Spring at the Orchard

In the photo above you can see a newly planted tree that replaced the old plum tree lying on the ground behind.  The plum tree that was pulled out was partly hollow inside, but still flowered.  To see a set of photos taken of Spring at the orchard, click here.  

We are still spending time planting trees and pruning some of the later trees like the persimmons and olive.  In a few weeks we plan to start planting the vegetable gardens with tomato and summer squash.

At the fruit stand we now have grapefruit (yellow and pink), navel oranges, lemons (Eureka and Meyer), Okusankichi Asian pear, honey and eggs.  

Blossoming and Rain

Trees are still blossoming, even though we've been getting a lot of rain the past few weeks.  

If you look closely in the photo at the left, or click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see a bee visiting cherry blossoms at the orchard.   

Lately we've been digging holes to plant new trees and finishing up pruning and raking brush.  We've also been planting and watering  vegetable seedlings growing in our small greenhouse.  We hope to be able to plant seedlings in the gardens during the first few weeks of April.  We started some ourselves, and we're also ordering some seedlings from Peas and Harmony.

The chickens have been enjoying roaming around in the orchard every day.  We're not sure if they can still be free-ranging after we plant the gardens, though.  Maybe we'll have to just find a way to block them from the garden beds while the plants are still small.