Yesterday, Saturday I started revamping my irirgation. Added more sprayers to the larger trees. Removed all the suckers and weeds from the wood chips around the trees. The last batch of chips must have been shredded as it was seeding. I am so sore from being bent over, squatting and on my knees.
Just need to install the irrigation for the sour cherries no revamping since they are for the birds.
Ran out of tubbing and 3 way connectors. Just need to install irrigation on 2 almonds, 6 peaches, 4 paw paws and 4 plums. Hopefully get that done this year so it save me time from hand watering. I also hand watered those as the sun went down. I didnt think it would take so long but I remove it every year to protect from freezing. I think I’ll try and blow out the water with my compressor since it’s added work.
Yesterday on Saturday, I weeded some grassy sprouts and broadleaf weed sprouts out of my 4x8 raised beds (one bed of Charlotte everbearing strawberries, one bed of Gurney’s Whopper June-bearing strawberry, one bed of broccoli plants variety unknown from the Amish General store and one bed of cabbage flat Dutch and round Dutch also from Amish store). They generally have nice plant starts.
I was a bit late this year on getting the cabbage and broccoli set out due to endless heavy rain, but the transplants are growing well and getting taller so I was able to add a thicker layer of straw around them now that they are not so close to the ground. They really like moist, cool roots and we are getting close to hotter, dryer weather.
I also added a bit of straw around the strawberries as they have grown larger and taller. They are also putting on quite a few berries and look good this year. I was worried they might have been damaged when I took their winter covering of straw off too early and we had some below freezing temps and frost but they came through fine.
I am resolved to weed frequently this year as it goes sooooo much faster and easier when the weeds are just little sprouts popping up. I am also determined to keep thicker mulch layers to deter weeds and decrease the need to water. Now, I just have to keep up my resolve to do these things when it gets hot, sticky and buggy outside!
I also cut some canes from my Prime Ark Freedom blackberries that had some tip dieback during the winter. They are just not perfectly winter hardy on the canes and some years there is just a little dieback and other years quite a lot. This past winter it was not too bad. I love the taste of them, though, and the berries are quite large so I am willing to put up with their finicky winter behavior.
I also cut the tops off of a couple of good-size wild American persimmons and grafted Rosseyanka hybrid persimmon to them. Then I cut grass for 3 hours.
Between all that, I went around and checked everything I had grafted and then checked it all again a few hours later. One never knows when a bud may just shoot up with supernatural growth two hours after being checked. 
Now that I have put this in writing, I realize why I was so tired last night!
Sandra
I spent the last 4 days putting out a fire from some giant stumps and watered things. Today, the fire looks to be out finally and so I stared at this guy for about half an hour.
It’s started raining now so i hope it’s okay. It was sleeping and i was creeping.
Also put together 1 more strawberry garden bed.
Today, Sunday I finally installed the drip irrigation on my blueberries. Started working on the sour cherry irrigation but figured the blueberries were far more important since I eat them.
Installesd the drip line on the blueberries and kiwiberry. Finally wont have to water by hand.
I pruned really heavy this early spring. Cut out older wood for new growth. If I would have done it over I would have only heavy pruned half this year and another half next year since I didn’t get many blossoms as expected but I didn’t think about it until now. Live and learn won’t happen again.
Since our tractor is temporarily out of commission, we asked our neighbor to plow our garden plots. Usually I plow, then disc, then till.
Well, he had a PTO driven rotary tiller, which cuts out two steps. It has or 6 or 8 tines at about 5ft wide. After a few back and forth passes, it looked great. We asked him to do our usual 20 x 60ft plot and a smaller one below the barn.
I know it’s just tilled earth but color me impressed. I might be looking for me one of these on Craigslist or Facebook. Will be planting beans and cukes soon.
