The Barn and Fields > Gardening

Making out my garden order

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MoWin:
Hello ladies,

I am so slow when it comes to making decisions. Oh my goodness, I have put this off for 2 months. Well, today is the day. I promised Kevin that I would have an order ready to go tonight when he gets home.  ;D

I am making a special order of some dwarf fruit trees. The plan right now is to order: Red Delicious and Yellow Delicious apples, Bartlett and Kieffer pears, Blue Damson and Stanley plums, 2 hardy pecan trees, 2 Patriot blueberry bushes, and 20 Mary Washington asparagus plants. I plan to take better care of the cherry and peach trees, grapes, strawberries,  raspberry, and blackberry bushes that we already have. Really trying to get away from having to buy fruit from the store. Kind of scared to see what this will total.  :o We have debated about planting more fruit trees but just decided to go with dwarf. They should be producing in 2 or 3 years and stay short enough for us to manage.

I am also making out my order for seeds. We talked about buying some potato eyes, but goodness, they are expensive. I think we will just buy the certified seed from town. Mostly ordering different kinds or bean, okra, carrots, beets, lettuce, peas, etc. I still have lots of seed left from last year. I really hope it is still good because it was expensive seed.  :-\

Anyway, that is my plan for the day. Everyone else thinking about the garden?

Blessings,
Winona

Rooney:
Winona that all sounds so good! :)  Just wondering, where you are ordering from and do you happen to know if the dwarf trees are non-hybrids?  Been looking into some of these things as well, but just don't know enough to take the plunge yet. :)

MoWin:
Hi Lindsay,

I don't know if these are hybrids or not. Actually I don't even know how to find that out.  ??? Anyone know?  The thing is, Kevin will be 60 in May and I will be 56 in March. We know that if we want to get fruit while we can still do the work, we have to plant the dwarf. They produce fruit in a couple of years whereas the standard take 5-7 years. At our age, we can't wait that long. LOL We are ordering from Burgess. It is a company that has cheaper plants, but we are giving it a shot. The apple trees are $12.99 for 1'-3' trees and the others are $9.99 for the 1'-3' trees. We can order 3'-4' trees for $19.99 each, but decided to go with the cheaper. They are warranteed to live the first year. Last year we ordered a bunch of the pink honeysuckle bushes from this company. They came in July and we planted them right in the midst of the summer heat. We did water them several times, but most of them survived. To be planted during 100* temps and survive made us very happy.  ;D Truthfully I have never researched this company, but we are giving this a shot. We can't afford to pay $30-40 per tree that the fancier companies want.  :o We are supposed to be able to plant these all in a 10'X20' plot. I hope this works. I can just see all the beautiful blooms and bees  buzzing around them.  8)

Lindsay,  I think you guys would be very smart to get an orchard started. Like I said, I have no idea if these are hybrids, but I know we will not be spraying any chemicals on them. I need to do lots of research to find organic ways to keep pests at bay. We have 3 peach trees. Last year I got nothing off one of them, a hand full off one and several quarts off the third. This was after we had a snow storm on May 3rd. I didn't think we would get anything.  :o Now when I worked the peaches up, I did find a few worms inside some of them, but I just cut them out and continued on with putting them up. I would rather find a worm now and then than to have my fruit covered with pesticides. Kevin says we just get extra protein with the worms. LOL :P He is kind of gross sometimes. LOL

Here is the Burgess web site:  www.eBurgess.com At least I think that will get you there. If not, just Google Burgess Seed and Plant Company.

We are ordering our seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Their web site is:   www.rareseeds.com

I hope this helps.
Blessings,
Winona

greyhoundgirl:
Yes, thinking about the garden here, too.  We are planning to tear out several of our older raised beds and put in a couple new ones using concrete block in a different location, then till up an area for non-raised bed gardening.  I find it works well for some crops and not others, at least in our climate, so am trying to work with that while we need to redo some beds anyway.  The older wood beds are coming apart and warping.  So anyway, I have a 4 x 8' foot bed and a 4 x 12' bed, both 2 years old and made of concrete block that will not be moved.  Inside, I have broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, cabbage, and some lettuces started.  Tomorrow is technically the plant date for these, though the up and down weather is making me leary.  But I guess I will go ahead, at least with the cruciferous veggies.

Once those are out from under the light, I will start some warm-weather veggies like tomatoes.

Rooney:
Thank you for all of that useful info. Winona.  I started looking around online and found where there are a couple of companies where you can get heritage fruit trees that they put on dwarf rootstock.  Not exactly sure how that works, but the result is a heritage dwarf fruit tree.  Not sure about prices though.  Probably high. :P  It really sounds like you and Kevin are going to have quite the orchard with a very wide variety of trees and bushes. :)  I would love to have a grapevine and a couple of peach and apple trees at least.  I live directly across the road from a small country commercial orchard.  I guess they would know how to get it started. :)  Will you post some pictures once you have gotten them planted?  I am sure everyone would love to see. :)

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