Happily home, watching the news and drinking a glass of Pinot Grigio. Maybe I should say guzzling, though a wine aficionado would be horrified. Having showered of course. Another great day at Tiny House Farm. And we are home before the most welcome rain storm.
Ron and I met Don and John at 8 am this morning with the plan of getting most of our 88 trees/bushes planted. Shelly came again; she apparently really enjoyed our mushroom inoculation event and was wiling to come back to play with us. Then Jesse arrived and our crew was complete and the work could begin. For all 88 plants we needed to back fill the holes as our plants arrived smaller than expected. Don and John got started combining the compost and top soil that we would need. Then we needed to lay out the long strips of weed cloth, making sure it was relatively straight. Though I have tried for years to get Ron to accept that nature abhors a straight line. Next step was cutting an X where each plant would be set and getting the plant in. And more back filling. Then we needed to stake down the weed cloth so it didn’t blow away. And repeat. After all we had 7 rows of elderberries and 7 more of paw paws to plant.
Ron and Shelly got started with planting the paw paws.

I wonder if she is looking for my jars of cash. Rumor has it that I have them stashed all over the place.  Or she is just wondering why Ron is so excited about planting these scrawny looking plants?

Jesse, John, Don and I tackled the larger amount of elderberries. Our field doesn’t look like much of anything right now, does it?

Thank goodness this is my project as we were not that good at getting them set in a straight line. But somehow I think it will be all right. By the time we get the weed cloth covered in straw and wood chips and the trees fill out in a few years, no one will ever know that we were not spot on with the planting.
It took us a bit of time but we found a rhythm and started making progress. It was a prefect day for working outside. Cloudy with an occasional breeze and moderate temps. It did warm up as the day went on, but never got brazing hot. By 11 am Ron and Shelly had gotten 2 1/2 rows done and we had almost 4 rows of elderberries done.

Shelly had to leave and Ron was sorry to see her go. They had worked well together.  While the 4 of us kept working on the elderberries, Ron started working on getting the cages on his paw paws.

Armchair General, hard at work. He wants to handle this part of the process himself. And I am just as happy to leave it to him. I don’t want to be responsible for damaging any plants. These cages are to protect the trees from too much sun and possible critters.
Thank goodness, we are finally done with all 49 bushes.

It will take a few years for them to start looking like a proper orchard. But so nice to have them all planted.

I do love my work hat. I wear it all the time and it keeps me protected from the sun and bugs.
Lunch break. Most welcome. But it will be hard to get going again. All of our muscles are started to stiffen up. But we need to get the rest of the paw paws done, so back to work we go.

Ron had to give us directions in how he wanted us to plant them as he would really like straight lines. Our first row was pretty good, but the second, not so much. We did better on the last rows and what a relief it was to get to the last 4 plants.

Not quite done though. We still had to stake down the weed cloth, water all the plants, all while Ron worked to finish putting on all the cages, pick up all the tools and equipment.  Then we had to load it all back in the Transit and finally, finally head for home.

Ron’s paw paws. You cannot see the trees as the cages are currently about 12 inches taller than them. Now we just have to watch over them for the next few years, keeping them watered and protected from whatever. Then with luck we will have yummy paw paws and elderberries in abundance. I cannot wait. Have all sorts of recipes I am itching to try out. Going to have some great fun. Though I don’t think I will go so far as to try making my own paw paw beer or elderberry wine. My life is complicated enough.