Cherry trees and grape vines

Prelude to planting...

I got an email from FedEx last Tuesday saying that my Cherries and Grape Vines would be at the farm Wednesday!  I contacted FedEx and was able to delay the delivery until Friday (for $5).  Katherine and I got to the farm around 10:30am and FedEx showed up around 11:30am!

I had plenty to do before getting the trees and vines planted though.  The ground was very wet (it was raining on and off Friday) so doing anything with the soil was impossible.  I checked the grape arbor posts and decided that they needed another coat of copper naphthenate.  I got a good coat on them and let them to dry.

Later on my brother Tom called and wanted to know if they could come over Saturday morning to get a tour and then go grab some lunch.  We agreed.    I decided to put the last coat of polyurethane  on the canning shelves so that they would be dry.   I built a good fire in the fireplace to make sure everything dried out downstairs.

"Easter" with the family

Well, mom, my brother Tom and his wife Julie came over around 10ish Sat morning and I proceeded to walk them around the farm showing everything I was working on.  We finished the tour around noon and then Katherine, me and the rest of the family traveled into McConnellsburg for lunch.  Tom took some pictures during the farm tour - here are a few:

A great panorama shot looking out toward the valley from the top of my field.

Me on the left, Tom in the middle and Mom on the right.  Checking out the Pecan trees

Mom next to a Pecan tree - looks like she is checking out the White Walnut trees
The butternut trees are not in the picture, but off-frame to the left.

A view of the wood-house-it made it through the winter!
The box leaning up against the wood inside contains the cherry trees and grape vines

Walking up to the nut trees.  That is Mom in the white and me in the black.

Still on the trek to the nut trees.  Mom is watching her step.  I am ahead there on the left with Julie on the right (in blue)

Mom, Tom, and Me!

Planting the Cherry Trees

After Katherine and I  returned to the farm it had dried out enough that I could plant the cherry trees. First I marked where I wanted to place the trees in the front "cherry area".  I placed the Dwarf Star Sour Cherry trees (6 of them) between the old sour cherries and the house.  My logic was that since they are dwarf trees they would not obstruct my view to the other trees when they got larger.  Meh.  I placed the Montmorency cherry trees (again, 6 trees) to the right of the old sour cherry trees, as you look from the house to the road.  When I was done I placed the spiral "rabbit protectors" around them and then I went to laying out the grape arbor posts.  After that I called it a night.  Later in the weekend I put wood shavings around the cherry trees to help keep the grass and weeds down.  

The new ones don't have any wood chips by their base in this picture.  20 sour cherry trees!  4 sweet cherry on the far left.

The wine grapes

The next day we had to pop over to Mom's to get my post-hole digger and digging iron.  Tom has been working on the upkeep of Mom's fence and he needed a post hole digger.  Anyway, I picked up some old short steel posts that I hope to use for my expanded electric fence around my cherry trees and gardens.  Katherine picked up mom's old electric slicer.  Mom said I could have the old garden posts too - they are the large metal posts that I will certainly need soon when I add to my garden,

Once we got back to the farm, unpacked, and ate lunch it was about 1:30pm!   I got the auger ready and started drilling out the post holes.   I cleaned the holes up with the post-hole digger.  Fortunately, despite being in a rocky area, the posts went in nicely with only a little movement needed to get the deep holes I needed.  I brought the posts down from the barn using the front-loader.  I brought 3 posts at a time since the front-loader can't really hold a lot (more at once would have gotten in the way anyway).   I used a level to get the posts nice and straight and aligned.  It took a few hours, but I got all the posts in.  They look pretty good!  

While I was working on the posts, Jay Knepper dropped by to pay rent on the field.  We got to talking and I asked him about cutting down some of the trees on the other side of the sheep pasture fence - he said they were probably on my property anyway, but even if they were on his it was OK to cut them down.  Until those trees are down I am afraid to plant anything on the hill facing the sheep pasture.  They are BIG trees and would destroy anything in their fall zone.

Anyway, I got back to the grapes and got them all planted.  It was tricky though - that ground has a lot of stones in it.  It was hard to find dirt to cover the grape roots!  I made sure to use the rhizome inoculate and the goop that makes it all stick and hold water.  I also watered them all in.  They will need a lot of luck if the weather gets dry this year!    I planted Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, and Zinfandel grapes.

I need to put the tops on the arbors and run the wire too, but that all can wait.  I just wanted the posts in there now because putting in posts after the rape vines are in would be a nightmare!

Between the posts, there are little dirty areas - those are where the grape vines are planted!  

This bank where I planted the grapes and hazelnuts is a drain-way for the mountain.  It doesn't drain through here so much as to be running with water (usually), but it always seems to have moisture without having any standing water.

Wood mulch

I didn't get any pictures of it, but I did put wood chips, plane shavings, and saw dust around all of my planted trees that weren't otherwise protected - the grapes, the apples, pears, peaches and plums.  I even started putting some around the paw-paws - but I ran out of time.  I will need to finish those off next week.  

Preparing for the next wave...

I have arranged to take off some time from work so that I can plant the next wave of trees and get the gardens started.  I pulled up a lot of the barbed wire fencing along the top of my pasture (to the right of the apples as you look from the road).  I also got the tractor in there and pulled most of the posts and brambles.  However, I still need to do a lot of prep work on that ground before I can plant trees there!  I still haven't decided whether to use tree protectors or not.  I am thing that I will put in 2 rows of locust.  Katherine suggests using the tree protectors only on the top row and hopefully that will provide some deer protection as well as a visual guide to whoever mows that field!

Oh - and seedlings are coming along!

We left the seedlings here to fend for themselves this weekend.  They survived!  In fact, some of the pepper plants are finally emerging!

They are reaching for the window light (I didn't leave a light on for them).  Tomatoes, brasicas, and eggplants in there.

You can't see them - but there are some pepper plants coming up in there!