The Garden

When we come home everyday, we are welcomed by a mass of evergreen bushes 
in front of the porch. They are one those things that I wished people had not planted, 
and on that note, I decided to spend a Sunday morning digging them out.

After they were out, we settled on planting wildflowers in there place in hope that come summer, we will have a vibrant assortment of bee and butterfly happy plants. 

     We were very fortunate to learn that our home came with three apple trees, one of which that produced bushels and bushels of delicious, red apples; the other two had green apples that turned out to be great for sauce. Next years goal will be to ramp up to two crock pots or start using a 5 gallon pot for apple sauce as we couldn't keep up last year. A diy apple press may be in order. 

     Like many things in and around our home, a little maintenance was in order to help with the neglected parts. Seeing as we had taken a fruit tree pruning class the morning before this adventure, we figured we were experts by lunch. 

Heights have never been my thing, but it seems that I can't stay away 

from them being a home owner. For the love of apples.

   Our whole goal with pruning the tree was to remove all the dead material, reduce the amount of growth in areas that cannot be picked, thin the overall tree to increase air circulation and sunlight access, reduce densely layered branches, and plan for future new growth areas. Even though the tree was thinned, the theory is that the remaining tree will produce a higher quality fruit than an overloaded tree, providing us with more usable fruit, and have a more consistent harvest from year to year. 

     As I get more and more ambitious each year, so does my gardens. This year we decided to expand the garden beyond the raise bed and till a plot for onions, garlic, corn, squash, eggplant, and so many more things that I have forgotten. 

     The plot was tilled in the fall to plant the garlic, but the soil needed to be amended in the spring for all the new vegetables. Welcome 6 yards of garden / manure blend, a slight slope down hill, a couple shovels, a rack, and 22 wheel barrels later, the gardens were topped off. 

     As a surprise for my fiancée, I wanted to get all the front garden beds planted and mulched before she got back from a weekend away. I ended up being a little short with the amount of mulch needed, she enjoyed it nonetheless.