Water, Mulch and Blackberries

I promise I will try to come up with better titles as I get better at this blogging thing.  This is just a quick update on some of the minor progress we are making on some of the projects around here (and the blackberries).  

This past weekend we got the temporary irrigation installed in the former-front-yard turned food forest. When it is completely converted to established perennials we won’t really need the irrigation, but since we ended up planting most of our annual garden vegetable out there this year (due to the still-standing-water at the end of June in the back yard), we need a little help in the watering department.

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We have been using the no-till “lasagna” method to rid our yard of grass and create planting spaces.  We dug out the Bermuda grass around the concrete edges of our driveway and sidewalks, but otherwise we have just been covering the grass with a couple layers of cardboard and topping it with our compost and grass clipping, and a nice thick layer of wood chips.  We put pockets of soil mixed with mushroom compost anywhere we were actually planting something, and then mulched with more wood chips. 

We have been out of wood chips for a couple weeks now, so our tomato plants have been sitting in little pockets of soil surrounded by grass clippings (they haven’t seemed to mind) while we waited, and waited, and waited for the rain (thanks tropical storm Bill) to let up long enough for our favorite tree trimming service (Tree Climbers) to be able to work enough to fill up their truck with wood chips for us.  Today was delivery day!  Jeremy showed up with his BIG truck.  It’s going to take us a month to move all these chips into place, especially with the 16 and 5 year old pulling wheelbarrow filling duty.  They aren’t fast, but they are free labor. (By the way, while he was here, Jeremy gave us a very reasonable quote on removing a tree that stands in the way of being able to reach our future workshop with a vehicle…so if you need tree service, call Tree Climbers and tell Jeremy that the crazy lady who takes all of his wood chip donations recommended him.)

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This evening we planted a few raspberry and thorn-less blackberry brambles along the chicken-yard fence line.  We want the chickens to be able to reach through and get their share of berries as the plants mature and start producing.  In the meantime, I headed back to the far end of the yard to check on the progress of the wild blackberries that proliferate there.  I have been checking every couple of days now as I want to beat the birds to at least some of the berries as they ripen.  They are starting to turn now!  We should have a ton of them pretty soon.  What should I make with them if they actually make it all the way back to the house?

Thanks for reading!

Erin

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