Today included painfully extensive clearing of the ground around the apricot trees, manually re-sodding section of...
Today included painfully extensive clearing of the ground around the apricot trees, manually re-sodding section of lawn, removal of dead mouse (courtesy of local feline) from lawn, laundry, daily cleaning of kitchen (I do not get how this can possibly be necessary, but it is), a feint at working on some paperwork, and cooking yummies from farmer's market.
The apricot trees are, indeed, infested with peach borers, so I am doing a lot of manual work around them in an attempt to keep the trees. The arborist came out and is determining what the best timing is to do the multiple [poison] treatments needed to ditch the wretched moth larvae. On the upside, he said there's no fungus, it's all bugs. Fungus would be a no hoper.
Meanwhile, now that I have cleared the area around the trees, I will mulch, leaving some space around the trunk. I have also negotiated with the parents that I can remove the basically buried landscaping bricks that were originally put there as a defensive barrier because my mom had tried to turn the whole area into a wildflower garden. It's now just a lawn, so they have ok'd excavation, but I will have to plan ahead for that, since it is going to be another long, dirty, and painful digging task. I may even have to do it over multiple days.
As for the farmer's market, yesterday I picked up sausage, leeks, nifty mushrooms, and chestnuts (fresh picked, yummy!). I roasted and peeled the chestnuts, then sauteed the lot in olive oil with fennel seed, dried sage, and dried marjoram, and ate that with some baked sweet dumpling squash (from local farm but not from farmers market). Nom.
P.S. I <3 chestnuts. That particular farmer also had walnuts, and is my hero for keeping the critters, esp. squirrels, from eating all the goodies.
The apricot trees are, indeed, infested with peach borers, so I am doing a lot of manual work around them in an attempt to keep the trees. The arborist came out and is determining what the best timing is to do the multiple [poison] treatments needed to ditch the wretched moth larvae. On the upside, he said there's no fungus, it's all bugs. Fungus would be a no hoper.
Meanwhile, now that I have cleared the area around the trees, I will mulch, leaving some space around the trunk. I have also negotiated with the parents that I can remove the basically buried landscaping bricks that were originally put there as a defensive barrier because my mom had tried to turn the whole area into a wildflower garden. It's now just a lawn, so they have ok'd excavation, but I will have to plan ahead for that, since it is going to be another long, dirty, and painful digging task. I may even have to do it over multiple days.
As for the farmer's market, yesterday I picked up sausage, leeks, nifty mushrooms, and chestnuts (fresh picked, yummy!). I roasted and peeled the chestnuts, then sauteed the lot in olive oil with fennel seed, dried sage, and dried marjoram, and ate that with some baked sweet dumpling squash (from local farm but not from farmers market). Nom.
P.S. I <3 chestnuts. That particular farmer also had walnuts, and is my hero for keeping the critters, esp. squirrels, from eating all the goodies.
That is a lot of work.
ReplyDeleteEvery so often, I am functional.
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