It’s been blowing about 30mph steady all day, with gusts up to maybe 40 here in NE OK. Figures it was trash day, had retrieve the trash can lid out of the street. We’re in the SW area for severe weather tonight, they’re saying we might get some storms around 10pm.
Are you in the clear yet @clarkinks? I imagine @Olpea is getting some storms by now.
My stonefruit is spaced 5 feet on center within the rows running east to west. The rows are spaced 7 feet apart. The property is on the side of an east-facing mountain slope.
Thanks. Over time, the mounds can settle downward, but this does not expose the roots; they just settle down along with it.
I am sitting on mostly heavy rocky Maryland clay, with some seeps and hardpan underneath. It holds together in my hillbilly beds just fine.
Years prior, I made the rookie mistake of amending some of the plantings with peat, perlite, and vermiculite. This excacerbated the sinking phenomema for some of the plantings, which might explain why some of them grow weakly. My plantings rarely die, however.
Now, I just dig around where I place the sticks; pile up the clay in the middle (the trenches around the beds “amplify” the “raised” effect); then carefully plant the tree in the middle, taking care to untangle and spread the roots upon planting. They seem to oxygenate in an adequate fashion this way. This method keeps them out of puddled water. Eventually, I will fill in the surrounding trenches with clay to blend them back to grade.
For a few of the plantings, a buddy of mine gifted me some real raised beds made out of lumber. Those things work nicely, and make mulching a snap.
Today I planted the remaining pair of peaches.
Here is Windblo:
Carolina Gold:
I am relieved these are finally in the ground.
It always feels good once they are planted. Boy that does look like some hard soil in the last pic.
THanks. Glad to hear it works pretty well. Most of my place has good drainage, but there is one low area that stays fairly wet and I’d like to use some kind of raised beds so I could plant there, and your “hillybilly” method is appealing for its ease of construction.
Are those photos from your 2ed location or at your house? Also, planting trees 5 feet apart seems close to me (I do know others on here do that or even closer) and I’m just curious if you do that to save space, some other reason, or because its just all the space you think they need. I’m thinking about some of my larger, more mature peach trees and if they were only 5 feet apart they would be interwoven/overlapping a lot. If I trimmed them so they only reached out 2.5 feet it would dramatically reduce the amount of fruit I get from them. I feel like I must be missing something here, or is it just a space shortage? Please understand I’m not suggesting you are wrong to do it this way- I’m much less experienced than you and others who do these close plantings- it just seems that planting trees 5 feet apart would force you to keep them so small you would get little fruit. THanks.
The soil is hard to work. Flat rocks everywhere, but earthworms too. Go figure.
The tendons and ligaments between my biceps and pectorals are KILLING me. Last night I hardly slept-- felt like I was in sepsis shock from the acute inflammation. Self flagellation.
I’ll pop a tylenol and sleep like a rock tonight.
It’s a lack of space.
If some varieties prove to be losers, I’ll cull them or graft them over.
OMG, it’s been so windy here Derby. Every day I’d like to finish my herbicide spray, but it’s like gusts of 25 mph.
Subdood,
This morning the weather folks were calling for rains and thunderstorms at starting at 3:00. Nothing but wind and a little spitting so far. As I type, it sounds like it’s picking up a little with some hail.
So today in 2017 I am sitting in Guadalajara Mexico for work, looking at a weather forecast that shows 20 F weather and snow < 1 inch on Sunday in Lynchburg Va. My Reliance Peach, Desiree Peach, Belle of Georgia, Hale Haven and Coralstar Peach are blooming. My Elberta trees and Contender were close to bloom when I left. I have covered the smaller trees with tree covers and have two more larger bags on order to cover one of the Elberta and Contender trees. Looks like I will lose most of my peaches this year again. Sigh … Oh and my Santa Rosa Plum is in full bloom and Pear tree is close …
There were fires, tornadoes, and dirt storms in Kansas. The strong winds apparently flipped some semi trucks.
The weather man was just pulling my leg, now the forecast is 18 f and 3 to 5 inches of snow. Can it get any better?
Calling for lows around 12 Friday. Three nights of cold temps. We’ll see, its to far off now.
Grafted a variety of pluots and nectarines this weekend. With the warm weather, the understocks were starting to put out a lot of growth. Luckily, we’ll be low to mid 70s for the next 5 days or so, with a few cooler days before we’re back to low 70s. They’re in containers at the moment so I’ve moved them to a protected southern exposure to give them an additional boost in the daytime temps so hopefully I’ll get quite a few takes.
My experience with mounded plants, borders or not. And even if roots become exposed, which has happened to me, it’s so easy to throw some compost over them, they love that too! Much, much better than not mounding and having the plant sink and you have a mini-sink hole, now that is trouble, exposed roots trouble? Not really.[quote=“Matt_in_Maryland, post:424, topic:8428”]
a buddy of mine gifted me some real raised beds made out of lumber. Those things work nicely, and make mulching a snap.
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I built raised beds to keep my dog out. Now I’m a huge fan of them. I’m building two more. Brady gave me a Spartan blueberry he rooted, and one bed will be for that. The other for veggies.
Also when replacing wood, soil remains in place, it’s easy to put new wood in. I use screws so I can just unscrew it. I don’t have them attached all over the place, only the corners. Mine are 1 foot tall. You don’t need all those supports in the middle and such.
Haha, I have raised beds and chicken wire to keep neighbors’ dogs out (as well as rabbits), but it’s all good. I suppose they keep other pests at bay…maybe…or not, LOL.
I like the ease of weeding, and just working in the beds, it beats in the ground. I can sit on a corner and work. I have a stool I use too. Also the soil stays lose in these beds, nobody is walking on it, plus they just look nice.
whats planted in the center? Is it a honey berry?
Close! A blueberry, Strawberries do well in acidic environments with the blueberries.
I also discovered onions like it too, or maybe it was the ammonium sulfate they liked?
Biggest onions ever! (no photos of that bed) Here is another, I have 4 beds like this. well will have putting another in. These photos are from 2013, all the plants are huge now. The first blueberry is 5 feet tall now.
