Busy Day

Today was a full day for Danielle and I but it turned out to be a great day! Today was our first wedding anniversary. Its hard to believe we've been married a year now. We got up and went to Nellysford for brunch at a little wine and cheese shop that has a great little restaurant named Basic Necessities. If you are ever around Wintergreen on a Sunday morning, its a great place to stop for brunch. We stopped on the way back home at Lowes and picked up a few strawberry plants and a dewberry bush.

When we got home, we planted seven (I think) heritage apple trees that we got from Cliff over at Chateau Z. Last fall, he grafted the heritage varieties on dwarf rootstock. We've had them sitting in a bucket of water for weeks waiting for the rains to stop long enough to get some farm work done. With the help of the Massey Ferguson and a post hole digger, we made quick work of it. We had plenty of help. My sisters children, Adam (6), Rebecca (4), and Ben (2) all wanted to help. Now I understand why it took my Dad so long to get anything done when we were kids. Everyone says these kinds of days are preparing Danielle and I for children one day. We got them all in the ground without any trouble. Its kind of funny to watch 3 small children fight over who gets to stomp the dirt in the hole to pack everything down.

After planting the trees, Danielle and I planted the strawberries in one of the raised beds we built in the red clay bank beside the driveway to the barn. We've had a hard time getting any kind of ground cover established on that bank, so the raised beds have really helped. Last year we got some great tomatoes out of one of the raised beds. Between the strawberries, Danielle planted some lettuce plants which were given to us by James Henderson to try. The freckled variety is new for them. Then we laid down a soaker hose and mulched the bed with straw. Danielle was not too happy when she realized that strawberries perform much better if you pinch the blooms off the first year. We also planted the dewberry bush further down the bank.

After planting the berries and lettuce, I headed to the new vineyard here at the farm and worked to plant some of the new vines I've received over the last couple weeks. Today I was able to get ten more of the NY 76.0844.24 (which I mentioned in the previous post) in the ground before the day was gone. Danielle chronicled some of the planting work and the pictures are below.