Planting out an apricot seedling

Following internet instructions, which are sketchy at the best of times, I dug under the old existing apricot tree and found three apricot seeds.  I cracked them open, and only the one pictured below was intact and almond looking.

Apricot kernel

I put this in a container and left it out exposed to the weather, watering sporadically.

Apricot seedling

A year and a half later, I found the larger container it'd been transplanted into, extremely dry but the seedling looked alive.  So I planted it out in the windbreak, it's hard to see in the picture below, but it's center right beside the clump of grass and wiry.

Apricot seedling planted out

Bloody Butcher corn

One of the problems with unfenced chickens, is that they scratch the ground wherever they are able and feel obliged to.  This is my short term solution until the corn is large enough to survive chickens scratching around them.  Then I can put it up on posts and use it to give wind support to the broad beans.  This approach saves the need to fence off the area, but leaving it there too long is a mistake, because the plants it's laid down on may grow too big and make it impractical to remove.  I had this problem with potatoes last year.

Another problem is that I germinated the corn outdoors under an eave where the frost doesn't hit, so only two thirds of it has grown so far.  The rest is either still small, or is yet to sprout.  So there may be some time difference in when the corn is tasseling and cross-pollinating.

Corn var. Bloody Butcher

Sheepses in Spring 2015

I used to work with a Chinese girl, Sharon.  She spoke, like other English-as-a-second-language speakers I met in China, a little like Gollum.  She used to say monthses, and I wonder if she would have also said sheepses.

Anyway, the only place the neighbour's sheep can get some shelter, is the south side of my property under the shadow of either the hedge or garage.  At the moment, their paddock is full of sheep and lambs.  Speaking to him the day before yesterday when it was quite hot, he was happy we hadn't seen any thunder storms, as the latter kills lambs.

Sheepses and lambses

Blueberries in Spring 2015

There are two blueberry plants in the orchard.  There was three, but the third died of.. I guess prior neglect would be the crime if the perpetrator were taken to plant court.  The year before last, the fruit was enjoyed.  But last year, due to laziness, the fruit went missing - most likely because of free ranging chickens.

As far as I can tell, there's not much difference between the two varieties, Powder Blue and Climax.  But they're supposed to be pollinators for each other.

Blueberry var. Powder Blue

Note the pine mulch around them.  Someone swept up the leftover material from the pine cones I used to collect for the coal range, and I took it and scattered it around the blueberry plants.  The theory is that they prefer acid soil, and pine trees are supposed to be much the same.

Blueberry var. Climax