Trellises

Finally, the raspberries and grapes have their trellises! Last year I could only pick about 2/3 of the raspberries because of the way the branches fell over. And we have never harvested any grapes.

The job went much faster with the new post hole digger.

The grape vine trellis had rotted away years before we moved in and the grapes had taken over the arborvitae for support.

I found these cool gadget called wire vises that make stringing and tightening the wire supports so much easier. They work like a chinese finger trap. The wire goes through in one direction only.

There is a predrilled hole (1/2 inch) in the T post that accepts the end of the wire  vise.

The wire is cut flush with one end and has a little tail on the other end to tighten up the wire as needed.

The grape vine trellis is just three posts with two holes drilled in each post to accept the wire supports. The raspeberries have two cross pieces attached to each post at 24 and 48 inches with the wire at the ends of the cross pieces. Most of the Mennonite farms in the area have similar raspberry patches and we took the design from them.

We had a nice surprise when we received the package of wire vises from Orchard Valley Supply. Turns out our niece works for them and packed our package and this was written on the back:

Our niece moved to North Carolina years ago and we had no idea where she was working.

Now the raspberry patch is nice and tidy.

Just in time for a bumper crop in July.

Harvest Time

The first of the Cherokee Purple tomatoes were ready this past week, some of the earliest I have ever had. These are the grafted tomatoes that were growing in gallon pots and were about 5 times bigger than the Amish Paste tomatoes I planted the same day.

Pickling cukes are also coming in. I started a crock of fermented half-sours from a recipe given to me by my friend Lynn. She makes the best pickles and I only hope mine turn out half as tasty as hers.

The last of the fall planted broccoli yielded a tasty broccoli salad. And I have been occasionally picking Chiogga beets and zucchini and yellow squash.

The berries are continuing to go crazy. So far I have picked 29 pounds of blueberries, most of that now residing in the freezer.  The blueberries are definitely on the downward side of picking.

The red raspberries are getting close to finishing, I hope; but the fall gold raspberries are starting to ripen for their first harvest.

Last year I preferred the flavor of the red raspberries over the gold but this year the taste of the golds is superior. Must be the weather since nothing else has changed.

What's Blooming Now

The flowers are going crazy right now. So many blossoms! The plants around the front porch are a riot of color.

The bleeding hearts of going crazy! And I dug out quite a few last year.

The salvia is covered in flowers.

The rhododendron is also covered in flowers.

The comfrey and austrian winter peas are also getting in on the act.

If even half of the raspberry flowers turn into fruit it will be a very good year for the raspberry harvest.

Gardening in Late October

We still have fall gold raspberries! And many, not just a few here and there.

I need to cut them back but I am waiting for frost. I may start cutting some back now and give the goats a treat.
The peppers are also going strong, as well as the marigolds and, of course, the swiss chard.

I don't remember the garden looking this great this late in the season.

Ewww, Japanese Beetles

The hollyhocks, fall gold raspberry bushes and ostrich ferns are getting eaten by Japanese Beetles. They aren't doing any real damage, yet. Today I went out and picked what I could and drowned them in warm soapy water. I got quite a catch.

I am not sure why they are always hanging out together, but they are usually in pairs or trios. Rarely do I see a single beetle.

Moving red raspberries

It feels like a never ending job, moving all these raspberries.  I am finally getting the red raspberries out of the garden.  On Saturday Alan scooped the sod off of a trench and loosened up the soil a bit using his new tractor, boy that thing is sure coming in handy.  Sunday I transplanted approximately 70 plants from the vegetable garden to their new home near the fall gold raspberries that I transplanted last spring.

The white is ashes from the woodstove.
The chickens had a great time helping me dig up the raspberries.  They have the run of the garden right now in hopes that they will greatly reduce the chigger population there.

The red raspberries did fairly well in their over-run patch where I could hardly reach half of the plants for harvesting.  I definitely like the red raspberries taste the best.  I hope they like their new location and extra care and give us a good crop next summer.  They will certainly be easier to harvest in their new location.  Only one problem though, I only removed about half of the plants from the garden.  Anyone want any red raspberry plants?

How to move raspberry bushes

Step 1: Buy a battery.  (Because you know you have to set up the electric netting for the chickens .)
Step 2: Set up the electric netting. (Because you must move the chickens and their coop so it/they don't get hurt when the tree is trimmed.)
Step 3: Move the chickens.

Step 4: Take down the fence around the old chicken run.  (Because you don't want to ruin the fencing when the tree limbs come down.)
Step 5: Drastically cut back the big Maple tree that casts a large amount of shade on the vegetable garden. (Because the big branches coming down will fall right where you want to move the raspberries.)

So the simple act of moving raspberries (which have taken over about 75% of the old veggie garden) turned into a multi-step process taking quite a few days. Hopefully, the tree trimming will be enough as we really didn't want to take down the old maple.  And the chickens love having a larger pen with lots of grass to eat.  Maybe my next post will be about the electric netting.
So step 6 will be removing the grass and adding compost to the new raspberry beds.  Then I only have about 100 raspberry bushes to move.  And those are just the ones I am keeping.  I am giving away quite a few bushes to various gardening friends (thank you so much!)