Yesterday was such a beautiful spring like day. The weather here changes quickly. Just a week ago we got two inches of snow see my Gratitude Tuesday Post for pictures. Since the weather was in the low 50’s upper 40’s and the sun was shining like it was summer, I took advantage of the beautiful day. I first started in the back yard and pruned our two apple trees. This didn’t take as long as I thought it might. What took the longest was chopping all the long branches into smaller branches so I could put them in the garbage can.
Last year we weren’t able to prune the trees, and our house was vacant a year and a half before we purchased it, so who knows how long it has been since these trees have been pruned. I am hoping to train them so they are shorter and mushroom shaped. It may take a few years of grooming.
I had two apple trees at my last house but they were not properly pruned so they only produced every other year. When they did produce they had very small fruit. I started trimming and manicuring those trees when I bought the house five years ago. I think it will take a whole lot more care before they are able to produce good fruit. When I was cleaning up at the rental I noticed that the fruit last year was bigger than years past, but still not good enough to eat.
Since these trees at my new house are much smaller I think I may be able to keep them up if I do a little bit each year. This tree produced some very delicious apples last year. There were a couple that were huge. Larger than any apple that you would find in the grocery store. I am excited to see what they are able to do this year! There are already buds forming on the ends of the branches!
This is a picture of one of my front flower beds. Needless to say it needs some work. I am pretty sure all of the plants are original to the home, which is 17 years old. I removed the rose bushes and the smaller bush on the right. I would like to remove the bush on the left but I will need another nice spring day for that. The remainder of the flower bed has some weed that has taken over. It resembles morning glory and looked nice for a short period in the summer, but it has got to go. There is some nice ground cover that is there, and if I am able to salvage it I will.
My plans are to plant an herb garden. Two things I know will be in there are lavender and rosemary. I may also put in Echinacea, chives, thyme, dill, Sage, or oregano. There are so many things to choose from.
The soil right now is hard and clay like. It will need some conditioning before I can plant. OOOhh, I can’t wait for spring to really be here!
Waht are you going to use to condition your clay soil?
A couple of things. I think I will be adding some sand so the soil will drain better, but most important is to add compost. I have a compost pile in my back yard and after almost a year, we will be able to use some of it. You can also buy compost.