Planting Journal

This morning I hauled the last of the Christmas trees to the second unfinished hugel bed. They were all quite flat from sitting so long and still smelled of fresh pine. The better trees were tossed into the goat pen as snacks--and those three ruminants got to munching right away!

The remaining de-needled trees will be de-branched and used as fence posts or garden bed/path edging. They are beautiful and straight when done. What a shame it would have been if they went to the landfill. I've gotten so many uses out of these free trees even though they delivered way more than I expected.

My next task is to find and bring in some good compost. I know where there is some free, but it will be a chore to get it to the ranch. I would need to haul it myself and that takes time and hard work. But like anything, a little bit at a time can accomplish big things eventually.

My greenhouse has a small collection of plants who, like me, await spring warmth before they can get into the garden. I puchased the last three bareroot trees for the Three Sisters Garden (all apples) and will need to rebuild the bed where they'll go before I can set them in place. I have two six-packs of snapdragons and have started soaking the peat pellets to start some vegetable seedlings. Maybe cucumber, maybe eggplants... Maybe both.