Since today is the first day of the week, I guess this also qualifies for my "Crazy Things I Did On Sunday" series.
Once church and lunch were done and dealt with, Mr. Caffeinated and I headed back to Bill's Berry Farm to get more plants. Today's last included blackberries, the last three blueberry bushes that wouldn't fit in the truck yesterday, strawberries, and asparagus crowns.
Folks, let me just say that digging out 5+ year old blueberry bushes is hard work! The 6-foot pry bar was immensely helpful, and we broke two shovels.
Blackberries are a little easier, but not much. I will say - if you can dig starts (suckers) in the spring… do that. It's easier. We dug out four hills, and after the rhizomes came out, that translated to six plant starts!
Asparagus crowns are easier to dig, in comparison. It's a lot like digging iris rhizomes. We dig up only six mounds, but ended up with over 20 plants once we broke the crowns apart.
The asparagus field has loads more, in case you're wondering.
Strawberries are super easy to dig. Good thing, too, because by that time we were cold and the wind has picked up. 25 plants for $10 was a steal of a deal.
By the time we got home, it was raining. I am so blessed to have two teenagers at home right now that were willing to prep all the holes and trenches for plants… we got everything into the ground in less than an hour. Good thing, too - it's supposed to get down to 23° tonight, and I really didn't want to leave any exposed roots out in that kind of cold.
The last blueberries are in. Not mulched... but in.
Same with the blackberries.
The kids dove in and helped Mr. Caffeinated plant all the strawberries in the bare places in the strawberry bed.
The final push was to get the asparagus in the ground. We started taking the 'crowns' apart, and discovered that we had many more than I'd planned for. Out the shovels came for more trenching! One one side, dirt was frantically being shoveled out; I was dropping starts in the trench, Junior-Man was watering and Rosebud was methodically filling in behind us.
... then we staggered into the house, muddy to the elbows and drenched to the skin. The kids took hot showers while Mr. Caffeinated and I ran down to the taco truck for rewards for all our hard work. (Incidentally, if you want amazing tacos in Sunnyside, go to Tacos El Pelon II in the O'Reilly's parking lot. They're the best!)
We even managed to fill up the bottomless pit.
Now to see how things yield in the coming months (and years)!
Tomorrow, I intend to resume my originally scheduled program of starting seeds and pruning. Stay tuned...
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