Thanks for all of the good wishes. I did spend the day drinking tea and felt well enough last night to go to my permaculture guild meeting. As usual, I learned a lot and had a wonderful time. The problem is, that what I learned has given me a huge job to get do  ASAP.

I am an orchard novice. Like most things, growing tree fruit is a lot more complicated than digging a hole and sticking a tree in it. We  put our first trees in three years ago I have now learned that I did it wrong. Fortunately, there is time to fix the mistake (I put them in too deep) but I need to dig up at least half the trees. I think the take home lesson here is to ask for help before you tackle a new skill.

If you are thinking about putting in some perennial food plants, fruit and nut trees are a good bet. You will wait a bit before you enjoy the -ahem-fruits of your labors but the rewards are immense. A dwarf or semi-dwarf tree costs in the neighborhood of $30.00 and will produce a crop in 4-5 years. I picked trees that would produce good keeping apples. I would love a cider orchard as well.

If I have any energy left when the trees are replanted, I need to separate my rhubarb too. I want to give some to my neighbor, Heather, and move some plants to other parts of the yard. I canned quite a bit of rhubarb last year. It makes a dandy crisp and is good for stretching other fruit in pies.

I want to find some walking onions. My onions are just about gone. I am splitting a 25 pound sack with some friends to get through until harvest. The variety I planted last year held really well in the root cellar but I didn’t plant enough. Walking, or bunching onions are perennial and I am determined to get a plot started this year.

There is this interesting thing going on with me right now. I used to be a news junky, especially financial news. Lately, the thrill is gone. I’m interested but with some distance. I can read some really terrible news piece and it just doesn’t matter much. Now my trees getting planted too deep, that matters.

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