Hello Everyone!
Lots of hiking, Plump wildlife, Blackhaw fruit trees, Successful transplants & Running low on flower pots!
Okay, the sun has not yet set but it will be doing so soon and if I am going to get anything written today... now is the time to do it. Thankfully I am not super tired or anything but I once again skipped my afternoon nap and am feeling a bit sluggish because of it.
I also skipped writing first thing this morning and went hiking instead which was nice and especially so with just how 'alive' the place has become now that spring is in full swing. During those hikes I tend to hear more wildlife than I actually see but I gotta say that both the rabbits and the squirrels that I have seen... are looking plump and healthy!
That rabbit that I saw yesterday (and miraculously got a picture of) sure was on the plumper side of things but that may well be due to it being pregnant. Which of course is exactly what I want to be seeing around here and maybe now that the coyotes are not over-hunting them their population will grow rapidly.
They have definitely taken up residence near the shelter site and like I have mentioned before they have several places (in some piles of brush) where I tend to see them the most frequently which leads me to think they have burrows in the area. There is also abundant greenery along the road near there so that may well have something to do with it but one way or another it is never hard to spot a rabbit in that vicinity.
On a different note. I think I may have finally figured out what the 'mystery' fruit trees are and although I am not one hundred percent sure... they appear to be what are called blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) and it is prized for its bark and the little fruits that it makes each year. The fruits apparently grow in little clusters much like the flowers and are even edible although it seems like a fruit more prone to be left as wildlife food than anything else.
It is a totally new tree to me and I will know for sure if that is what it is the next time that they bear fruit which I think will be in the fall. From the small amount of research that I did the bark is used medicinally to make extracts for treating various ailments so that is rather interesting.
I guess the next step I should take is to see what kind of supply of the bark there is because it seems to be a rather high demand item. There never is any telling with that kind of stuff but if it is worthwhile to grow it commercially then this place is already off to an awesome start given how many of them grow here. For now it is another item for me to look into further and see 'what is what' with it!
Anyway, I finally went and watered those black locust saplings that I transplanted a few days ago and wow is it amazing how well they handled the transplanting and not being watered afterwards! Granted the hillside is pretty damp after all the recent rains but it has also been hot and sunny which would have withered them up if they were not going to make it. In other words I think they will survive!
While I was over there I also watered the trench where I planted all those seeds but have yet to see any seedlings popping up in it. I always figure that it will take them one to two weeks to come up (if they are going to) and have seldom seen any do it after three weeks of planting. Of course different strains are going to grow at different rates and then there is the soil variations... but overall I do not count on seeing much appear inside that first one week window.
Those newest seeds that I got are still sitting on the shelf and I once again delayed planting them because there is a big storm rolling in and the soil that I have in the pots for them is still a bit damp. Most likely as soon as this next round of bad weather blows over I am going to get that new strain planted and probably more of the others as well.
At one point a few weeks ago I had remarked that I did not want to use all my flower pots for growing trees in but that is exactly what has happened! Hopefully they will grow fast enough that I can transplant them and then use the pots to grow potatoes or some other food. I have not ordered my vegetable seeds yet either so perhaps when I do that I should order more flower pots as well.
Alright, I am going to keep this entry short and sweet and get on with the editing. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
Thanks for reading!
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