A Truckload at a Time

There are days when you putter around the yard.

And then there are days when you rent a truck.

Buttervale has reached the point this Summer where a lot of the things we planted earlier in the year have stopped looking like little plants politely waiting for permission to grow. What were once bare-root sticks, are alive and thriving. (With one notable exception, but more on that later.)

Tress are growing.

Quickly.

Apparently that means it is time for the infrastructure to catch up.

When we planted the little fruit trees along the fence, a serious trellis system is definitely something we would need eventually.

“Eventually” apparently means now.

I never imagined these trees would shoot to the heights they have hit this year. Many are up to 7 or 8 feet tall and several have put on enough growth that temporary stakes and trellising will not cut it.

This week included picking up a substantial pile of rough-cut, true-sized lumber. Wood that will become the permanent orchard trellis.

I drove to Elizabeth City, NC to pick it up and spent about a third of what Lowe’s would have charged me for my efforts.

I got to experience sunset in the lumber yard. Priceless.

The plan is for tall posts with six runs of spanning wires going up to 9 feet, giving us something sturdy enough to start training the trees properly instead of just watching them flap in the wind.

Looking at that stack of timbers sitting beside the house, I find myself wondering how gardening became construction. Both things I am learning on the fly.

I learned an immense amount with the blackberry trellis, though, and I am looking forward to upsizing and making the Fence orchard better, stronger, taller.

Buttervale also went rock shopping. Sort of.

The store was someone’s yard, the rocks were free, and the shopping involved considerable sweating, swearing and ibuprofen.

A guy on Craigslist had a large pile of old stone that needed to disappear. Having several places around Buttervale where stone would be useful, this seemed like an excellent arrangement.

It was.

It was also considerably heavier than the phrase “let’s go pick up some rocks” makes it sound.

Jumped in the Home Depot flatbed, grabbed shovels, gloves and buckets, and started moving stone.

And moving stone.

And moving more stone.

There were big rough pieces, flatter slabs, rounded stones and several buckets of smaller river rock. Some of it took two people to wrestle onto the truck. By the time we finished unloading at Buttervale, we had accumulated what now looks like our own small quarry.

But wait, there’s more. We only could put about half the pile on the truck so more lifting rocks in my future. I mentioned it on Facebook, but if anyone has a teen they are trying to convince to go to college, send with me for the day. They can see what a long shift of lifting rocks for a few dollars feels like.

I have plans for much of it. Some will end up in garden beds. Some will be used around water and drainage projects. Some of the larger stones are just too interesting not to find a home somewhere in the landscape.

At least a few of them are destined for projects I am not quite ready to talk about yet.

Meanwhile, something else followed me home

A birch tree.

Because obviously what Buttervale needed in the middle of August was another tree.

This one arrived looking understandably unhappy about the trip. A couple of small branches were damaged, the leaves were drooping, and it was roughly 1047 degrees outside. Not ideal birch weather.

So instead of immediately planting it, I’ve been letting it recover in its nursery pot, keeping the root ball watered and cool while moving it around to consider exactly where its permanent home should be.

Birches have a completely different feel from most of the trees already at Buttervale, lighter, softer and a little wild looking. If all goes according to plan, this one should eventually become a pretty dramatic addition to the yard.

For now, its only job is to survive August.

My job to stop moving it around long enough for it to end up in the soil so it has a chance to thrive.

Speaking of trees not thriving…

An update on the Elberta

The little Elberta peach tree continues to hang on. A little. Kinda. But maybe not really?

You may recall, this is the tree that snapped a couple weeks ago after the nursery tag had constricted the trunk and created a severe narrowing. When the wind caught it, the trunk broke badly enough that I wasn’t sure we had any chance of saving it.

I trimmed the damage, carefully pulled the trunk back together, wrapped it and built a small orthopedic support device around the tree.

It has not been pretty. Everyday she looks worse.

A lot of the leaves have now dried up and died, and if you judged the tree only from across the yard you would probably pronounce it finished.

I’m not quite ready to do that.

I’m stubborn.

There is still green wood, and there are still signs that the tree hasn’t completely given up. So the brace stays. The watering continues. And the little peach gets every opportunity to decide whether it wants to make a comeback.

A replacement can be ordered later if necessary.

I have looked and they are surprisingly affordable even for a size or two up from what I originally planted, so I can basically “buy” the year I have lost. Its replacement wouldn’t ship until it is dormant in December, so there is plenty of time to be stubborn and see if this is The Little Elberta That Could. I think it can.

So, for now, it gets to fight.

And the actual food garden keeps fighting too

While we were hauling several thousand pounds of future projects around town, the garden continued doing its thing.

The figs are finally looking vigorous after their slow start this year. The sweet potatoes are producing new slips. And the seed potatoes we ordered for the Thanksgiving garden are now chitting inside the house, with little purple and green shoots beginning to appear.

I am most proud of the blackberry hedge that is starting to establish itself and will feed us for years to come. We have watermelons and pumpkins. Carrots and Romaine lettuce are in the ground. Swiss Chard and Kale freshly planted.

Faith is becoming sight.

Oh, and four rocking chairs showed up

Because, Winni vibes.

Four old wooden rocking chairs also joined the collection this week.

They are weathered, mismatched and badly in need of cleaning, scraping, new screws, glue and paint.

In other words, ideal.

I know exactly what I want to do with them. Hopefully Susan will get started on them soon.

But that is another story.

For now there are timbers stacked beside the house, a small mountain of boulders waiting for assignments, potatoes sprouting indoors, a peach tree refusing to officially die, a birch tree waiting for its permanent home, and four rocking chairs waiting for a new lease on life.

Does it get any better than this?

And I’m pretty sure we’re going to need the truck again.

Tomorrow, the adventure continues.