Soggy, Busy Weekend; Better Days Ahead

A new raised bed to cover the dead stump and a new Honeycrisp Apple Tree in the Foreground

This past weekend saw a flurry of activity here at Steepmeadow. Two new Honeycrisp apple trees were delivered. I planted them in a pounding, cold rain. I wanted to get them out of the buckets they were delivered in ASAP, and Saturday was a washout, living hell. So there was nothing for it but to forge ahead.

This year's plan involved building a new raised bed over an eyesore we've had in the front of the house since we moved in. We cut down an overgrown arborvitae at the corner of the garage. This left a stump surrounded by rubble over an electrical main buried in the soil. Needless to say, we did not dig down to place the box. Sadly, we ran out of pressure-treated pine 1/2 x 6' pickets just four boards short of completion. To make matters worse, these are now out of stock at all of the major supply stores. Today, I had to order a pack of 6 untreated, non-ground-contact boards of the same size which we will have to replace when we can. Still - it's a major improvement over what you can see below.

Before

Today marks the first proper sunny May day, high temps in the mid-50's and sunshine, little wind to speak of. I opened the windows of Surbiton Manor, something that hasn't occurred since last fall.

Today also marks the first seeds in the ground. I planted a row of kale, two rows of beets, and a row of rocket in Mitgarten.

Beets, as you can clearly see, are in the top two rows, kale next, and rocket at the bottom of the photo.

I lifted away the straw this last weekend, and we have strawberries up.

The bed of garlic - which will definitely repel vampires - is also coming up well. 

Meanwhile, the greenhouse is cranking along nicely. Quite a few tomatoes and peppers have graduated to the windows. Currently, by my count, we have 28 viable pepper plants (6 cayenne, 1 habanero, 2 "YOLO," 8 chile, 8 ancho, 1 banana, and 1 mystery [the tag fell off]). There are more, but they're looking a little sad. 

Just about every evening sees me bent over seedlings, potting them up. A few hours (I was sort of shocked by this) of Sunday afternoon were chewed up potting up our trusty reliable Wisconsin Chief tomatoes into 2" pots. 

Note for the future: wait a little longer to start these plants. The greenhouses are great for getting seedlings going, but the plants need real sun to grow beyond that and thrive. 

We have a serious infestation of fruit flies. I've deployed sticky traps everywhere, but they have been far from completely effective. Another batch of sticky traps has been ordered and will be put into action as soon as possible.

That is all.