micro:
Re: “WHY not plant an apple tree? You could grow you some apples you can pick and eat..”
I like that idea! I do, however, already have several apple trees on the land. I don't know how productive they are - I suspect they're past their prime - but I've found worm-ridden apples on the ground so I know they're producing. Maybe I need to prune 'em to jump-start production. I've heard something about that before, but I'm not sure if it applies to apple trees.
I'm more inclined to put in another cherry tree. Most fruit trees need a mate in order to cross-pollinate, and I've only got one cherry tree today. The other was eaten by the deer.
Speaking of deer, today was the first time this year that I saw deer on my land. A young one with spots was standing smack in the middle of my front field. Then a loud Fed-Ex truck started approaching and the deer bolted downhill to the forest. A minute later, though, both it and a second one emerged, running onto the field and crossing it, exiting near the creek. The total time that elapsed from first siting until they were both gone was probably only one minute.
In other news, I decided that hand-shoveling the dirt out of the forest is too much work. I reasoned that I've got a tractor and I should be able to scrape the forest dirt then shovel it up with the bucket. I gave it a try and tripled my production. It's not back-breaking work either!
Consequently, my garden is now two-thirds full of forest soil and I began planting today. Only radishes, but it makes the garden official!
This evening, I also bought seed. It's hard to believe, but Burpee's packages says that many of its vegetables can be planted as late as June up here. I'll be planting them tomorrow.
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