We wandered a bit farther afield for our walk today which took us by the nearest Rural King store. A stop there was made to check for the resin half barrels as they had lots last year and they had several tall stacks and a good supply of potted thornless blackberries that are good to -10 and -20 f which is way colder than our region every gets. Since the blackberries were potted, not bare root, and already leafed out, I felt safe buying them for transplant into the half barrels, so 3 of each came home with us along with 6 bags of container soil.
I had the idea that I would pot them up in the shade of the garage, move them one at a time in the wheelbarrow to the garden and lift them into place. I have moved many of the half barrels around before, but the soil was heavier than I expected and though I could get them into the wheelbarrow, it only fits on some of the garden paths and I couldn’t get it close enough to place the barrels above the in ground asparagus bed as originally planned. The edge of the garden where the compost pile is building had a large mulched area below it and my decision was that the blackberries would be just fine there.
The tags on both varieties said they were strong upright canes that would get 4 to 5 feet tall, but they weren’t too erect in the pots, so I staked them at least for now. They are currently getting watered in along with a good watering on the rest of the garden.
You can see that the pile of old garden boxes still haven’t been dismantled and burned, but while Son 1 was here last weekend, he found and ordered two rechargable batteries for my cordless drill, so I can now get that task accomplished as well as building the compost bins. The garden is just a bit too far away from the house to use the corded drills without connecting two together which I don’t feel is a safe practice. Those batteries arrived by UPS today and fit the drill and charger.
What a difference a couple days makes in the growth of the bush beans and the rows are filling in nicely. Soon they will shade the soil and weeding will be an easier job. In a month or so, we will have fresh green beans to enjoy.
This morning when I went over to release the pullets, I carried a bucket of water to fill their in the coop container. It was still about half full and as I have to step up into the coop to move it, I decided to just fill the small black rubber tub in their run. I haven’t yet been putting water out there this spring. When I picked up the tub to dump the hay and dirt out of it, I disturbed a field mouse who was building a nest with hay and chicken feathers under the edge of the tub. She hightailed it across my sandalled foot giving me a bit of a start. I didn’t look to see if she had “micelets” in the nest, I don’t want to know, but I didn’t see the velociraptors fighting over anything, so I think it may have just been nest building.
Each day, hubby chuckles at my attempts to corral Ms. Houdini. Lately she has been the only escapee and I still haven’t found her hidey hole. The mature hens are only producing 2 to 4 eggs a day, so the loss of her one is important. He says it is a battle of wits between me and a chicken and she is winning, though so far today, she hasn’t escaped.