Truth be told I don’t have a black horse. I should. At least a miniature pony. Or even a goat. With a cart. I live in the city and no goats or horses or ponies with carts are permitted. I could manage a few chickens but I’ve drawn the DIY line at chickens. I can get fresh eggs at the farmers market easily enough. We did have a black dog [RIP sweet old boy Dale Anthony]. Now we have a black-brown dog. My horse in this story is our 8 week old Airedale Terrorist puppy, HRH Prince Ezie Otis. Ezie, to us common peasants.
In this photo, Ezie is sitting in the well of our cherry tree, ready to play. He doesn’t realize [total apprentice fail] that we’re on a gardening mission. We have work to do. Sabotage is on his agenda, not work.
Mother’s Day 2014, my four kids [notice they are nowhere to be found when I get in gardening mode] each bought me a fruit tree for our front yard orchard. One side of our front yard is a vegetable garden, the other side of our front yard is our fruit orchard. In our orchard we have three dwarf trees – cherry, apple, and pear and 1 dwarf peach.
With the exception of the peach tree, the cherry, apple and pear are grafted trees. The purpose of a grafted tree is for cross-pollination within a small space. Instead of needing multiple trees to meet the pollination needs required by some fruit trees, 3-5 trees are grafted together to serve this need. And I get a variety of fruit from planting one tree. Sweet!
Yesterday, Day 2 of my 100 Days of Gardening, was an overcast then rainy day. I ordered an expandable willow fence to keep out the aforementioned beast as well as the substitute mailman who somehow thinks it’s ok to walk through my yard. [Dude!] High hopes that either the pup or the fence will deter the wild turkeys that roam our neighborhood. The willow fence will also serve as my pea trellis. Fencing to keep out varmints and pests – even cute ones – is essential to gardening. Doubling as structural support for my peas is a bonus [until said pests and varmints start eating my peas]. Here’s an example of the handmade fence I purchased on Etsy from a local Washington craftsman:
My 5-n-1 grafted dwarf cherry tree is starting to bloom. The five types of cherries on this tree are: Bing, Lapins, Lambert, Royal Ann and Black Tartarian. Each branch is a different variety. The Black Tartarian branch has begun to bloom:
Not a lot of gardening progress on Day 2, but happiness is found with a big [growing] black-brown dog under a cherry tree. Thanks to the rain and mud, HRH had to have his second bath this week.
Who needs a horse?
