Permsteading.com

DONE!!!

The field is complete. We deemed it so yesterday. So far the weather has been amazing. We had a late frost on 4-17 that nipped a few of the young sprouts and we've had some infernal animal dig up about 30 I'm guessing (proly a skunk) but losing a few is to be expected. We had a bunch of germinated seeds (maybe a hundred) left over that were planted out in the garden on an 8" grid with the intent of digging up next winter and transplanting as bare root seedlings.

The fence is back in working order but for the energizer which should arrive from premier fencing any day. Once plugged it, the only thing left will be weed control and watering.

Congratulations George. It feels good when you accomplish something like that doesn't it.

Yes it does.

This morning saw the final piece of the puzzle put in place - we flipped the switch thereby energizing the fence. Something that had been weighing heavily on my mind. But flipping the switch had to wait until the arrival of our new energizer. The one that was serving to protect the walnuts was put to use around the chestnuts so the walnut grove had to wait until a new unit could be procured. This is the one opted for this time:



All of the rest of the nuts that have germinated since completing the grove have been either:
- sown into beds on an 8" grid to be dug up and used next year as bare root replacements for this year's loses or
- planted out into some quasi-zone 5 areas where low value trees (sweet gum) are particularly thick. The plan here is, if the walnuts survive the first year or two, to cut the "weed" trees sufficiently to allow the walnuts a chance to grow.