Left my part time gig at the bowlng center after 8-1/2 years. So, first Saturday off in all that time for reasons other than occasional travel yielded a little satisfaction.
Used the gift card they gave me to go purchase a nicely developed Contender Peach Tree to replace the one the buck tore up rubbing the previous fall before I got the trunk protectors back on. Tried to restore it over the past year, but it developed that black bark and all. So, got that in the ground ahead of all this rain, so it should hopefully adjust easily with little stress. Loaded with buds. Still need to water the ball a few times a week for a while even with the rain. Chose a slightly smaller better developed tree over a larger tree with less form and branch development. Did some immediate light topping to encourage growth fillout. Got both apples pruned up good as well. Funny side bar on the apples. Back around 2015-2016, put two apples in. By 2017-2018, one died and the other kept growing. Knocked the dead one over with mower and got it up. Over course of summer, decided the other one wasn't gonna do anything w/o a pollinator, so tried to run it over and it survived and spent next several years growing at a 45. In 2024 decided since it was so tough and was a chore to mow around, we hooked a rope to it, latched it to the hitch on the truck and pulled it up straight. Beat the ground around it with a sledge to try and force dirt down around disturbed roots. Drove a steel T post next to it and tied it off, and it remains tied off as long as needed to not lay back over. In two years the top has recovered to erect growth. A pllinator was added two years ago when I straightened it back up. So, now I have a tough as nails Gala and a young Liberty.
Afterwards, my attempt at getting a strawberry patch going last year by the greenhouse needed attantion. So I dressed half the bed with composted garden soil, moved the everbearer strawberries in place over and prepped the other side to receive a batch of Sea Scape Everbearer that I hope to pick up at lunch today. That'll give me half a bed of Eversweets and half a bed of Sea Scape Everbearers. Seems half my bed of everbearers from last year disappeared. I didn't have them marked, and can't recall what everbearer I bought to fill in with the Eversweets last year, so I am assuming the survivors are Eversweets, but my gut tells me they may be the other. THe first year I started them two years ago was in a run of old tires. They didn't do well. Then last spring I moved them next to the green house and likely planted those on the left side of hte bed and bought others to fill in. The survivors I think came from Those bins at Lowe's, maybe Walmart but can't remember the variety and they went in on hte right half, and those are the ones I moved over and replanted. But, local garden center only has Sea Scape Everbearers and cheaper than Gurney's and from everything I've read is an excellent everbearer.
Though my blueberry plants are still "small" (close to mid-thigh) they are loaded with buds right now. Prime Ark blackberry is fixing to take off. Triple Crown blackberry not broke ground yet. Heritage Raspberries are breaking ground. Might still be some Caroline Raspberry mixed in. Apples and figs yet to begin showing life. If you are considering black berries, I highly recommend you find and try Prime Ark Ponca. Large, incredibly sweet berries. Grows more like a central trunk bush. Not a brambler. Fast growth. I might have errantly over pruned it last year and killed its impending production. I'm still learning how to prune such a plant as bramblers like the Triple Crown can just be clipped to the ground each fall if you choose. I leave the Prime Ark bushed out, but learning to prune from there forward is not diffcult, but still need to perfect how and what to prune so as not to rob it of its production.
One tomato has already busted though in the seed tray after only a little over a week, and is about a inch tall.
). I passed along your best wishes and those of 
