Spring 2018 – Changes at The Timber Garden

The fruit trees are putting on new green leaves, and everything came through the winter without vole damage, thanks to lots of snow slinging.  The poor Gravenstein apple, which has never liked it’s spot, is still struggling and died back quite a bit.  The Van sweet cherry that is barely hardy is barely hanging on…it’s died back halfway down the trunk.  I’m hoping the Hartland can be pollinated by some of the new bush cherries that we’re putting in the spring, because it is such a happy tree!  Our rockstar trees are the tart cherries (Northstar and Evans Bali), the plums (La Crescent and Alderman), and the Honeycrisp and Honeygold apples.  The Alderman plum has put on so much growth in the last year it’s nearly caught up with the La Crescent.  I’m hoping the La Crescent will fruit this year!  The Evans Bali cherry took a year off in 2017, and the tree took advantage and put on a huge amount of growth.  The Honeycrisp (which had a rough start) struggled through last year and finally got a break during the winter.  It looks really healthy this spring.  The Asian pears seem to like it here, it will be interesting to see when they start producing.  I have read a few different guesses, and I assume everything is slower in our zone.

We’ve had plans to expand the garden and put in a new chicken coop since last spring, and while a few holes were dug and poles were collected, we were both too busy to get past that point.  This spring we attacked our projects with renewed vigor, aka Toby had more time and we rented an auger to punch holes in the ground.  We calculated that a half day rental came out to less than $2/hole, which is BEYOND worth it.  Right now both projects are halfway done, but the chicken coop is a gorgeous post and beam structure tucked in the trees, and the garden extension keeps out everything but the hens.  It’s amazing to stand in there and picture where the new cherry bushes will be planted. We probably won’t do many more beds, but the room it gives us for perennial fruit trees and bushes is amazing!  Once we get our beehive going it will have a spot inside too, and should be safe from marauding teenage bears.

What else gets a new home?  Four cherries from the Romance series out of the U of Saskatchewan, 3 Hansen’s bush cherries, and 3 Nanking cherries.  All are extremely cold hardy, and the Romance series cherries (Crimson Passion, Romeo, Juliet, and Carmine Jewel) are rumored to have great flavor freshly picked.  I LOVE the taste of cherries, so I’m excited to get these planted!  I may have plans for a tart cherry wine in the future…