Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Just spent most of my "allowance" on some berry plants!

I went to Stark Brothers' online, i have been getting their catalogs for years but never got to get anything from them before.

I got Lingonberries, Patriot blueberries, Blueray blueberries, Frontenac grapes, Marechal Foch grapes and Frontenac grapes.  I still want Edelweiss grapes, but its going to be hard to find them since the only grape vineyard/nurseries i found that carry them want to do 25 vine minimum orders.  I don't have room for 6 vines, much less 25. No room to hold and then resell either.

Maybe i can get in on a large order with someone in the Gardenweb community. I think i have seen people do that before.  They get together, make an order and have it shipped to a trustworthy ringleader who distributes them to the recipients and shipping is reimbursed.

Or i will have to make do with the 3 grapes i have just ordered....  which won't be all that bad, really. (!!!)  I only got one of each in case they don't do well here, i won't be out  more than the 3.

We have gotten some decent rain so far today, enough to make some big puddles. So that is a relief.  Lots of thunder storms in the state but they are all skirting my area and it looks like that will be all the rain we get for the next 24-48 hours.

Hoping for rain.

We aren't getting  a lot of rain so far this year, so i really hope to get a good bit today. I'm not a big fan of having to use the hose so often, if we had well water it would be different. My dad is looking into getting me a couple 55 gallon drums we can use to catch roof runoff from the shed to use in the garden.
But it looks like the rain that is heading towards us is going to be hit-or-miss (and drying up before it gets here) and maybe amount to about a half inch.  But the sun not being strong today and little to no breeze, means less drying out.  Nothing in the garden seems to be suffering from the dryness and the part of the yard we haven't done anything with yet just looks dusty.
I'm making cultured butter today, since its a hands-off project i can be doing other things until its time to *churn* the cream.

I still have not started the annual flowers i wanted to have. I think there is just about enough time if i get that done in the next 3 days or so.

I am waiting on some "Big Hip Roses" from Oikos Tree Crops this week. I ordered them off their eBay store. 5 of them for $20 shipping included.  I hope to plant them on the outside of our fence that runs along the road.  Its all barren and dusty there and it needs something to keep the kids from leaning on the fences and snooping through the cracks.  Hopefully i can use the petals for rosewater and other interesting things like rose petal beads and such.  The plants should be able to handle being covered in snow from the plow.

I need to get some sort of heavy duty landscape fabric so i can smother out the weeds and grass from the inside of the fence where i plan to put the berry plants. I think i should get that going now.  Especially after it rains, if its wet under the fabric, it will steam the weeds faster and the worms will love the cooked plants. I think.

I have things to do today, but if the rain holds off or even if it doesn't i will try to plant  sweet corn later on today.