- Aug 4, 2011
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I have a big neglected yard with a few old neglected fruit trees...one of them is probably a complete loss, I may just cut it down (pear). The other is a plum or prune tree...I really am not a big fan of plums because they're a pain in the ass to pit but I think it's (relatively) healthy so will just trim it back and let it go.
The other is a big old apple tree that hasn't been cared for...it puts out lots of apples but they're all wormy and not very big. I think it's salvageable so I'm trimming the shit out of that, started yesterday.
Then there's like a 25 foot freaking cherry tree right by my bedroom window, my cousin who lived there before I did shot like a hundred birds out of it a year or so ago and left them piled in the yard. Don't worry, he covered their carcasses with some branches and sod, yay. That cherry tree is getting cut back. They say 1/3....since I don't really care if it dies, I may take more than that off just so I can get it short enough that I can put a net over it when the cherries come on and keep the freaking birds away. I hate processing cherries even more than plums, so I honestly don't give a crap if it dies, but I doubt if I'm that lucky, it is of course the most robust of all the trees.
I'm going to make a raised bed or two, I already have lumber for one so that will get done probably next weekend, because I think I want a drill instead of just pounding nails in, and I have to wait till Monday to buy a drill. I could pound nails in..but why.
Once the trees are all cut then I get to spray them, I doubt they've ever been treated and if they have, it's been years and years. Again, it's the apple tree I'm most concerned with. The plum doesn't get bugs and the cherry...well it doesn't but who cares anyway. So that's my immediate plans.
The sucky thing is that living on the coast means that the veggies we can grow are ones that nobody likes in large quantities.....KALE (I fucking hate kale) cabbage (seriously...a little goes a long ways)...carrots...which could be okay I suppose. Lettuce, yippee. Tomatoes don't do great here because it just isn't warm enough and the wind is wicked. If you block the wind, they do okay but they still aren't the wonderful orbs of delight that grow on the east side.
Corn is unlikely. ZUCCHINI will grow..I threw one on top of the Mound o'Carcasses bird burial mound, I will probably put a pumpkin on there too. Then I'm feeding the dead bird zucchini to my cousin, who didn't move that ungodly pile of death before I moved in, thus pissing me off. He also didn't pull the carpet out like he said he was when he convinced me to move there. But that's another story.
Onions and potatoes allegedly will grow here but I've never seen much evidence of it. Because we're coastal we have a lot of bugs in the ground...lots of slugs, snails, weird other things that will eat the crap out of your plants.
STRAWBERRIES do well here, and that's probably going to happen but they'll have their own bed...as do blueberries, raspberries. And blackberries, but blackberries do so well that they're invasive and a pest..I can go to my fenceline and pick all the blackberries I need from the bastard blackberry bushes that cannot be killed.
I have a nice sunny front yard with room and southern exposure. The soil is bad (I live very close to the dunes) and it's windy, there is no windbreak except one small bush in the northeast corner..I'm not even sure what it is, but I feel sorry for it. I'm thinking of planting some pampas grass or bamboo to act as a screen and windbreak, maybe some climbing roses, they do okay around here, and then herbs and grasses...rosemary, lavender. There are Lillies growing along the foundation of the house, we'll see what they do because that's the best place to plant and I would rather have herbs than lilies or whatever they are..but there's enough room that I can put some stuff in front of them. Petunias, maybe!
The other is a big old apple tree that hasn't been cared for...it puts out lots of apples but they're all wormy and not very big. I think it's salvageable so I'm trimming the shit out of that, started yesterday.
Then there's like a 25 foot freaking cherry tree right by my bedroom window, my cousin who lived there before I did shot like a hundred birds out of it a year or so ago and left them piled in the yard. Don't worry, he covered their carcasses with some branches and sod, yay. That cherry tree is getting cut back. They say 1/3....since I don't really care if it dies, I may take more than that off just so I can get it short enough that I can put a net over it when the cherries come on and keep the freaking birds away. I hate processing cherries even more than plums, so I honestly don't give a crap if it dies, but I doubt if I'm that lucky, it is of course the most robust of all the trees.
I'm going to make a raised bed or two, I already have lumber for one so that will get done probably next weekend, because I think I want a drill instead of just pounding nails in, and I have to wait till Monday to buy a drill. I could pound nails in..but why.
Once the trees are all cut then I get to spray them, I doubt they've ever been treated and if they have, it's been years and years. Again, it's the apple tree I'm most concerned with. The plum doesn't get bugs and the cherry...well it doesn't but who cares anyway. So that's my immediate plans.
The sucky thing is that living on the coast means that the veggies we can grow are ones that nobody likes in large quantities.....KALE (I fucking hate kale) cabbage (seriously...a little goes a long ways)...carrots...which could be okay I suppose. Lettuce, yippee. Tomatoes don't do great here because it just isn't warm enough and the wind is wicked. If you block the wind, they do okay but they still aren't the wonderful orbs of delight that grow on the east side.
Corn is unlikely. ZUCCHINI will grow..I threw one on top of the Mound o'Carcasses bird burial mound, I will probably put a pumpkin on there too. Then I'm feeding the dead bird zucchini to my cousin, who didn't move that ungodly pile of death before I moved in, thus pissing me off. He also didn't pull the carpet out like he said he was when he convinced me to move there. But that's another story.
Onions and potatoes allegedly will grow here but I've never seen much evidence of it. Because we're coastal we have a lot of bugs in the ground...lots of slugs, snails, weird other things that will eat the crap out of your plants.
STRAWBERRIES do well here, and that's probably going to happen but they'll have their own bed...as do blueberries, raspberries. And blackberries, but blackberries do so well that they're invasive and a pest..I can go to my fenceline and pick all the blackberries I need from the bastard blackberry bushes that cannot be killed.
I have a nice sunny front yard with room and southern exposure. The soil is bad (I live very close to the dunes) and it's windy, there is no windbreak except one small bush in the northeast corner..I'm not even sure what it is, but I feel sorry for it. I'm thinking of planting some pampas grass or bamboo to act as a screen and windbreak, maybe some climbing roses, they do okay around here, and then herbs and grasses...rosemary, lavender. There are Lillies growing along the foundation of the house, we'll see what they do because that's the best place to plant and I would rather have herbs than lilies or whatever they are..but there's enough room that I can put some stuff in front of them. Petunias, maybe!
