After an arduously long week at work, I was more than ready for nice weather and a work weekend at the farm. But Both Oikos Tree Crops and the Arbor Day Foundation chose to ignore my pleas for specific shipping dates (that would strategically fall during my upcoming staycation) and decided to ship my orders (including 100 Honeylocust seedlings) two weeks early. So the weekend that was supposed to be singly devoted to breaking ground and getting the early veggie varieties in is being partially usurped by needing to get about 120 baby trees in the ground.
My dad managed to borrow a friend's 17" wide, 5HP, rear-tine Craftsman roto-tiller for the better part of the next month. After gassing and oiling it up, we got it running and tilled a fair bit of what has historically been the garden bed, despite the damn thing getting gummed up underneath and constantly shearing off the bolt that holds the right wheel on (we went through 5 today).
After a week of rain and snow, it was likely too wet to be tilling, but I was starting to really feel the need to get some seeds (peas, lettuce, carrots, spinach, radishes) in the ground so they can get going while the weather's still cool.
It should be noted: after a few years, once I get the soil amended with plenty of compost and organic material, my plan is to do as little tilling as possible. But with our extremely high clay content, and having never been worked before, trying to start off with a no-till philosophy would most likely be a losing proposition.
After tilling, I actually got my high-wheel cultivator out to make furrows for the peas, which worked surprisingly well. I planted a few long rows of Paso peas. Had hoped to get more planted, but the sun was dropping low in the sky by the time we finished and we still had quite a few trees to plant.
We planted 30 some Honeylocust seedlings along the roadside perimeter of my switchgrass field. As each seedling only sticks up some 6-8" above ground level, I opted to put half a venetian blind slat by each one so I could keep track of where we planted them.
We planted a small pecan grove on the northeast side of the property between some existing trees (that will be getting the chainsaw treatment the second they begin to interfere with my edible tree pursuits), some Hazelnuts by the driveway, and two Buartnut trees by the older combine shed. Trying to imagine the size of trees that will one day be full-grown is a somewhat daunting task, and I'm still not sure I ended up putting everything in it's ideal location in terms of soil structure and drainage.
So now I am very sore, and very tired, and very much looking forward to bed. Heidi is trying hard to get over some kind of stomach bug (otherwise known as a severe case of the mud-butt), and so I can't give her any food for the better part of two days. Suffice to say, she is not happy with me at all, and it's frustrating that I can't somehow explain to her that I'm not just starving her for my own amusement.
Oh, and Richwood does in fact have a grocery store. We finally found it.
