I was at Lowe's yesterday, picking up some plumbing fixit supplies and happened to exit the store through the nursery. I hadn't planned to, but I'm sure that subconsciously I had every intention of seeing what's out there.I found a promotional sale on crabapple trees. Small, sparse, but promising future beauty. So, I must admit, greedily scarfed up half a dozen of the best.
I chose 3 each of PrairieFire and Robinson. The former is supposed to reach 20x20 and the latter a tad smaller, just 15x15.
There are only 5 pots in the pic because I immediately planted one in the stump bed (a PrairieFire).
These guys will take years to look really good, but in the meantime I can watch them grow. Honestly, you can never have enough crabapples!
In other posts, I've put up 2 new entries on the 'propagation page' today - one about (yay!) TOMATO DAY and one about HERBS. You might want to check them out too.
Now everyone out there cross your fingers for me. I'm going to take the battery out to the shed and see if the lawn mower will start for the season. (I dread the suspense...)
12:30 p.m.
I'm happy to report that the lawn mower is out of the shed and in the garage! But it took a little while.
The battery had kept a good charge over winter and turned over right away. But no start. My neighbor Jim wandered over (he hasn't learned to avoid this sort of thing yet! *heh*) Anyway we focused on the air filter. Clogged. He went and washed it out and meanwhile I dug out a new spark plug. That can't hurt, I thought.
We tried again. But no....just grind grind grind. He was thinking fuel line. (Oh, please, not that!) Eventually I pulled out the new plug and held it up to the sky to check the gap. Gap? What gap? This plug had no gab! Curses! No wonder it wouldn't spark. Fortunately I'd bought 2 plugs last year. The other one had a gap. Turn the key, feather the choke. Varroooooooom! Woohoo.
Let the lawn mowing begin. (Uh, mixed blessing here, I guess. *heh*)
I really REALLY ADMIRE you, Kris. You're always working! Wish I could have a quarter of your energy to work my garden, sigh!
ReplyDeleteThe great start up the equipment for the year! We just went through that agony. This year it was surprisingly easy; I got the tiller started, the string trimmer, but the riding mower took a little more. Had to charge the battery and wait for a nice warm day and sunshine before it would start.
ReplyDeleteAll is now well and I have even mowed partially one time!
Ha Xuan - Honestly, I don't have that much energy. Maybe I just post energetically! LOL And don't sell yourself short. I see all the things you do in your gardens. They are just beautiful!
ReplyDeleteGlenda - Yeah, even my trusty electric tiller wouldn't turn on this year. I tinkered, but didn't really do anything to it. Later that day it was fine. Machines - go figure! Glad yours are all playing nice now. We sure couldn't do without them! ;-D
Crabapples are lovely. I wish I had space for some, but I'll just admire yours from afar.
ReplyDeleteCould you come over and fix our lawn mower? Hubby seems to have it on the back burner! Will you make crabapple jelly when you have apples? Wonder how many years it will take to get apples.
ReplyDeleteLinda - I'll post pics so you can watch them grow. :-D
ReplyDeletevioletlady - Hahaha. You're too funny.
Don't know how long until there's enough harvest from the new trees. My mature (unknown) crab in front, however, yields tons of apples. 2 years ago I was making jelly and butter. 1 year ago, barely enough for the birds. It's very interesting to see how fruit ebbs and flows on that one. This year looks promising! :-D