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Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush: The May Gardening Thread


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Thank you! These were in a raised bed. But I was busy with something last weekend and asked someone else to water. They got everything else (we have berry and grape vines and fruit and nut trees) and they forgot to get the raised beds. 😭 My pumpkin, watermelon, and cucumbers were already about a foot tall!

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Posted (edited)
On 5/24/2024 at 8:07 AM, Faith-manor said:

I am anxious to get our property up north. Mark and I are not retiring to Alabama like we thought we would. As things have turned out, our daughter and son in law only want to stay there for two more years and then want to move back to Michigan. Son in law has some medical conditions that make the very hot summers very difficult for him to endure. We are looking for property in the Traverse Bay area, and I am having a hard time being patient with the search. Fruit trees take a while to mature, and I plan on having 3 Honeycrisp, 1 granny smith, 1 clingstone peach, 1 free stone peach, 1 Stella cherry, 1 bing cherry, 1 north star cherry, and 1 anjou pear. I told Mark we will be paying a pretty penny for them because I am going to get 3-4 year old stock so that they set fruit much sooner, and those cost a LOT more per tree. This is in addition to the 12 blueberry, 12 raspberry bushes, and the asparagus patch which takes 3 years to fully mature.

He asked me if I was becoming an orchardist. I said, "I want to help feed my family healthy food." With four adult kids, two in law kids, three grandsons who already eat like hyenas raiding a goat farm, and four bonus/honorary kids, my "orchard" will barely keep up! 😱 He said we should keep chickens. I asked him how many he thought we would need if we were going to give each of those households 1 dozen eggs per week. He said 8. 😂😂😂 I said, "Nope, more like 25, and then only for about 6 months a year. October through March light levels will be low enough some of the hens won't lay, and others will only have an egg a week, maybe at the very most two, but not likely for that far north." He backed off on that idea thank goodness! I don't want to muck out after 30 hens. I used to farm sit for a friend who had five horses, 12 hens, 4 ducks, 20 sheep, 5 llamas, 1 alpaca, and 6 angora bunnies and every summer grew out 3 weaner pigs for fall bacon. I am fully aware of the responsibility for livestock. Meanwhile the only thing he had ever mucked out after is a cat litter box!

FYI- I put in columnar apple trees this last week, three of em, all 3-4 ft tall although advertised as 2-3 ft. and they are budding right now. It was $123 for all of them including shipping. The Meyer lemon is flowering too and I put that in three weeks ago. It’s only 18” -2ft tall.🤷🏽‍♀️

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Edited by Sneezyone
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Posted (edited)
14 minutes ago, popmom said:

@Sneezyone where did you order these from?

Stark bros. They had a BOGO sale earlier this month plus I added a coupon code. I bet the ones I got were long in the tooth or something b/c I ordered the third one from Home Depot and it’s the 2-3ft size I expected. All arrived bare root. My lemon and lime trees came from Home Depot too. The stark bros trees were trimmed at the  top to fit the 4-5 ft tree box and the trunks are easily 1.25-1.5” diameter so not babies at all. Usually they’re $125-150 ea at that size.

Edited by Sneezyone
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Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, popmom said:

@Sneezyone Apparently, Stark Bros cannot ship Meyer Lemon trees to my state. That's interesting. I'll have to look into that. Your trees look very healthy, so I am intrigued.

The Meyer lemon came from my local Home Depot. I think they’re locally sourced by Home Depot. I’ve had really good luck with regional suppliers online.

Edited by Sneezyone
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10 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

Stark bros. They had a BOGO sale earlier this month plus I added a coupon code. I bet the ones I got were long in the tooth or something b/c I ordered the third one from Home Depot and it’s the 2-3ft size I expected. All arrived bare root. My lemon and lime trees came from Home Depot too. The stark bros trees were trimmed at the  top to fit the 4-5 ft tree box and the trunks are easily 1.25-1.5” diameter so not babies at all. Usually they’re $125-150 ea at that size.

I drool with envy!

I need my property. I can't plant anymore trees - no more room here without giving up gardening space or impacting foundations - and it doesn't make sense to do so anyway. This place will have to be given away. No one wants to move to this forsaken town. Literally. We bought it for $36,000, put $100,000 in renovations in it.The house has 4000 sq ft. We will probably donate it. Not kidding. Nothing here can sell. So I just can't keep improving the acre it sits on.

Mark's retirement can't come fast enough (4.5 years.) I want out so much, and I want my mini-orchard!

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2 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

I drool with envy!

I need my property. I can't plant anymore trees - no more room here without giving up gardening space or impacting foundations - and it doesn't make sense to do so anyway. This place will have to be given away. No one wants to move to this forsaken town. Literally. We bought it for $36,000, put $100,000 in renovations in it.The house has 4000 sq ft. We will probably donate it. Not kidding. Nothing here can sell. So I just can't keep improving the acre it sits on.

Mark's retirement can't come fast enough (4.5 years.) I want out so much, and I want my mini-orchard!

The nice thing about the columnars is that they can thrive in pots and be moved.😎

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