He lives with 4 older sisters. Which means there is a lot of girly things around, and while he has access to many “boy” toys he sometimes picks his big sisters items.
Take this purse for example. He has been caring it around for several days, much to the dismay of his father.
However, one look inside the purse, put all Dadzoo’s fears to rest.
One of my favorite things about spring, besides the flowers, are eggs.
So when spring rolls around and the hens start laying more and more I get excited.
Love, love, love Bacon!
However, I really don’t like to fry it up. The splattering grease and burned fingers and arms, not fun!
You ready for this?
Lay your strips of bacon on a cookie sheet
Any bush or tree purchased at a nursery was at one time a bare root plant that was potted up. When you purchase at a nursery you are paying them to have grown and nurtured that plant for a year or so before selling it to you. This isn’t a bad thing at all, when you purchase from a nursery you can inspect the plant and you know you are getting something healthy with a good established root system. However you are going to pay extra for that. I usually buy trees from a nursery, those are big investments and I want to make sure I am getting something strong and healthy. For things like raspberries, roses and strawberries I buy bare root, especially when I am planting in quantity, I just can’t afford to go with a nursery.
Also when buying bare root the varieties available to you open up. With a nursery you are limited to what they have in stock or are willing to order for you, which usually means you will only be able to pick from varieties popular in your area. This too, isn’t a bad thing, you are pretty safe with popular varieties, it usually means that they will grow well in your area. However if you want to branch out and try something a little special the Internet opens up so many possibilities.
People sometimes have a hard time getting bare root plants to grow and flourish. They do need special care, and a tad more time.
Once your plants arrive you need to get them in the ground as soon as possible. Bare root plants are shipped dormant, and if they sit in your warm house they will come out of dormancy and that can be very disastrous. For instance, when I received my plants, they all looked like dead twigs (perfect) and we were able to plant them within two days. The very next week the weather turned cold again, and the last few days we have had freezing cold wind and snow. Had those bushes broken dormancy all the tender new growth would have frozen and died, and put undue stress on the plant.
(sorry the pictures aren’t better, it was a sunny day…)
Before you plant your bushes spread them all out and inspect your plants. If the roots are super long you can trim them a bit, but don’t take too much.
Dig a nice big hole, in soil that has a good amount of compost mixed in. In this instance I am planting raspberries that will be there for years, this is my only chance to work compost into the soil. Don’t plant in straight compost, you will burn the roots and your bush will die, always mix with the existing soil.
Then place your bush in the hole, spreading the roots out as best as you can.
Then a little at a time fill in the hole. The trick here is to make sure the soil completely surrounds the roots. If there are any air pockets around the roots that part of the root system will die, making for a weak plant or possibly killing the plant.
With the raspberries it was pretty easy to fill in the dirt, sometimes when I have planted roses we have had a harder time, the roots being very strong and woody, we have at times filled in the hole using a running hose to help the soil flow around the roots.
That day we planted 15 raspberries, 10 blackberries, 7 grape vines and a pear tree. It took about an hour to do it all (not including the soil prep), not much more than if we had had rooted bushes in pots.
In case anyone is wondering this is where we got our plants from:
Are you adding any bushes or trees this year?
