The Orchard

It’s been a very long time since I mentioned my orchard.  That’s because creating the orchard has not gone well.  I first planted in a year of horrible rainforest conditions.  Then the next year we had drought.  On top of two horrible years of weather, the goats have managed to get in and eat it off three or so times.  That’s not good for an orchard, so I was very pleasantly surprised to find anything alive.

This is a concord grape.

I found two grape vines starting to bud, but as early as it is, there could even be more that made it through the winter.

The raspberries actually look really good.

I need to weed around them.

This year they are big enough, I need to get some supports put up for them.  I was also surprised to see that most of the trees are alive.

This cherry even had blossoms.

Of course, when you see the whole tree it doesn’t look quite a good.  Can you tell how high the goats could reach?

This little apple tree must have been very delicious.  I hope it gets the chance to grow up and make some equally delicious apples.

Well, at least the goats won’t be able to eat the orchard when they are confined to the barnyard.

Linking to SOOC Sunday.

The First of June is Green

It’s the first of June, so it’s time to link to The First of the Month, hosted by Jan at Murrieta 365.  I’ve been showing the cottonwood tree in the back forty each month.  Finally, there’s green!  Luckily, it’s Alphabe-Thursday featuring the letter G!  G is for Green.

The owl’s nest is still visible if you look really hard.  One baby was lost, and the other is now gone.  I haven’t found anymore feathers, so I’m going to assume one baby successfully left the nest to strike out on his/her own.  I hope so anyhow.  I’ll look forward to the adults returning to raise babies here again.

Below the trees, the grass and brambles and brush are growing.  It’s certainly green that makes the goats happy!  They are growing big and strong back here.

Cinnamon, Fionn and Harley

Right beside the cottonwood tree is my orchard.  Look how green that is!  Look at all that grass!  You can’t even see an orchard in there.  Yeah, it’s just a baby orchard.

A couple of days later it’s still green.  It’s just a lot shorter and you can actually tell where the plants are.  Someday my little orchard will grow up…as long as the goats quit eating it.

How did I transform an overgrown pasture into an orchard?  My trusty power horse of a push mower.  I tell you, neither the push more nor I ever want to do that again when the grass is so tall! (It might not look too bad in the picture below, but there were some places that the grass was about two feet tall and very thick.)

There’s now little flowers growing and blooming on the hill, dotting the green landscape with delicate purple flowers.

Finally, I stopped at the ditch to listen to the water flow.  There is so much grass, you can’t even tell where the ditch is at.

A couple of steps closer, however, and my pretty little pool of water is revealed.  The frogs are croaking; the grass is blowing in the breeze.  It’s a perfect day.

I am so happy to be surrounded by all these great greens!  Summer is finally here.

Linking to The First of the Month.

Linking to Alphabe-Thursday.

Cottonwood tree the first of March to the first of June.

      

The State of the Orchard

It’s been a while since I was up in the orchard.  We’ve had rain and warm temperatures, so I figured I’d be able to tell what had made it through the winter.

All of the raspberries look great!  They are by far the ones that handled the goat snacking and Iowa winter the best.

The blackberries didn’t do so well.  Two are alive but just barely starting.  I’m not so sure about the third.  The five blueberries are all alive and doing almost as well as the raspberries.

Of course, I need to mow very badly.  I haven’t been able to get up there and do that yet.  Good thing I put down some mulch around them.

It’s not quite so easy to tell about the grapes yet.  Some of them are clearly getting new growth.

They are pretty buried in the tall grass also.  I didn’t get any mulch around them last summer.

The trees suffered the most damage from the goats snacking on them last fall.  I’m amazed how well the little pear tree did.

The poor sweet cherry died.  I think I’m blaming it on the excess rain because it had lost all of its leaves by the time the goats got in there.  This little sour cherry had blossoms.

Why?  does this look like a tree that should be expending its energy on blossoms?  I don’t think so!

If you missed my update on Pam, my goat that had a blood transfusion, she is doing well.  She gains strength daily.

Be sure to visit Farm Friends Friday and Farmgirl Friday.