Two Sunny Sundays

Spring is the time for new beginnings and while I am anxiously awaiting my first trees, my brother anxiously awaits his first child. 

Obviously my thing is way more scary. 

My brother and my good friend offered their help to get me on track to have my field ready in time for planting. With Marilyn’s strong back all of the holes are prepared and mulched for my pommes, stones, and berries. My own back has been turning over soil to make raised beds for strawberries, trenches for asparagus, and a patch where I will sow native flowers. And with Jack's knowledge of carpentry the trellises are mostly done, now I only have to add the wire and the grape vines! 

This week should also be the last for frost (though I’ll make sure not to trust the weather forecast for a while longer) which means my vegetable and flower seedlings are beginning to think of moving outdoors. Full disclosure: my seedlings are the ugliest, weakest, and unhappiest plants I have ever seen. Those that managed to sprout and that haven’t died from damping off shrivel up as soon as I put them outside like the mere thought of a breeze is enough to make them faint. All and all it has started my adventure off on a bit of a minor key.

I can think of several reasons why the seedlings are struggling.I think the main issue is that I tried to start them in a 50/50 mix of potting soil and coconut coir. Skimping on the growing medium and trays has taught me my first important lesson in growing: if you’re going to do something, do it right. No more half-assed-ness going on here.

Speaking of asses, here are Eden’s Rise’s neighbours. These two horses come watch me as I work, then go back to their grazing when they get bored of that. They'll likely find me much less boring when I'm harvesting apples five years from now.

The big stuff is all happening this week, stay tuned for updates on the new life in Eden's Rise!

Eden's Rise, the tentative first steps

How does one go about planning an orchard? If you are clever and forward thinking you would probably start by taking soil samples on your piece of land. You would send these away for analysis and based on the results amend your soil for the right pH and nutrient balance required by the trees you want. Then if you find you have some waterlogged areas, you could consider getting in some tile drainage. For ease of planting the next step is determining the size of tree you want to plant and order enough for the whole acre.

If you are more of a scatterbrain you would probably do it like I have, which is not at all forward thinking nor clever.

But much more fun!

First, I measured the size of my field, noticed the direction of the slope, and then went ahead and let my imagination run wild. I’ve ordered 12 pomme fruit trees, 11 stone fruit trees, 9 grapes vines, 3 kiwi vines, 5 berry canes, 34 berry bushes, 2 rhubarb crowns, 40 asparagus crowns, and 75 strawberry plants  from a few different sources. Not many of those are the same full-grown size between varieties either. Because I’ve ordered so many different species it means I will have to treat every single tree like an individual. Soil that will be pleasing to my blueberries will not make my plums terribly happy, for example. The spacing between each tree is not as simple as it would have been if they were all trees of the same size either.

After ordering the plants, I went to the field and did my best to patch up an old fence that had fallen over. This will in no way stop a determined deer, but a new fence would put me back several thousand dollars  and would not be any better at deterring the determined deer. Apparently deer prefer to walk around obstacles rather than jump over them, so I am hopeful that despite being rusty and a little unstable, my fence will at least make the deer pause long enough to smell the blood meal or human hair that I plan to use as a secondary deterrent. If anyone has a dog, feel free to come walk it around the perimeter too!

With my brother’s help I installed posts that will serve for my grape and kiwi trellises (yet to be completed and summer is closing in!), and thanks to my step-father’s source of old pallets I’ve been building boxes for raised beds that will house my 75 strawberry plants (also woefully behind in this project!).

Winter’s cold hands are finally releasing their tight grip and it looks like spring is ready to run in and take its place. The trees could arrive any day now. This week I will be digging the holes where the trees will eventually stand. I have used coconut coir from a local greenhouse that I will be using to add organic matter to my heavy clay soil, and this will hopefully help to improve the drainage. I dug also dug a little ditch in the lower half of the field which should help drain excess water away from the young roots and allow for a better air/water ratio in the soil. Anyone who has ever drowned a house plant should have some idea how important this is!

The advantage of choosing so many species of plants is that at least something should flourish. And whatever that something is, I’ll plant more of it next year. The risk is at least spread out over different species and varieties. 

Here ends the dull planning and speculation of winter- here comes the work of spring!

The time for Eden's Rise

Ambitions and dreams are strange creatures. I have so many, but my biggest problem up until now has been that I am afraid of actually going forward with my ambitions. Maybe I read too many books about magic and fantasy when I was young and I am permanently experiencing cognitive dissonance because real life is not magical. My great fantasies about my perfect home, perfect garden, and perfect job are best kept as dreams because to accomplish them would likely mean being disappointed by a reality that isn’t as fantastic as my imagination. Don’t get discouraged! I’m making a change!

Working at minimum wage as a server at weddings is unsurprisingly unfulfilling when you really want to be growing fruit and making wine and raising animals and to be blissfully married with no kids, two dogs, and a highly affectionate cat. So I left the city, got a good job in a greenhouse working long hours and having no social life and squirrelled away some savings for nearly a year.

Along with this, I happen to be blessed with family that has a one acre lot of land that has gone unused in over seven years. Lucky for me- they are happy to let me use it to create my own orchard/amazing fairy tale garden! I won’t get too ahead of myself, but if garden gnomes do exist, I know they’ll be visiting.

Right now the land is still empty. I’ve spent the winter shopping in magazines for amazing hardy fruit trees, vines, and shrubs to plant in my orchard. I’ve mapped out where they are going and bought all the necessary materials for their introduction. The trees should be delivered during April, that’s when the adventure really begins.

There are going to be some problems along the way. For one, the land is heavy clay and quite boggy. The field is difficult to access from the road making transportation of materials quite tricky. It also happens to be surrounded by a forest which has a healthy population of deer, squirrels, raccoons, and other adorable woodland creatures that could put an end to my tree’s lives before bud break.

Every problem has potential solutions, but in the end the only thing to do is try, see what works, and maybe try again next year based on what has been learned. I’ve been dreaming since the fall- expectations are high.

 “What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does.” – J.K. Rowling (Hagrid), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.