No Room to Move !

Last Thursday I finally received the fruit tree seedlings that I’ve been waiting months for. The order contained 75 apple, 25 wild plum and 25 red elderberry plants which all arrived in a single box as bare-root seedlings. I had the trees shipped to my mother’s house where they could be protected from cold or rain as I would be at work when the mail arrived, and I didn’t want to come home to a package of cooked or frozen plants.

My sister Sandy and my mother decided to plant most of the trees for me, since they had the black planters and some good dirt. I was still feeling a bit under the weather after having a cold or flu in the beginning of the week, so I was pretty happy to be off the hook, and I was able to finish planting the rest of the trees in an hour or so.

Bareroot Apple Seedlings First Leaves

The seedlings were left on my mothers porch for a few days so they could soak up the sun. After a few very nice and totally unseasonable warm days, I caught news that a freeze or frost advisory was in affect. All of the trees would need to be protected from the cold, so I borrowed my brothers truck and moved them all inside my home. Even after giving some of the trees away, I was still left with about 40 trees in little buckets, and 20 trees in large buckets, and they really take up a lot of room in my home.

Table Grape Leaf

On top of the trees, I have a few table grape clones which I planted a bit early this year, I also have 100 wine grape clones which really seem to be doing well.

Wine Grape Leaf

The leaves on the new grapes are suprisingly different then those on table grapes.  I’m quite familiar with the table grape leaves as I’ve got about 10 varieties already growing, so I was pretty surprised when I saw the shiny and jagged grape leaves.

The grape clones have all but filled my normal seedling room, and combined with some experimental fruit tree seeds, and an incubator housing chicken eggs, the room has only enought standing area to water all of the plants.

Apache Blackberry Clone Trail

On top of the grapes, fruit trees and seed experiments, my brother decided to try his own hand at cloning, and so I have some apache blackberry experimental clones in my kitchen.

Baby Parakeet

In the living room, I have five parakeets, and one nest of three baby parakeets. They really have nothing to do with farming, but I guess this post is about useable space at home, and these birds use a lot of it. They’re awefully cute too, so I figured a picture wouldn’t hurt.

My goal with these creatures is to make them super friendly birds which can be held, or set on my shoulder for halloween to make me look like a pirate…. Rrr…

Chicken Eggs

The chicken eggs round off the list of progress, with a small footprint but a good amount of care needed. They should hatch in a few days, and hopefully not long after that find new homes as I’m only incubating them for my sister. She assures me they will all be out of my hands by the time I can safely stop feeding them chick feed.

All in all, I might not have much space now, but I do have something far more valueable: Potential. Imagine what could be done with the grapes from a 100 vines, or apples from dozens of full size apple trees. I guess only time will tell, but for now, I’m more then happy to share some of my space for progress.