I was surprised the other day when WordPress told me that it was my 5 year blog anniversary.  Some of you reading and commenting have been here with me the entire time. I have enjoyed reading your blogs while posting to mine. Thank you.

When I made my wife’s herb bed 3 years ago, I planted oregano in one 2 ft. square. It grows back thicker every year.

The yard is coming along. It was far too windy this weekend to wrangle sheets of plywood and shed siding, but I did go buy most of the wood.

The cherry trees have hundreds of blossoms this year.  I hope the birds leave me a lot of fruit. Mmmm, pie.

Last night it nearly frosted again. I didn’t cover anything, and they look like they all made it.  I have 11 tomatoes in the ground, 8 peppers, and a large variety of herbs.  3 raised beds are still bare.

How does your garden grow?

My son H. and I got the new apple tree in the ground this weekend.  This is a multi-year project that will result in a 2-dimensional tree with 6 parallel horizontal arms.

So far I have chosen branches that will become 4 of the 6 arms, and 3 of those were long enough to tie to the guide wires.

I don’t even have the top wire in place, due to a stupid measuring error.

The tree is beginning to leaf out for the year.  Wish me luck!

My wife got the best ferns ever. They are in 12 inch hanging baskets, but are so big and bushy they are about 4 feet wide. It might be a pain to keep them watered. I wonder if we could get them a bigger hanging pot?

I came home with an apple tree that is going to be espaliered. I wanted a McIntosh, but they didn’t have that variety, so I settled for Honey Crisp, which is also delicious.  I have room for 2 espaliered apple trees, so I’ll add the McIntosh later.  I got the bottom two rows of training wires set up against my back yard fence on the inside, but we still need to plant the tree.  That will probably happen tomorrow evening. I really hope this works out, but I think it will. I’ve done a lot of reading and have a good grasp on the concept and process.

I also bought some six packs of tomato seedlings, because I killed most of mine in the seed starting room this year by overwatering them.  I have backup seeds started, but they haven’t even germinated yet.

It was an excellent weekend outing and was just what we needed to make a cool overcast day better.

After weeks of work, this is what I have to show for it.  A garden that is just beginning to look ok for the year, with a new 100 square foot area being used for 1 year as a three sisters garden.

I am slowly but surely changing the layout in a barely noticeable way.  One by one, the beds made with pine boards back in 2008 and 2009 are rotting away.  I am replacing them with cedar frames, but I will also be resizing them from their current 6 foot width to a more manageable 8×4 feet.  Basically it’s just going to be a whole bunch of digging and moving dirt.  It’s actually a great workout.

Do yourself a favor if you’re reading this in time.  Make your garden beds 4 feet wide or less.  6 foot width is NO GOOD for raised beds in most cases.

I planted some herbs out and I am hardening off everything else when the weather cooperates.  I hope to plant some tomatoes this weekend, probably.

The garlic is growing well, both in this yard and at my off-site garden where I planted 4 rows as a test last fall.

And if I can get my hands on some reasonably priced apple trees, I will be attempting to create a two-dimensional fruit tree.

There was a big dead spot in the yard where the tree house used to sit, so my wife and I decided to install a 10 x 10 three sisters garden there this year.  I tilled up the whole area, and then put a brick border around it.  I made 15 hills in there; 7 for sweet corn and pole beans, 8 for various vining squashes.

The lack of arborvitae bushes to conceal my large (ugly) compost piles (from my 5 backyard neighbors) meant that the piles need to be rethunk.  I removed one completely and took down the sides and fence from the other one, leaving a minimal amount of nearly-finished compost that I won’t add to this year.  I’ll use up the pile as I can in the garden and then perhaps build an attractive enclosure at some point in the future when I feel like spending money.

It is already time to mow in some spots, especially after today’s rain. The forecast doesn’t look dry until next Friday or Saturday.

A few weeks ago I potted up my bareroot Gooseberry bush delivery, and several of them have now put on new leaves.  I have been in love with Gooseberries since they were growing at my Grandfather’s house in the early 80s.

The plants in the basement need to come outside to begin hardening off, but the patio is a huge mess.  I’ll have a place for everything after I get that new little shed built.

This Saturday I tore down and hauled away the kids’ tree house.  It was built from pine and had several rotten spots that made me scared to continue letting kids play in there.  We’ll most likely put another fruit tree or 3 in that spot.  Or maybe 2 more garden beds.

I also cut down and hauled away one truckload of dead arborvitae bushes.  There will be 2 or 3 more loads of those, at least.

I have plans printed up so I can figure out how much lumber and supplies to buy to build a little shed.  I have a neat piece of glass that I’m thinking of using as the window.  It used to be a coffee table.  The shed will [most likely] go where my least productive, most shaded garden bed had been sitting, way down in the corner.  I hope to run water and power out there.

I am trying soaker hoses at the base of my tomato plants this year, which I’ll cover with a thick layer of straw. I have quite a few new varieties of tomatoes going in for testing.

Things are greening up, so I’ll be getting the camera out soon, soon…..

I’ve been outside adding compost to the asparagus and cutting down last year’s dead ferns.  I’m replacing rotten garden bed frames with new wood and removing one completely to make room for a shed.  The seeds for new herbs and tomatoes have been growing under lights for a few weeks and I received an order of Gooseberry bushes from eBay.  Most of my arborvitae died after their second year of drought, so those will have to get cut down and hauled away.  $$$$$ Oh well.

I’m looking forward to post again this spring, summer and fall.  Thanks for reading!