/25
March 21, 2025
For being winter, I was quite busy with gardening and the yard. More so than I had really originally intended. I kept finding more things to do! I'm quite happy with how much progress was made.
The "farm" is coming along nicely. I put the furring strips on the back half of the existing large raised bed, so that I can hang strings from them that peas can grow up. I also built a third raised bed, and then redid the fencing so that it goes around the two large ones, with a door now opening at the center and a walkway between the two. I do not plan on further expanding the vegetable growing area anytime soon, but I could add a third raised bed in front of the one I just put in (opposite the garlic bed) if I do want to expand it in the future.
In early February I planted the 12 elderberry cuttings from River Hills Harvest. Eventually they should provide a decent amount of food for wildlife, in addition to making the yard look more interesting. Planting took little time; what took longer was making the small cages for them.
I started a new wildlife habitat area at the back of the terrace. That didn't amount to a lot of time spent, but it was fun/hard to carry the large logs up the steps (otherwise I used the wheelbarrow from the shed to the steps, and then again from the top of the steps to the back of the terrace).
I did a lot with herbaceous perennial seeds - packed them up for cold (dry and moist) stratification in the fridge. Then at the end of February/beginning of March, I spent an hour or so each night for a week planting them in pots in the basement and putting them under grow lights. At first I thought it was a giant failure, but then after three weeks the first butterfly milkweed seedlings started to come up. Since then a couple of common milkweeds have emerged and there is also a decent amount of beebalm. I also planted a bunch of seeds outside during the last two weeks before spring.
Got a load of woodchips from ChipDrop and spread them on the hillside with the apples. Also mulched all of the fruit trees, the blueberries, and a 4-foot wide section on the terrace along the rock wall from the gazebo to the raspberries. Some in other places like what appears to be a small sinkhole next to the driveway and on top of the part of old cement foundation sticking out of the ground by the bald cypress. Still have 3-4 yards of it left probably.
Finally, the other big project was expanding the mini orchard. Three new trees - an apple, a peach, and a pear (from Cummins Nursery in Ithaca, NY) - went in, all on the terrace, packed into the unmowed middle section. I could maybe fit another small one in there but I'm not going to - I think that's it for the fruit trees for a while, maybe for good. We'll see how these ones do over the next few years. It makes nine total - five apples, three peaches, and one pear - and six on the terrace.
Other tasks completed:
- read Tallamy's Nature's Best Hope
- watch this video on no-dig
- (re)cage apple trees on terrace
- organize notes on herbaceous plants; go through pictures I took when I planted the bulbs this fall and note what I planted where
- read "Roll Back Your Turf"
- cage top of hickories
- cage spice bush in front
- Read Kate Bradbury's One Garden Against the World
- clean up and organize shed
- define areas of yard/garden to consistently measure light and moisture at
- Read Uri Lorimer and Native Plant Trust's Northeast Native Plant Primer
- transplant asters out of new raised bed
- transplant pokeweed that's in front of compost
- prune rose bushes
- prune apple trees
- weed grass that has survived mulch in new front hedge
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