Trees on the brain

So here is my other major project of the spring 2000 evergreen seedlings. I decided that it would be a good idea to start planting evergreens with an eye towards a long term goal of selling them as nursury stock and as christmas trees. This is more of a long term plan right now but i hope that i can continue to add to them over the next few years and try for about 10000 trees it sounds like a lot but it really doesnt take up much land and over the years i will thin the rows and sell trees for planting. I bought 1000 blue spruce which are a high end tree and is usually a highly sought after tree for both planting and christmas trees. The other 1000 is white spruce these are cheaper but still provide a high quality tree for every need. All i can say is that planting 2000 trees was not as hard as it sounds but it definitly wears you right out even when you have help. The pictures show some of the aspects of planting. The tree shown is the size of the majority of them but there are some that are quite large that i could start selling in a year or two. The finished result of my planting is in the upper left corner i know my lines are a little of but hopefully the trees will fill in the gaps in the next few years. On a final note the trees are adjusting to their new soil well and are growing well the last few weeks have seen good rain hopefully it will continue when the weather warms up or i will soon be blogging on the joys of watering 2000 trees. So i hope you all think rain and dont forget to go for a spider when you see one.

the berry patch

So the last few weeks have been incredibly hectic and busy which is why i havent posted in ages. I recieved my berry order two weeks ago and have been planting berries and trees since then. I planted 1000 day neutral strawberry plants and 500 raspberry canes of a few different varieties. These pictures show the slow progression from freshly tilled soil to the end result of 10 fully planted beds. The first top pictures shows a close up of the soil here and how the berry patch looked before i mulched and planted it. The next ones show some of the raspberry canes soaking before planting which helps to reduce the show shock of transplantation and my self tilling the last row. The last three pictures show the boxes the berries were deleivered in and then myself planting raspberry canes the last shows the finished rows of strawberries. The strawberries seem to be doing great and are showing a lot of growth so far as they begin to settle into the soil. The raspberries will take a few more weeks to begin to show new growth as they grow much slower than strawberries as each grows over the spring and summer i will post further on there progress. My next post will show the other main project project of the last few weeks and detail a surprise opportunity that i recently had.