The Craftiest Workshop

Last year at this time we received our tree order from a tree nursery in northern Quebec. The instructions said to plant the trees as soon as possible and water well. That day we had a downpour all day. We went out in the rain and planted the trees in the muck.

This year we managed to get very economically priced trees from our county shelterbelt program. We had been prepping the spots where we wanted the trees to go for the last few weeks. Our ground is mostly clay so we just loosened the ground and removed as much grass and weeds as we could. We then put down a few layers of newspaper and add about a half dump cart’s worth of soil on top. This is our best chance for these trees to survive.

We picked up the trees around 9am on Tuesday and started planting. Chris went along creating a hole for each tree and adding a bit more soil where necessary.

As you can see, the sky was very dark and we could hear thunder approaching. We were blessed this time as we were able to finish putting all the trees in before it started to rain.

The city gave out free wood chips about a month ago. One evening, while I was at handbell practice, Chris laid down the back seat, added a tarp and filled the car to the ceiling with wood chips. The amount of wood chips from one car load was a perfect amount for adding to the base of all our new trees.
It rained for about an hour and then we were able to go out and those add wood chips to each planted tree. As we were finishing up with the wood chips, it started to pour. We only got a little wet this time.
Here are the low bush cranberry plants next to our row of corn. After seeing what they do at the Haskap u-pick, we decided that adding landscape tarp around these smaller bushes may be the way to go. We will do the same around the Haskaps next week.

We added twenty more Haskap bushes to our existing ones that were planted last year. A couple of last year’s bushes had no new growth on it so we replaced those. We added the rest in an “L” shape around the existing ones. These seedlings were all leafed out so we know they are healthy.

We added six lilac bushes along the fence next to the Haskaps inside the garden. The other four were placed along our driveway in from the road where there are already some lilac bushes planted.

Just outside the fence we put nine Buffaloberry trees. We also added a row of eleven between our Black Walnut trees and our Hazelbert enclosure. These can grow to a height of 10ft and we are hoping they will eventually provide a northern windbreak for the garden. Buffaloberries sound like they may be tart like a chokecherry but with no pit.

All in all, a successful few hours of planting. Just a few more trees to add to our food forest and we only got a little bit wet.