Day 750 - Garden Talk with Jamie and Flash Flooding

PPO3 is supported by Timber King sawmills. For more information on my 1220 CRZ mill or one of many Foley hydraulic options, go to TimberKing.com. All right, good morning. We had a great day yesterday. So we came home from church and then Nathan had invited us over and told us that we could go to his house and take any like clippings of any plants he had and just bring them home. So we went over there with just like a five gallon bucket and then I think I had maybe a couple of like gallon pots and then just some like little cups. I had no idea what we were going for. Like I joked with him and I was like, yeah, we're starting in your garden, right? You know, I'm going to take all your plants. Just, just being silly. Well, we got down there and he had actually invited his mom over and his mom is like, I mean, she should have her own YouTube channel or just like her knowledge of plants. Like it was insane. Like she just, I don't even know how to describe it. Like she just went through like literally everything she touched. She's like, and this is and this is the purpose of it. And like, just knew all this information. And it was like so wonderful. And she was like, so patient with me. Like I had so many questions and stuff. I was like, so how do I know when to do X, Y, Z? And she was like, oh, well, it's just like this. Like just, just full of knowledge, full of knowledge and stuff and willing to share it. And so we walked down into his woodland area and we didn't even walk far. We just kind of walked into two little sections and we came back with like so many tree sampling or saplings, I guess what you call them, tree saplings and other things. Like, let me show you the truck right now. Like it is insane. I have a lot of work to do today. Look at this. Just look at this. Like, and you're not even going to be able to tell too much about it. Like we've got these two by fours here, but all of these, like there's no telling how many of whatever these trees are. I think these are like the little berry bushes we got right here. And then there's another gallon bucket right there, just full of things. And then it comes over there. And this, this is the handle to his tiller. He let me borrow his tiller again, just like, whoa, so much work I got going on and stuff this next couple of days that I got to get done. And then that isn't even it. There's still some in the cab of the truck. Like, look at this even more, just insane what we we've gathered. I don't even know how many plants it is. I know I got easily, I'm going to say seven pear saplings. And then I think it's like five blueberry bushes. And the blueberry bushes are like ready to go on the ground right now. Like Jay dug those up, brood and all, like so many things in here. So this is, this is a rose bush. I think I got like two or three little clippings off of it. Like they had a beautiful rose bush on the property. So I'm hoping I can use some root hormone on it and get some roots on that and get that in the ground. And we're going to put that around the garden, make it look really pretty and stuff at the entrance, just tons of stuff. And I think this is like a, I think this was the chestnut tree, not positive, but we're going to put that in the ground as well. Just tons of stuff. Like today, like I said, it's going to be super busy. We got back late last night, so we just left it in the truck. And so this morning our goal is to get dressed, get in the car, go give it some potting soil, get the pot set out. And the ones that do not have a root system, we're going to, I'm going to put some root hormone on those. We're going to get those in some really good potting soil. And I'm going to actually take over Jay's lean tomb over there and probably line up who knows how many trees under there until we get some good roots. So they're ready to go in the ground. And then hopefully most of this makes it like, I think when you do stuff like this, like you're not going to get a hundred percent rate, but as you can tell, there's plenty in here. I don't have a number. That's one of the things I'm excited to do today is actually to count them and be like, this is what we came back with. But like, we just had the best time. Like we were walking through the woods, it was thick, covered in poison ivy, I'm sure it points. And then, like I said, his mom was out there like full of information, like just an overall good time. And of course they fed us wonderfully and we came home and now have so much work to do, but talk about a great day. And then it's just going to get better and better. Like I'm super excited about what this does for us. And then the money saved, like I can't even value this. Like if we bought this at the store, like what this would cost. So just money saved and this is going to be a great resource for us and just really getting a good start on our orchard and then, um, berry producing plants for sure. All right. So this right here is all of the tree saplings that I was able to, uh, get into buckets. I staked every one of them and I just got them currently under the lean two. There are, had the numbers in my head. Um, I believe it's 13 pear trees and then three chestnut trees. This one's one of the bigger chestnuts and I've just got them in here. There's no roots on this. They were just, um, branches that we took completely off the tree. Um, I did put some root hormone on some of them to see if that helped them to, uh, grow roots. But the goal is for them to kind of lean or live under the lean two here until the fall. And hopefully by that time they establish some roots and we'll be good to go and go into the ground. Uh, I'm keeping them in the lean it's just too hot here. I don't want them to get any, so I don't want them to get shocked any more than they already are. Um, nine times out of 10, this is not going to be their permanent location. The lean two currently is actually kind of crowded. We have the bomb alert right here as well as the four wheelers, but this was just a place I could get them out of the wind and have them where they were standing up, um, in the shade for this afternoon. This here is some more plants that we got from Nathan's that I still got to get into the ground. Uh, this here is a rose bush and it actually had a root with it. So I'm going to get that in the ground here in just a few minutes. And then I have these guys over here. These are just some, uh, clippings that we took off of a branch. So they have no root at the moment. And I'm curious to see if I can get them to grow roots and stuff and establish. Nathan's mom was with us while we were doing this and she wasn't positive this one would actually bloom because it was, um, not from the main tree. It was a kind of a, a plant that established beside it. So she said there's a possibility that it won't bloom. We're going to plant it and just kind of see what's, uh, what it does and stuff. We, Jay was already in the process of digging it up when she took, gave us that information and we were like, well, we're committed. So we're going to just see what happens. So it may not bloom. And if it doesn't, um, bloom, um, especially if the others get roots and bloom, then we may just chop it down and not keep it. But, uh, for now that's the plan. Um, another couple of plants we ended up acquiring today is just some more strawberries. I already have two strawberry plants in the garden, but this would give me four. And then we got us some, uh, grapes here that I plan to get in the ground later today. I'm going to walk you just through the garden here and show you where we put the rest of the plants we got from Nathan. We ended up getting, I think it was 25 plants. I think it's I counted from Nathan overall, which is just awesome. And this little section over here is where I actually planted them. So I got six blueberry bushes from him and I'm planting them over here kind of where the wild, uh, dewberries or blackberries are growing. And I, I feel like they have a good chance of doing well. All of the, the blueberries that we got from him had roots. So I put them straight into the ground and it's, it's slightly shaded over here, um, for most of the day. So I'm curious to see if that helps them. The area that we took them off his land was shaded. So I tried to mimic what they were already used to, what they grew up with, I guess you could say. I put them, uh, like I said, in this area. And then Jay came up with a, what I think is a good idea. And so he gets, he said, this will be our, um, berry area. And so we'll call it the, the berry bunch. And then he said, we can get a sign and, you know, make this a fun area. And I was like, I like that. So this, I've showed you once before, I think in a previous video that we want to get wood chips here and get this area, uh, established, get a, maybe a, a bench put out here and, uh, just make it a fun, enjoyable area. We can come to like in the mornings, um, if we choose. Uh, currently we have a lot of saplings that are taking over. I got some sunflowers in here and just these little like creeper little weeds that come up. Um, so I got to get that. I got to get that under control. You can kind of see some of the wood chips I've put in here, but regardless, uh, more and more work is needed. When I was able to clear a little section over here, just enough to get these guys planted. These are the blueberries bushes that we got. And you can kind of take a look there. So they're pretty good height. This one's the tallest. And then to me, it comes up just, just, I'm going to say three or four inches shy of my hip there. And then, so there's one. And then this guy here, if you can see him, he's kind of a little upset a little at the moment, it looks like and stuff. His leaves are kind of, uh, wilting on themselves. This is another one here. This one's actually a pretty good height as well. And then I got this little guy. He's kind of short, but mighty. He looks really good. He looks really green and happy currently. And then this little guy is just kind of a funny little guy. Like he has this, these really long branches that just don't make any sense. And so I may try to stake those up, but I haven't done them as of yet. I literally just put them out here earlier. Uh, again, I was supposed to be a stormy day, but it did get dark and we thought that it was supposed to rain. And then it's now, supposedly the rain's been pushed out till like tomorrow night or something like you, we just can't around here. We have no idea. Um, the weather, it seems like it changes all the time and can't always make plans, but any him, I think that they're going to be very happy here. I also moved a lot of the dirt back and you can just see that this is just a nice richer dirt. And so just cause it was covered already, like inorganic matter, just from, uh, the forest really that was over here. And so I think that they, uh, have a good chance of being happy and doing well over here. And I'm very hopeful for them and I hope that they all make it. But again, that was six blueberries that we got with him. That'll go along with these dewberries. And here's a dewberry here right beside us. It hasn't, uh, currently got any blooms on it, but it's, it's reaching out and we'll see what it does. I'm curious to see what these dewberries do anyway. I don't expect any of them to, uh, actually produce fruit this year, but my goal is to, uh, thin out some of the ones that just don't make sense over here and keep some of the stronger looking ones to see if they produce next year. From my understanding, most berries do not, uh, produce the first year they produce the second year. And if that's the case, then these all were chopped down last year and are new growth. So I do not think that they're going to make it, uh, make fruit, I should say. And, um, that's okay too. And so it just gives us a year to kind of figure it out and get us established. And then hopefully we'll turn this area into a nice, uh, really, really dog. We'll just kind of move the camera, give her a moment there, but right in my berry patch. Um, anyway, the blueberries live behind us giving grace privacy right now. And then we'll have the pond here at some point and stuff, uh, right in this here area, uh, with the garden right here. And so I really think that this area is going to shape up here over the next few weeks and months. And it's going to be something where you can actually like glance at and understand what it is right away, instead of walking through a bunch of other, um, vegetation that doesn't necessarily need to be here. I thought while I was out here, I would show you kind of how the wood chips are doing, uh, currently. So some of the areas have gotten kind of thin and they have some weeds coming up, but very minimal. And so, so my goal is to, um, just bring some more in here and get it thicker and stuff to stop some of that. But overall, like nothing crazy whatsoever. Like here's just a little bit on this side, just a little weed, but it is very much just like that. Just very, uh, uh, sparse and, uh, random as far as like where they're, where the actual weeds are coming through. And again, I'm just going to make it thicker, but very, very pleased overall with how that's doing on weed control. Like I have not brought the, the first garden tool in here to weed. And so since we've established this garden, and so to me, that's a huge, huge win, um, because other people that I've talked to that have gardens have had to do that. They've had to get the hoe out there and already knock down grass and weeds and other vegetation that they don't want in their garden. And so this has been a huge, huge win. Um, I'm hoping here in the next few days that my tomato plants to get big enough that I can actually bring some of the wood chips up to them to help with weeds that potentially will come in the dirt. These guys, they were so little, like this is a tomato plant. You can see he's so little. Like when I planted in here, he still had the little hairs. Um, but they just were not happy in their container. So I went ahead and said, well, we're just going to put you in the ground and see what you do. And overall, like they're, they're pretty and green. Um, and I think they're doing quite well. Like their little hairs have finally left them. And so I'm hoping that here over the next couple of weeks that they really shoot up and then that they get established so I can get those wood chips around them and really just produce really well. And so we'll just have to take time and see what happens, but that's, that's kind of an update on my garden and where we are right now. And then like I said, over the next few weeks, and so I'm just going to continue to get fuller and more things are coming as far as like what all plans we have for it. And eventually it should be just a nice place, a place that I enjoy coming to. And even the family enjoys coming to as far as seeing what's out here, how it's growing, the, the color that hopefully will be showing up soon in the garden. And I'm just excited and stuff. Like I think overall, like what's been a success and stuff, like not looking for a number as far as production here, but just looking at progress is like, well, Hey, we'll look at what we've done. This is, this is, this used to be nothing and stuff. Actually, two years ago, this was like the wetland of the clearing. And we had all these logs that just lined here that you just would get bogged down. And if you drove next to it, like it was just, it was just a hot mess. And we've turned that into what I consider a very beautiful usable space. It's a bit windy. So sorry if the audio sucks. Uh, yesterday I ran out of diesel and then ran out of time to get back before the sun went down. And although I do have really nice lights on the tractor right now, uh, this is kind of a, an overall visual kind of a job to work with. So, um, it was just, it was just a hot mess. And we've turned that into what I consider a very beautiful usable space. And overall, like, uh, the potential is, is just here. And I'm just, I'm just so excited on what it's going to do in the future. So last night we had a bad storm roll through my goodness up against the lean-to got, uh, hammered, which means everything up here got soaked. Well, your four-wheeler is soaked. It's under the lean-to right now. My four-wheeler is soaked way under here. Yeah. The storm was like maybe one County North and South, but like six Counties East and West. And it was all tracking due East. Um, so we hit the brunt of the storm for, felt like two hours. It was crazy, really, really windy. I was expecting to, I mean, I wasn't expecting to come out here to metal off the, off the shop, but I was expecting to come out here to something. I don't know what, I guess it was those trees ended up being those trees. That's, that's not the worst thing that could happen. None of my logs blew away. So that's good. Let's go check out the garden and see, uh, how many plants washed away. I put grass seed out yesterday. You put grass seed out yesterday? Well, it's still out. Oh, the wood chips that, uh, we drive on kind of moved. All right. We, we still have to get these pipes underground obviously for the gutters, but we're still undecided on where they go. But my goodness, I'm glad we actually have those hooked up and going away. A little bit of a washout right here. You know, this isn't bad all things considered. Uh, last year we were really battling erosion bad on this clearing. Uh, this year, not so much, which is good. That means we have a lot more vegetation in the ground and, um, well that, and then also we haven't had as much rain this year. I looked at the precipitation amounts for this time last year and this time this year. Last year we were like five or six inches above where we need to be. And this year we're five or six inches below. So that's like a 10 inch of rain swing from one year to the next. So we're really, really dry. And then we had this like insane flood. So babe, all of your planted rows were in mounds and now they're all flat. Especially this front section of the, of the pond. I mean garden. One tomato plant underwater so far. Everything else seems to be okay. You got a bunch of oak leaves in here. We've got some sweet gum leaves in here. Marigold chilling in the garden where it shouldn't be. This makes me feel better. I really thought we were going to walk out here and be like, we're going to go to the store and just start over. Start over, buy a bunch more seeds. You know something that's really nice? We're not walking on mud right now. These wood chips, these wood chips are doing wood chip things. We are not walking on mud. Yeah, we got some spots that, uh, all right, so we got water coming through here. I still haven't cut that swale to stop the big rush of water this way. It's coming into the chicken run area and kind of coming around, coming through this area. Looks like it came through here and went right through the corn. Poor corn. Was this empty? It was empty. That was empty? That was empty. This was empty before last night. Well, we got a high side and low side. So right in the middle. From my thumb to my fingertip. That's how much rain we got last night. All right, that's like four inches of rain. Holy smokes. The low spot of the garden needs some work. Yeah, I can see all of this got eroded away right here. All of this. You see it? Yeah, so we definitely, like I said, need to cut that swale over here to stop all this rush. But again, this was the thinnest area of the garden because I just made these rows. Thinnest area, just made these rows. Well, yeah, you can see some erosion right here. So you just made these rows, but this got pushed off into there. The bottom corner of the garden over here is holding. So we need to control the runoff from coming here. Once the runoff is controlled, then we probably need to buy a load or two of some type of good soil, some topsoil, some compost, some manure, something that's already ready to go. And then just build this up a little bit so it stays a little bit higher. Otherwise, it's the low spot. Well, no, the low spot's actually a little bit out of there. I think this is holding more because there's less vegetation right here and it can't get to that low spot. So we need to build this up a little bit. I think that's the answer. Graves. So we set this, these two posts up, two little concord grape vines. Let them grow into each other off of this little rope system here. She got those planted. They look happy and healthy still. Well, it's raining. All right. Well, all things considered, the garden honestly did better than I thought it would, but it's still, it's showing some weaknesses that we have to work on, especially that other corner. And I got to get that soil cut. All right, that rain's come down. I wasn't expecting rain at all. Let's get in. Run Jamie, run. I'm not late. I got my coffee. Your coffee's going to be watered down in about 30 seconds.