On Sunday, I was able make a dent on maintaining and preparing the Front Garden for fall. My brother, John, was able to help as well. While there was enough man power to accomplish the task, the blistering sun said otherwise. Despite the shorten work day we managed to collect quite a pile of green waste among other things.
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For the time being, the garden can be followed via YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCruMjHCWjXTFt99aQMo3mgA
As it turns out, pecan trees make great gardening material. It is a hard wood; meaning that it is rigid, strong, and will not rot quickly. On the slope are the stumps of pecan trees that once towered. On an established tree, it takes more than cutting it down to remove it. Luckily, that is the case with these trees. The growth from the stumps make for nice foliage. However, when the foliage becomes too dense and too tall, they can be harvested for use in the garden or fire starting.
The pecan that live on the slope grow quickly. It has been about three years since the slope has been trimmed back. With the help of my brother, John, we spent half the day clearing just one part of the slope back. Cutting is quick to do. Cleaning up is not so quick. The work lies in breaking down the vegetation once it has been cut.
Once broken down, most of the vegetation is reused. The leaves were mulched and will be composted. The wood from the pecan will be used as stakes, fire wood, and terracing material. Continue Reading
The cost of gardening can add up pretty quickly. When the costs go up, it can take away from one of the experiences of gardening; which is to save money by growing one’s own crop. One way to save on costs on is to re-purpose containers that you would otherwise toss in the trash as seed starting pots.
Fruit trees are extremely practical to have. The fruit can be left on the tree to be used at one’s convenience. An established tree can produce quite a bit of fruit. There may be so much fruit that they may start to rot before they are consumed. What better then to offer your neighbors, friends, and relatives some fresh fruit?
Keeping a garden is often times similar to running a multimillion dollar company. The difference is that with keeping a garden, often times you are both the consumer, local government, shareholder, CEO, CFO, R&D, logistics, and grunt. There are a slew of other differences. For fun, let us ignore those.
The garden generates a greater amount of utility when there is an infant to feed. Growing one’s own vegetables provides the assurance that food is as safe as it can be. Knowing that my vegetables are pesticide free is a comfort that I enjoy to a great degree.
The slope is filled with various trees. Left unchecked, the trees will grow in. The work performed three years prior which cut back the vegetation is no longer evident. The most aggressive grower on the slope is the pecan trees. Where they have been cut back, new trucks have grown in. They’ve grown quite tall and now was the time to start cutting them back. This time, I took the task in hand. With my trusty folding hand saw, I make my way up the grade. The trucks were not very big so the thought was that it was going to be a quick sawing session. Well, I learned something about pecan wood this day. Pecan wood is harder than I thought. Not only did it take a lot of work on a 1% humidity kind of day, the felled trees are heavy.
Being a recycle centric person, I salvaged the wood. I am not sure what I will do with it but I have a few of ideas. With the large trucks, they will either be used for smoking/grilling or as dirt retainers. The smaller branches will be used as stakes or kindling.
The Moro blood orange tree has been in decline for some time now. With fruit on the tree, the task of planting it into the ground was held off. It is time to plant the tree now that the fruit had ripen. Further, new leaves are growing. There is a rush to plant now as opposed to later when the shock of planting will disturb the leaves. Having lots of prep for spring to complete, planting the blood orange tree is a priority item.
