Last week I was ordering more landscape soil for the front yard when the kind folks at Garden-Ville San Marcos mentioned that their fruit trees should be in any day now. Here’s the deal, since they were coming in as bare roots they were selling to those who wanted as is at a discounted price. It turned out that they had a few varieties that I had wanted, so off I went in the cold Saturday morning to get them. Luckily, I had four large pots (with potting soil) that were gifted to me over the summer and they turned out to be the perfect size for the whips I bought.
Not much to look at now, but they were larger then I thought they would be for such a low price.
From left to right: Celeste Fig, Fuji Apple, Red Skin Peach and Harvester Peach.
Tags: apples, figs, fruit trees, homesteading, peaches, texas gardening
I measured off a starting area of 50 feet by 75 feet as seen below.
My first Hill Country garden that we built back in 1998 was an area of 25 feet by 30 feet. We had 8 – 4×8 raised beds, which was fine until it came to planting the next season crops while I still had production from the current crop. Many times I had to make the hard choice of removing a plant that was still producing a vegetable in order to get a new plant established in time. Or keep a plant and risk not having the next season vegetables ready to produced in their time frame.
So this time around since we have the space, we are going larger to avoid those type of decisions in the future. Also, the plan is to have the orchard in this same area instead of in a separate area. During the heat of August I started to measure off where some of the fruit trees might be planted (the few tall sticks on the left side. I laid it out on graph paper, but I like to see in real life how it will actually be. I think the plan will work.
This coming week, with pre-selected varieties in hand, I will start looking for the fruit trees I want. Until then, Yah Bless.
Tags: building a garden hill country living, fruit orchard, homesteading, texas gardening
When the foundation for the house was being trenched, a large amount of good black soil was removed.
By the time they were done there was a pretty large mound that would make a great start to raising the soil in the garden area once the rocks and tree branches were removed. The builder moved this pile down to the garden for me.
After the foundation was done it was time for me to go back to the DFW are and get that house ready to sell. When I got back down to the Hill Country it was August and it was hot, hot, hot. I usually don’t mind working outside in the heat, but the 100+ temperatures were just too much for me, so rock picking would have to wait. And wait.
September 2011
Right before the backyard would be closed off to heavy vehicles, we had 20 yards of compost delivered. Since it was still hot and dry out, I was able to get the compost at a very good price.
Getting the new house ready to be lived in took another chuck of my time, 2 months worth that I never planned on. Then the rains came, which is a good thing, but all that moisture made it too muddy to work on the garden area. Another chuck of time eaten up and I had yet to get any landscape/garden work done.
January 2012
Now it is the New Year and the weather is starting to cooperate, it’s time to tackle getting this mess cleaned up. As you can see some tall grasses grew once the rains came. A tractor would come in handy right about now to shift through this tangled heap and save my back.
Tags: building a garden hill country living, fruit orchard, homesteading, texas gardening
Well that didn’t go as expected, but I won’t bore ya’ll with the details of all the delays. Instead let’s start with the site I picked out.
August 2010
Actually, the garden site is down below that cedar tree line. The mulch in the foreground is what the ‘cedar eater’ left behind, which in hindsight was a good thing since a couple of months later would begin the drought of 2011. Not that we ever burned brush before or ever would, but most builders said I was wasting money doing this instead of burning. Blah, blah, blah all that mulch is going to have to be moved to set the foundation.
Yeah, whatever I would say because at the time I was more concerned about protecting the existing soil and provide some cushion to the live oak and cedar elm roots. Besides I had a plan for all the mulch.
February 2011
Pink tape marks the trees to be saved in the rock ridge when we had the ‘cedar eater’ come back and finish clearing the one corner (the master bedroom) and open up the view to the would be garden area below. As you can see from the exposed rocks the Texas Hill Country is kind of rough. The skinny trees in the middle are Texas Persimmons and the couple that flack the left and right side of the frame are Live Oaks.
March 2011
A month later the house foundation is being set on the left side of the frame. On the right you can see the relatively flat area that will be the garden/orchard.
Tags: building a garden hill country living, fruit orchard, homesteading, texas gardening, vegetables
