Growing Cherries from Seed : Orchard Set Up Part 1: Cherries

Orchard Setup for my Homestead

May to June 2017
To recap I have a few fruits planted already.  I bought them from home depot.
The tress and bushes and vines I have already that cost me total of $70 are:
1 cherry, 1 apple, 1 grape vine, 1 blueberry bush

Ok that's enough of that buying plants nonsense! Momentary Insanity. I am thinking ....If I buy all my plants I would be spending a fortune that i don't have

July - August 2017

I know that planting seeds that come from the grocery store are unpredictable and the usual case is they will not fruit and if they do the fruit may not taste good. But until I can find the seed packets to buy I will try the supermarket seeds. I will do this to practice and increase my Germination skills.

Cherries::Germination experiment

I ate a some yummy cherries ... and got 138 cherry seeds to play around with. ... ha ha ha
I started these in my apartment. I don't have a greenhouse yet

1. I cracked the seeds on half of them to take the seed out
2. Took 10 seeds and straight germinated then using a towel and ziplock bag and put the rest in the fridge:
• Results for the 10 germinated with no fridge time : 2 germinated the other 8 molded ...eww

• Lesson 1: Cherries need a period in the fridge  to sprout
• The picture shows the different stages i saw
• first the seeds (cotyledons) turned green and they split
• a tiny root emerges from the bottom and tiny first leaves emerge from the middle
• I then take it out the paper towel and planted them in a cup and cut out some drainage holes
3. After 8 weeks in the fridge (took me that long to baby the 2 that germinated not to die)
• Took 5 more seeds out the fridge and towel germinated those
• Results for the 5 germinated with 8 weeks fridge time : 4 turned green and are looking promising

To be continued:......... I will start naming them so I can keep track.

Homestead Adventure Episode 4: Hunny and I get some relaxation.

Here is the video Click if it doesn't load :)
https://youtu.be/DZcJhMJ5Q64

August 2:
I am super charged and ready to do some projects this weekend... however 2 days ago my husband hurt his knee and had to wear an ice pack. I twisted my knee on the subway, no ice pack but I and still limping and careful when going up and down stairs cause I still feel a little pinch. Although I feel better than yesterday I feel like this weekend we will only have 2 working knees between the 2 of us.

In other news: Mom found a picknick table top so all we need to do now is make the legs. Mom also found an old dolly which she said needs some love but we should be able to use it. Let's see what we can do with it.

August 4: Today I have a cold and it snuck up on me our of nowhere. I sense it going to be a whiny baby sort of weekend. But still going to have a great time. The plan is to scale back on the projects and get some rest and relaxation and test the theory that the country air is good for you.

August 8 :
Back home from our trip....here is the video. Enjoy :)

https://youtu.be/DZcJhMJ5Q64

Homestead Adventure Episode 3: Mom and my Uncle come take a peek

Youtube Video: Click if it doesn't load https://youtu.be/uqw23j1IRG8

The drive is long but this weekend I will have more visitors :) I will take it and be hsppy while I can get it cause after this I don't think many relatives and friends will take the 3 1/2 hours drive just to pop in and say Hi :)

So the visit date is 1 week away.... yea I had to even schedule it. I am thinking what I would like to accomplish on this trip. My vast experience has taught me (3 visits to the property) that I should pick my battles wisely as although I would love to just knock out my 10 item long to do list each item takes time and I also have to allow for camp site build up and  tear down. Cooking And keeping the guests entertained. Also I have to avoid activities that waste time. Like going off property to eat or get supplies.

So I have been thinking of this I want to do before hand and some of the lessons I have learned.
This week I want to focus on Gardening.

PREPARATIONS

Volunteered at High Park

This was a great experience i will do it again for sure. I live the look of my little forest and I am seeking some education on how to conserve the look as well as do a little subsistence farming and fishing. High Park has a volunteer program that runs twice a month. On my first visit they were clearing invasive plants that were good for somethings but bad for the other species of plants that the park wanted to conserve. Our focus was the tall sweet white clover. Good things: it's nitrogen fixing  and has good tasting polen for bees that makes yummy hunny. Bad stuff: about this plant it's reproduction rate, growth rate and coverage area was faster and wider than the plants High Park wants to keep. I think I will try it out see how I like it read about it some more.

Vegetable and Herb Garden

Mint
One thing I love in this world is tea. And my favorite tea is mint tea. I come from a world where when I woke up in the morning and felt like having a nice fat mug of tea , I would go outside in my back yard and pick off a few leaves off my mint bush , wash them and brew. You can't get fresher than that. I miss that. So the first order of business is plant a mint  bush and see what happens to it through the winter.
I have been doing some internet reading and Mint should be winter hardy depending on the species. The bush will die back during winter but grow back in spring time. So we will see.

Day 1 I purchased some spearmint seeds for $2. I put them to germinate using the paper towel method. 
Day 7  I saw no signs of life none of the seeds sprouted and so I got anxious and a little disappointed. I went just went to my neighbourhood florist and bought 2 plants. Luckily they were on sale and I got 2 of them for $3 total.
I bought spearmint and apple mint both yummy.... i tried them. I made a few cuttings and put them in water to root. They root easily I have done it a few times.

Day 9 I decided to check on the mint seeds again. To my surprise 6 germinated ....very tiny little things. I was extatic.
Day 11 days after that I think I had 9 more that sprouted. I carefully planted the 9 to see if they would take to the soil this early and left the 6 in the paper towel to grow up a little more. I checked on the cuttings. No roots yet.

I think the plan will be. Plant the original ones I got from the florist when I got visit the property next weekend.
.

Orchard
To recap I hsve a few fruits planted already.  I bought them from home depot. Plants there are expensive by my standards so buying all the trees I want will be very expensive for me.
The tress and bushes and vines I have already that cost me total of $70 are:
1 cherry
1 apple
1 grape vine
1 blueberry bush

I know that planting seeds that come from the grocery store are unpredictable as worst case they may not fruit and if they do the fruit may not taste good. But until I can find the seed packets to buy I will try the supermarket seeds.

I ate a some fruits ... one apple and got 4 seeds and ate one pear and got 5 seeds and 138 cherries. ... ha ha ha ... that was my lunch one day 138 cherries while i read about how to grow cherry trees from seed.

I put the apples and the pears to germinate and the cherry seeds to dry for 2 days.

Solar Power
I was checking the Canadian tire website for deals on solar equipment. The panels and inverters full price are expensive.
I bought a 150W solar panel on sale.

PROPERTY PROJECTS

Planting
I will plant the crops I took with me. And check on the ones that are there.

Bed relocation:
It was out in the sun and with the lack of water shade and too much heat all the plants were not having a great time. So this week I will get more materials to move and make a bigger bed

Check on the solar path lights
I forgot to pack them up last time so I hope they still work and the rechargeable batteries are doing ok.

Tree check
I would like to make a note off all the different trees I have on the property. I would like to find a suitable evergreen tree to plant at the fence the start propagating that.

More canadian tire shopping. 

IT'S FINALLY THE WEEKEND!

So what happened? 

I must say I have been better organised this trip. Woke up early rented the SUV,  packed it,  picked up my mom and picked up a few things from home depot and got out of town by 10:30am. What's a new record usually it's like 12 and one of clock. 

Here is the YouTube video

https://youtu.be/uqw23j1IRG8

Homestead Adventure Episode 2: My dad comes for a visit

Click here if the video doesn't load https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO0YBQ3Caro

Oh boy I was so excited. We just finished our first visit to the property had a great camping 4 day camping experience. My mind was busy thinking of
.... the things that I didn't have that may have made the camping experience more comfortable
.....the things I needed to change to make the camping experience more comfortable
.....the things I could leave there so I didn't have to carry them all the way back

On the list was
.... better cooking pots and utensils and mittens (I got burned a few times)
.....some dry food stores like rice and oatmeal and noodles
.....more tools like saws

Another exciting thing that was coming up was my dad was coming to visit. I was through the roof with excitement. He would get to see the property. I was nervous what he would think of it. Like I said it does need some love but I was excited because I knew he would be proud of me for making this big step. And I was following in his footsteps a I watched him build our own house back home in Jamaica. In the two weeks I had to wait for him to arrive it couldn't come fast enough.

Now I was thinking what would make my dad comfortable camping on the property with us?

Well he is an older guy and i was later to fi d out that this would be his first camping experience. And even though I was quite content with sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground.... I bought my dad
. ....his own tent
.... his own air bed with a car pump
.....some blankets

Storage and Wood Shop Shed Plans and wishlist
Tool wishlist: Jig Saw  and Jigsaw blades: T144D , T101d Clean cuts, T244D carved cuts
Solar attached to a side wall: panel, battery, inverter.
Gardening tools:
Greenhouse attached to the back

Watch my Dad comes to visit and we worked on building a storage shed 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO0YBQ3Caro

Click here for the Youtube video

It's September 15th now 

And I haven't done any improvements yet. I need to go there soon before it gets too cold and all the leaves are gone.... it's getting close the maple leaves are starting to fall

Homestead Adventure Episode 1: Big Birthday Plans

Click here for the Youtube video if it doesn't load https://youtu.be/Qhw1mSjnGnI

It was my 36th Bithday and it's my custom to treat myself and buy a present for me. Happy Birthday Me.

This year like every other year I thought... what do I really want what would make me really happy. Then I thought....what did I get for me last year? Not being able to remember I thought was not good. So I thought let's make this Bithday mid life crisis present count this time please ....lol

I thought long and hard and asked myself what are you struggling with and what would make it better? I was struggling with the need for space and the ability to do what I needed to do with my space.
My husband moved in with me this year from his childhood home which had a lot of space to move in with me in my rented bachelor apartment . ..I'm good but for him he needs more space.  My wants last year was a place to work on my current loves Clay and to be able to adapt my space to hold the equipment I need like a kiln.... and I would need more space. I was really getting into plants and nature and for this I needed more space and more nature than I found the city was providing. I also wanted to get into new hobbies and new loves like woodworking and for that I needed more space. I was also thinking gee I an 36 years old and at this age my parents had a 5 year old and they owned their own space. I had the feeling of falling behind.

So it may be I was craving a space that was mine. My own spot on the earth that I can call my own....then I remembered didn't I try this already? What went wrong ....I tried to remember....oh that's right I let's people discourage me instead of going with my gut.... and maybe I wasn't ready to go through all that it would take to do this dream.... and maybe I felt I couldn't take such a big project on by myself.

Ok well ....I'm no longer alone.... so let's see if I can find some courage and work through the scary discouraging things.

I set to work. Went to realtor.ca and started searching through all the listing near and far .... big and small....with houses or bare land.... commercial,residential and rural..... inexpensive and totally out of my league expensive.

Now I knew what was out there it was time to focus. What do I want and what can I afford?....after 2 months of searching and asking the realtors and the city property departments the properties were located lots of questions. I finally found one I liked. I know...I know don't just hug up one chicken in your basket... but that's all I had left.... I had 2 that I wasn't really totally in love with as back up ... but this one I wanted to focus on. And I said to myself if he doesn't work out for me then I will go back to the drawing board and wait till something else shows up.

So I was ALL IN! ... I put all my efforts into buying this one property. Now it's not perfect at all ...I like to describe it as the runt of the litter and it needed some love. The realtor description of the land was "Vacant land swamp and rock close to WestPort and Perth. Hydro at lot line" . Ok let's see what it looks like. I went there for a visit in winter in March.  There was still a lot of snow and I tried to walk as much as I could safely. I liked what I saw but I wanted to see more but I also understood that a may have some competition so it may not wait for me to have a perfect view when the snow melted. My budget was small and and he fit my budget is liked what I saw and hoped for the best when the snow melted and so I was going to work with it and give it all the love and affection I could to for it to make me smile.

I bought it. And we closed May 5th. So more snow.... let's go see :)

Here is the YouTube video

BONSIA AND SUCCULENTS

First attempt to try and grow a clementine bonsia from seed.

Dec 24 to Jan 15 2017
Germinated 3 seeds. It was a Labour of learning love and tears but I managed to get 3 seeds out of the 15 I tried. It's my fist time so I'm happy I came out with 3 little babies.

I fondly call them Tiny Teeny and Nameless. (Couldn't think of a name)

Jan 15 to Jan 28  2017.
Omg leaves! Teeny has leaves.

I potted my seedlings. The aim now is to take them to my first bonsia meeting. I found a Bonsia association that meets at Toronto Botanical Gardens. Teeny looks good enough to take with me so I can show where I got so far and get some insights.

In the meanwhile we have been having very dark days ever since I potted these guys for the first time. And this has caused Teeny to grow very tall trying to find some sun. Like every concerned mom I decided to help. I researched .... and by research I mean youtubed..lol. and came up with this little set up. 

The bulb is a 23W CFL daylight 1450 lumens . I bought this from Canadian Tire. 

I am hoping that this will be enough light for them. We like the 

Plans:
Gonna try and get mom a garden allotment on Feb 1
Bonsia meeting on Feb 13

Succulent club  Feb 21st

Queen West Art Crawl

Plan for next year - Cancelled due to financial difficulties 2017

Jan 10th 2018 - look for early bird special - send in my application to the Exhibition. 

Jan 15th 2018 - Just signed up and paid to be an artist exhibitioning at the Queen West Art Crawl in September. No turning back now. Time to hold your breath and dive in!

 They will judge to see if I get in or not. I will hear from them in a couple of days when they mail my package. Hoping for a yes!

In the meanwhile to practice and get ready..... let's get the flea market preparations started!