Easter Sunday

[George Shirley]

Perused the garden a bit ago, the blueberries are setting fruit as is the fig tree. Hopes of a good crop makes me smile. Lots of bumble, mason, etc. bees are working the liriope, their favorite flower in our gardens. I'm hoping they are visiting other plants as well.

Crowder peas and cucumbers are starting to produce the climbing parts and all look healthy. They were given fish emulsion yesterday so should do well. The blueberries were given the blueberry fertilizer also. All the plants and seeded plants are up and going well. Still a bit cool here in the morning but getting into the seventies by noon and later. Summer will be here toot sweet as my Cajun friends used to tell me.

The pear tree out front is loaded with baby pears and still blooming. We are hoping for a bumper crop. I have visions of pear jelly, pear sauce, sliced pears, and pears just to eat out of hand.

No work today as it is Easter Sunday, hope all are having a good Easter.

George

[Terry Coombs]

I waited until today to plant trees because it was supposed to be overcast ... it ain't , but I hadda get 'em in the ground . So I spent most of the morning planting around 35 Loblolly (aka southern yellow) pines and a dozen pecans . These are trees supplied by the Arkansas Forest Service at a very low cost , average about 70 cents per tree ... these are bare-root seedlings , average about a foot tall . I bought the minimum of both species , 25 pecans and 50 pines , and since that was more than I wanted I shared with the neighbor .

[George Shirley]

Sounds like a good deal Snag. I do know about Loblolly pine, SE Texas is full of them. I grew up about a half mile from the first tree farm in the US. Never been harvested yet as far as I know. It too, was loblolly pine. If you're ever this way it's at the junction of I10 and Farm to Market Road 1136 in Orange Cty, TX.

How much bare land do you have left, seems you're always planting a bunch of something?

George

[Terry Coombs]

Well , as just bare land not really that much . We do have power line easements that I'm using for somewhere to plant bee stuff , but nothing that can get very big . The pines were planted along the road as a future buffer for noise and visibility . The woods between the house and the road is the first place I cleaned up the dead/diseased trees for firewood . Makes for more of our activities being visible especially during winter . The next major planting will be buckwheat in one of the easements for both bee forage and deer food . It just happens that one (or more) of the kitchen windows will look out right on the area I'll be planting ... I'll be setting out the seedlings I've started in the garden soon . I was looking at the tomatoes yesterday and found major roots coming out of the bottoms of the starter cells . The peppers aren't far behind .

[George Shirley]

Used to lease deer land in Central Texas, best buffer trees I saw were Osage Orange. Originally they were planted as fence posts, darned things will grow from a wet log almost immediately. We had a few on my grandparent's place that I used to get the long limbs to make bows, then down to the river to get river reed for arrows. Made my arrow heads out of tin cans and the string from deer gut. Just like my ancestors is what my Dad used to say. Had a lot of fun with those.

An uncle planted a small grove of yellow pines on his place in front of my folks. His son and grandson and myself rode them like ponies when we were small. Went back many years later and saw some strange pine trees, about three feet up the trunk they were at a 45 degree angle, reckon those pine ponies got bigger. Wish I had taken a picture or two but I was already trespassing.

Beautiful day today, hope tomorrow is the same.