Science! Who Knew?

Every year I plant innocent little blueberry twigs from Wal Mart or Lowe's, and every year they die.
This year, Becky the science whiz suggested I test the soil to find out if there may be some underlying reason, besides bad blueberry luck, that they weren't able to survive.
She ran the PH test and now I see her point.
So she and I are off to get acidifying fertilizer for the latest attempt at a blueberry patch.

Nuts and Fruits

Katie and Snowflake are two crazy nuts who were cozily watching Dan plant fruit trees. But on Providence Farm, if you put your arm around a dog, sure enough, another dog will come and demand equal treatment.
Lily is the third nut this morning.

Handsome Danny planted two pear trees, three peach trees, and a flowering crab apple in the orchard. He will be planting two sweet cherries up by the garden, plus two (much smaller than the last) red maples down the driveway.

Spring Things

On her pictorial tour of Providence Farm this morning, Katie found beautiful peach blossoms.
Two animals are sleeping on two different round things. The goatling is on her throne, which is a garbage can lid. The horse is in the center of her favorite stuff- hay.
The lambs still have their tails at this time of the day.
Later, however, they got their tetanus shots and lost their little tails.
This was our first tail docking experience. Q-Tip got lucky last year because I had a pinched nerve in my neck and couldn't do much of anything when her tail was due for docking.

Scenes from a Spring Day

Ha. Our very own blossoms. Take that, Sunny California!
See the goats in the background? I need to get them penned up before our pretty apple blossoms are no more.



These pretty little purple flowers tempted me to lie down and take a photo that included them.

And when you lie down in the yard on Providence Farm, you attract friendly, curious animals...

and more animals.

Peach Picking

Katie picked a peach that has a nose.
We all had a very uproarious laugh- till she got stung on the cheek by a hornet at the next tree.
But the owner of the orchard gave her vanilla extract on a paper towel to put on the sting, and she felt better right away.

Newborn Apples

Here are a few of the fist fruits of Providence Farm. On top is one of the 7 (!) Pink Lady trees. Bottom is Ginger Gold.
Now, if only no goat attacks happen, we should have lots of fruit in the years to come.

Pretty Stuff I Saw

Could you pretend that apple blossom is not completely blurry? Thanks. I couldn't make it focus properly, and was hoping it was just my eyes, but no, it really was blurry. AS you can see in the background, the goats ate the bark off of this Albemarle Pippin. I sold two more of the miscreants today. Take that, tree eaters!
Do you think the tree can pull through?

Fruit Trees

Mr. G is planting a beautiful pear tree from www.treesofantiquity.com
Today, he planted Bing and Ranier cherries, this Bartlett pear, a santa rosa plum (Miss K's favorite fruit), a pluot (plum/apricot) (I think.) And two more apple trees, a Pink Lady, and a Stayman Winesap. Plus the berries.
At this rate, we'll have as many trees as we have goats.

You can see some of the existing orchard behind that handsome guy if you look very closely. Also a thoroughbred horse, Mr. B.

Blueberries!

Here is the place where the first blueberry sticks are planted. Ok, they aren't really the first. I had planted some last year and didn't follow directions. They were dead before you could blink. But this time I'm going to acidify their soil like a good girl. That gas can in the photo has nothing to do with the acidifying plan. It was just there and I was in a hurry so I didn't move it first. Mr. G tilled peat moss into the bed before the plants arrived, and is mulching with the plentiful pine needles for the acid.
You probably think I have imaginary plant friends, but to prove that there are such things as scraggly looking blueberry plants in that bed, I took a close up for you. Cute, isn't it? It will be wonderful indeed to have fresh blueberries!

Raspberries

See the two lines of raspberry sticks coming out from the fence? Neither do I, but there they are. 10 raspberry twigs that will hopefully be raspberry bushes soon.
My goal is to post again when they're huge brambles.