Planting

The blueberry bushes are starting to ripen.  We back filled some empty spots in the field with about 90 new plants.  The new plants should grow fast and fill in the empty spaces because they are rabbiteye (the old plants are highbush).   

The grapes we put in last year may actually produce this year.

The back end of the vegetable garden was planted with potatoes and onions  and they are doing well.  We had some of the potatoes for Sunday dinner last weekend and they were quite delicious.
Due to the cold weather, and then the heavy rains, the rest of the vegetable garden got a late start.  We had previously dumped about a foot thick layer of compost in the garden and now the soil looks black (it's usually redish in this area)

Because we don't use chemicals weeds are a constant problem here.  With a small garden hand weeding was doable, but we are expanding the fields this year so hand weeding is just not feasible.  Time for a new piece of equipment, a mulch layer!

 It forms the planting beds, applies the mulch and drip tape.

 Took a few practice runs to form the raised beds.  The soil was still a bit wet.

 This smaller garden is for tomatoes, mostly Roma and Cherry.

The long garden will contain Peppers (jalapeno, green, banana) and the Beefmaster tomatoes.  The potatoes and onions are still at the far end.

The long garden was the wettest and not very level, a bit harder to form the rows.  Of course, we are still learning to use this equipment, so not bad for beginners.

A bulb planter is used to pop holes in the plastic and dig the soil.

The next step is to get straw to put on the ground between the rows.