With life back to business as usual at Twiglet Homestead, well aside from those chickens, there has been more garden progress going on. Another stump was removed, the tall one along the paddock side of the house, this time thanks to the efforts of myself and The Husband. A quick investigation to confirm my suspicions that the stump was rather dead and starting to rot turned into probably an hour of digging and ramming around the stump. I could have done it all myself, but The Husband turned up and spent about 10 minutes whacking the stump, pushing it over and chainsawing the bottom off so he could move both heavy bits away. That’s why I like it when he helps with the manly things. He’s stronger than me. Then again, it helps when you have a good woman to do the groundwork. Now the hefty stump is out of the way of the fence strainer post, so we can figure out how to install the big gate and various bits of fence across that side of the house.
Speaking of help, The Father came around one day and helped me to remove the entire pruning mountain. He brought a caged trailer and, with a little help from The Little Fulla, we chopped, loaded and flattened two trailer loads of branches, plus some ivy, which is the cherry on top. He made two trips to the organic centre to dispose of it all, where it will be made into compost. It’s amazing what you can do in one day when you have help. It sounds like a small thing, but that pruning mountain was a mountain, which kept growing thanks to all my hacking and slashing, and it would have taken me forever to get rid of it by some low-cost method or another. Now we have a much nicer view and no pruning mountains to speak of on the property. Woohoo! The Husband does still have a small chopping-up-for-the-fire mountain though. The alcove where the pruning mountain was is going to be my plant-growing area. There’s a little more clearing of things to do yet and the tall, narrow conifer still needs to be felled before I move my plants over there, but I’m on another mission right now.
Before The Father came out I pruned some of the big fig tree branches that were low down, too long or otherwise awkward. I also hacked out an awkwardly self-seeded, small fig tree next to the main one, as it is not needed and was on a bad lean. There is another small one in there that I will try to dig out and give to someone. More hacking and slashing was done in the mess under there, most notably caused by ivy. I am slowly starting to win against the ivy in this area as its line recedes further towards the fence line. There is a great mass of it climbing up and cascading down a camellia tree next to the fig tree though. The question is whether to try and remove the ivy from the camellia or cut both down.
With a clean slate and with the chickens needing their second chicken pen to get done, I have commenced more hacking and slashing in the back corner. I cut down the camellia bush on the edge of the raised bed because it could have bouyed the chickens over the fence or into the trees, and also, it was in a stupid place right at the edge of the bed. Of course, the dense camellia ‘bush’ was a re-sprouted stump and sprouting roots. I’ve cut the branches down for the mean time but don’t want to put woody weedkiller on them since the chickens will need to be in there soon. The removal of this bush actually gives a much nicer outloook from the house, as it was blocking the eyeline to the trees at the back, making the eye focus on the brown wooden edging. For now, you just need to pretend that you can’t see the weeds and ivy. I am also trimming back the multi-legged shrub that I think is some kind of small quince and the bay tree is re-sprouting again so I will have another crack at that when I’ve cleared the ivy. I have been clearing the ivy in there. I don’t want to, but I have to get it done very soon so I can chicken-wire the holey wooden perimeter fence, so I have been donning pants and long sleeves and carefully but mercilessly pulling out every bit of ivy in my path. Well, on the non-stinkin’ hot days. I won’t attack the ivy on the trees though, however tempting, as the possibility of rash-inducing ivy bits falling on me from above is too great.
The Husband has just commenced hacking some of the ivy and intermingled branches off the tall, narrow, yellow conifer using the telescopic pruning saw. This is the tree that needs to come down. This is very good. Except that he started a new pruning mountain. Ah well, by the time we get that corner sorted out we’ll probably have enough green waste to necessitate a trailer disposal trip anyway. I think I was in denial: we’re doomed to have a pruning mountain until I’ve gotten around to all the garden areas with my hacking, slashing and pruning. Now we are pondering whether we can use the ladder and telescopic pruning saw to carefully fell the tree by taking off small bits at a time. I have wound up the old, broken washing line, leaving the concreted metal post that needs to be dug out at some point.
The Plum Tree Garden is decidedly weedy at the moment and I haven’t finished digging up the lawn bit yet, but I’ve halted work on it while I get the second chicken pen area sorted. We’re harvesting Billington plums now. They were a bit slower this season, probably because spring wasn’t particularly sunny, but I am glad to have a decent crop despite my hard pruning earlier in the year. My potted Billington, which I’ve moved off the deck and into that area, only has one plum left on it after the many strong winds we’ve had blew off the other flowers and fruit. The yellow-fleshed plum tree isn’t showing many signs of fruit yet, as in, I can see one. I know it had plenty of flowers so I am once again suspecting a pollination issue. But is it lack of a compatible pollinator tree or lack of bee pollination? After a second season of bombing out, I’m still leaning towards lack of a simultaneously-flowering plum tree to cross-pollinate it. The Billington is self-fertile. Hmm.
Now I have to decide if we should get another pollinator plum tree to plant somewhere, which would require some guesswork and possible failure since I don’t know what cultivar this one is, or just chop the yellow-fleshed plum tree down. Although we don’t really need three plum trees, that might be the better option. But wait, option three is that we chop it down and plant the potted Billington, which I would otherwise sell, in that area instead. That would cost nothing and allow us to have two well-fruiting plum trees, but the downside is that they would be two Billingtons fruiting at the same time. Do we want to have a massive preserving session in January or should I do option four and buy something else to replace the yellow-fleshed plum that fruits at a different time? Oh, the possibilities. The Husband and I have consulted and decided on option four. That plum has had two seasons to prove itself and it has failed. There is no room for sub-par fruit trees around here. So, what to plant instead? The front runners at the moment are another apple tree, which I need to do more research on, or another almond tree. Currently we have an apple tree in the chicken run that fruits from March/April to May and a young Granny Smith behind the garage for cooking apples. Since apples are one of the fruits we eat year-round it would be good to have one fruiting at a different time. We also have a dwarf almond, Garden Prince, and it would be good to have another variety, which could be bigger, so that I can have a better supply to make almond milk. I think I want both of these options. Maybe an apple could go out the front or in the second chicken pen area…
I have been mowing the lawns more than The Husband lately, as the garden looks so much better when the lawns are kept under control. Also, I can be particular about the lawn-mowing pattern when I do it. You have to think about the lines you’re making: what suits each piece of lawn and where the lines will lead the eye. Yes, my lawn is full of weeds and various grass varieties and brown patches, but at least I can get one aspect of it right! As I mow the lawn I tend to get an annoying small child-related song stuck in my head. Have you heard of Farmer in the Dell? Well, I don’t know who wrote it or if they were of sound mind, but mowing round and round a large lawn whilst repeating “the cheese stands alone, the cheese stands alone, heigh-ho the merry-o, the cheese stands alone…” is almost insanity-inducing. Never mind. I can always remove the song from my head with another annoying song…
Wild Hope Homestead 