Monday, July 5, 2010

Weekend update

I was going out to the orchard to check on the ducks this morning and noticed how deep green the grass inside the orchard was in comparison to the grass outside the fence. It was my hope that by housing the ducks in the orchard we would be restoring the soil. The soil in this area is incredibly thin and clayish. I think it is actually subsoil that was left behind by excessive turning of the soil in that area. We hadn't realy dug into the soil before having the orchard planted and if we had we probably wouldn't have put the orchard where we did. So now we are stuck with improving the soil around the trees. Last fall I planted clover around the trees and I am sure it has helped as well.


We also gathered these berries last week from around the yard. We planted the raspberries and the strawberries but the gooseberries and the black raspberries are wildings.


We didn't want to let them go to wast but we still have a fair supply of jam from last year so we made them into a galet. It turned out pretty good. I hope to make more out of our raspberries this fall.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The galet looks delicious! Way to go with the creativity.

Mr. H. said...

What a fine harvest of berries and so early...those are some pretty nice sized gooseberries. Not many people care for the black raspberries for some strange reason, we grow a lot of them and also get a few from the wild each year...definitely one of my favorite berries.

I'm happy to hear that the orchard project is working out so well for you. I like the idea of planting clover in that area, I should try that around our fruit trees next season.

Frustrated Farmer Rick said...

Anonymous- It wasn't bad at all. I think we will have to try it again some time.

Mr. H.- One of the goose berry bushes started growing the large berries this year. We love the black raspberries. The have a mor complex flavor than most of the other berries. They taste almost balsamic. As for the orchard. The clover has grown quite tall. We have chopped the over growth and dropped it at the base of the trees as mulch as well. This makes the plant shed root growth and some of the rot nodules with the nitrogen. Then the clover grows back and in the mean time we get mulch as well.