On fertilizer
Jun. 11th, 2009 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoToday I fertilized the apple trees. Earth-shaking news, I know. But there's a long story behind it. A common way to fertilize fruit trees is by using fertilizer that has been compressed into heavy stakes that you pound into the ground near them. This releases into the soil slowly and provides extra nutrients for many months.
Anyway, we'd been planning to do this for several years, witness the fact that I found two full boxes (15 stakes each) among the garden supplies. I remember last year that one of those boxes sat in the barn all summer, awaiting "installation." The problem was that I waited too long in the spring and the ground was too hard to pound the stakes into without breaking them.
So today was the day. All 15 stakes in one box have been deployed, 3 per tree since the tree trunks are now about 3 inches thick.
Someone not too far from here has some very unhappy cows. They've been mooing and bellowing for a couple of hours now. I suspect that a feeding time has been missed. From the sound, I really hope they don't break out and come stampeding over in this direction.
Tess came running to me even before I got to the gate this evening. I saw her look up as I was approaching, and really didn't expect that she would take off at full gallop to get to the gate before I did. Yesterday I attributed her eagerness to flies and mosquitoes. Today, though, I had sprayed her well with fly repellent before she went out, and the bugs didn't seem to be pestering her so much.
Another kind of fertilizer: zombies, vampires, and werewolves, Oh my! There seems to be very little new science fiction coming out, if you believe Science Fiction Book Club. Their montly selection booklet is chock full of vampires and zombies. Sorry, but retelling Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice using zombie characters isn't going to do much of anything for me. I suspect, though, that putting the zombies through a chipper-shredder would make decent if smelly mulch.
Anyway, we'd been planning to do this for several years, witness the fact that I found two full boxes (15 stakes each) among the garden supplies. I remember last year that one of those boxes sat in the barn all summer, awaiting "installation." The problem was that I waited too long in the spring and the ground was too hard to pound the stakes into without breaking them.
So today was the day. All 15 stakes in one box have been deployed, 3 per tree since the tree trunks are now about 3 inches thick.
Someone not too far from here has some very unhappy cows. They've been mooing and bellowing for a couple of hours now. I suspect that a feeding time has been missed. From the sound, I really hope they don't break out and come stampeding over in this direction.
Tess came running to me even before I got to the gate this evening. I saw her look up as I was approaching, and really didn't expect that she would take off at full gallop to get to the gate before I did. Yesterday I attributed her eagerness to flies and mosquitoes. Today, though, I had sprayed her well with fly repellent before she went out, and the bugs didn't seem to be pestering her so much.
Another kind of fertilizer: zombies, vampires, and werewolves, Oh my! There seems to be very little new science fiction coming out, if you believe Science Fiction Book Club. Their montly selection booklet is chock full of vampires and zombies. Sorry, but retelling Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice using zombie characters isn't going to do much of anything for me. I suspect, though, that putting the zombies through a chipper-shredder would make decent if smelly mulch.
