Sunday, March 7, 2010

Spring-Like Inspirations

Yesterday, I journeyed up to Sacramento to visit a friend, who actually was my invert zoology teacher when I was still an undergrad at Berkeley. Marlene is a great teacher, but she's also a fantastic friend, who I don't see enough of. I call her my laughing friend, because there's no one who I laugh with as much as I do when I'm with her. That's actually saying a lot... because I laugh with a lot of you! Anyway, our day together turned out to be, not only full of laughter, but inspiration for gardening this spring. I've been talking about turning my backyard into a "food basket" by growing lots of vegies and herbs and maybe a few fruit trees. When I saw that Marlene had put 22 fruit trees into her backyard, one that's half as big as mine, I was astounded! Plus, she still grows herbs and vegies and flowers too.

She took me to her favorite nursery and with the help of some very knowledgeable nursery guys, I purchased 3 fruit trees, some raspberry canes, and a few flowers. This morning I woke up to beautiful blue skies and sunshine and an eagerness to plant. I only got the fruit trees in but will hopefully get the rest in sometime during the week. Meanwhile, Jack, the dog, took a great interest in all my digging... and I'm afraid I will have to watch him closely so that he doesn't undo my hard work.

The goal is to eventually have enough fruit trees so that I am picking something ripe and ready every season of the year. Do you think it's possible? The nursery guy said it was!


Above is a picture of Beth, playing the role of Vanna White, pointing out the Peach, the Pluot, and the Plum trees... oh and Jack, the dog, wistfully wanting to dig!

2 comments:

  1. Watch out for the raspberry canes -- they will spread far from where you plant them! One trick is to plant them in plastic buckets that have had the bottoms cut out so they can't runner. Otherwise keep them well away from your veggie beds. Ours (also planted from bare roots) sent their first new shoots up 6 feet away!

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  2. That's exactly what the guy at the nursery said. They were planted in plastic buckets and I plan to trellis them on wires. Thanks for thinking of it, Annaliese!

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