First Spring Thaw Gardening Projects

As we have now had a significant snow thaw here in east-central Minnesota, this is the first weekend where I have work to really physically do in my outlaying gardens.  Saturday will be spent 90 miles southeast of my home at my parent’s property (www.roundbarnfarm.com) where we have about 500 feet of fencing to repair.  Last year my wife, Patti and I set a dozen 12-foot, 4×4 posts into the ground, and strung 8-foot mesh deer fencing on a wire all the way around the garden.  For the most part, it did prevent the deer from getting into the garden.  There were a few intrusions where they actually tore through the fencing, but most of the damage to that garden was done by rodents and raccoons, not deer.  The winter was not kind to the fence though, and much of it was torn off of the wire by heavy snows.  The plan is to use plastic zip-ties about every 18 inches along the top of the fence to re-fasten it to the wire which runs along the top of the posts all the way around.  My daughter Nell is coming along with me, and my hope is that her help really speeds things up.  Tall 5 gallon buckets will be enough to stand up and reach the top of the fence.  If I have 3 of them she can move them along the ground for me so I don’t have to keep moving them myself, and she can hand me zip-ties as I work.

The other early work to be done at my parent’s place before the ground thaws is the pruning of the grape vines I planted last year.  There are only a dozen of them, but from what I have read, propagating them out is a fairly simple enterprise.  Any prunings should be at least 10 inches in length and include  a bud near the top.  The bottom of the pruning is dipped into rooting hormone to promote the development of roots at the bottom of the cutting, the bottom is then immersed in water until roots develop, and then they are stuck into potting soil for a few weeks.  Once the bud has opened and the vine has started to actively grow, it can then be planted wherever you want to have a grape vine.

Another point of interest – today I tapped the big maple tree in our front yard.  I am curious to see just how much syrup we can make from one tree.  Our neighbor, Eric helped me cut stainless steel spiles from a couple of pipes I bought, and after drilling holes into the tree and pounding the spiles in, I hooked them to clear plastic tubing that runs directly into 5 gallon buckets.  That eliminated the need to hang buckets and allowed me to simply set them on solid ground.  I drilled holes in the lids of the buckets so I don’t have open containers for dirt or detritus to get into.  I have never done this before, so trying to keep it as simple as possible.  I will be gone now until Saturday night so Patti will be the one emptying them out and cooking the sap down to syrup.

Stay tuned to see how this weekend’s projects all turn out…

This entry was posted in Gardening. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to First Spring Thaw Gardening Projects

  1. I’m thinking the word “mud” will appear at least once in the next update.