Arrival of Fruit Trees and Berry Bushes!

It's Christmas here at the Wolfe house!  Berry plants and fruit trees arrived this past weekend!  Everything was purchased through Stark Bro's Nursery.  We were certainly busy planting, watering, fencing, and mulching everything.  Paul was right there unwrapping plants and helping us tuck everything in their holes. Paul made me smile when he identified the blueberries by the few flowers that were on the plant.  He definitely has a better memory than I do when remembering the finer details of things!

The list below includes everything we received this year.  Add this list to the 13 fruit trees, 5 raspberries, 25 strawberries, 10 blueberries, 1 black raspberry, and 2 kiwi's from last year; and 4 fruit trees and 3 raspberries planted last fall.  There is no doubt about it...we have a lot to take care of!

• Cortland Apple Semi-Dwarf
• CrimsonCrisp Apple Semi-Dwarf
• Orleans Antique Apple Semi-Dwarf
• Chojuro Asian Pear Dwarf
• CrimsonCrisp Apple Semi-Dwarf
• Ichi-Ki-Kei-Jiro Oreiental Persimmon
• Mango Pawpaw
• Pennsylvania Golden Pawpaw
• Sunflower Pawpaw
• Seedling Pawpaw
• Starking Delicious Peach
• Elberta Peach Standard
• White Giant Peach Standard
• July Elberta Queen Standard
• Reliance Peach Standard
• Redhaven Peach Standard
• Cherry Stark Surecrop
• Hall's Hardy Almond
• Night Mist Honeyberry
• Midnight Blue Honeyberry
• Sweetheart Blueberry
• Northcountry Blueberry
• Blueray Blueberry
• Chandler Blueberrry
• Bristol Black Raspberry
• Anne Yellow Raspberry
• Himbo Top Primocane Red Raspberry
• Jaclyn Primocane Red Raspberry
• Prime-Jan Blackberry
• Prime-Jim Blackberry
• American Cranberry
• Ozark Beauty Strawberry Everbearing
• Issai Hardy Kiwi
• Somerset Seedless Grape
• Concord Seedless Grape
• Reliance Seedless Grape
• Marquis Seedless Grape
• Thomcord Seedless Grape

Indoor Plants:

• Key Lime
• Arbequina Olive
• Meyer Lemon
• Tangerine Citrus
• Valencia Orange

Unpacking everything and placing the bare root trees in water. 

12 raspberry plants alongside the garden with electric fence for deer protection.

Here is one of the pawpaw trees.  Instructions say to provide partial shade its first 2 years and then full sun after that.  This was our homemade version of making partial shade...pieces of burlap woven into the fence.

I just couldn't resist taking a picture of the Saturn Peach that was planted last year.  When taking this picture, Paul gave me a lesson about pollination and how the honeybees up the hill help make peaches.

After everything was planted, we mulched with leaves.  First we cut the grass really short using the weed whacker and then we added leaves, leaving about a 6 inch diameter at the base for air flow and water.  If you click on the pictures below you can see a big difference between fresh leaves gathered in the woods and those removed from the chicken coop.  The chickens do an excellent job shredding the leaves into tiny pieces and fertilizing it with their poop. 

Leaves from the woods...

Leaves from the chicken coop.

Leaves gathered from the woods came from a location where we think we lost the car keys last fall.  The leaves were hauled using an old bed sheet.

We add about this many fresh leaves in the outdoor run and a month later we receive...

A nice pile of shredded leaves with small sticks and nut shells.  This mulch is an added benefit to having chickens if you are willing to put in the extra effort of raking and hauling the leaves!