How I love this time of year! The weather has just been amazing! The plants are coming out everywhere – I love it!
One of the biggest pieces of news around the homestead this week is the number of apples on the apple trees! I cannot believe this! We have had these trees since we moved in here, and while they have made one or two apples a year, it has been truly pathetic. This year, as you may remember, I pruned them heavily. I can’t say that made all the difference, but I have to believe it made the bulk of the difference. There seems to be hundreds of tiny apples now growing on the trees. Check it out:
Growing Apples
The other big news of the year is my almost-firm decision that I am not going to put out a full garden this year. I have decided that there is wisdom in letting your soil rest periodically, and with us having just converted to a new type of gardening, this is a fine year to let it rest. I have already ordered some plants, and I have already planted some things, so anything that grows from that will be permitted to grow, but we aren’t going to do anything else. Basically, this means we will have garlic, some greens, some popcorn, and sweet potatoes. The rest will be left to rest. (I sure hope we can find someone with plenty of fresh tomatoes this year!)
One of the nice things happening in the garden right now is the portable chicken coop is allowing our chickens to fertilize the garden like mad. 😀 We are moving it around the garden regularly, and they are not only eating any grass that remains there, but they are stirring it up, fertilizing it, and helping to prepare it for next year.