We recycled last years hay bale for our Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations
we got the whole family involved, our son in from Iraq and his wife , visiting from Alaska
how to decorate
and their finished work
smiling jack-o-lantern
the hay bale lives on as gobbles the turkey
gobbles sees all
Blackberry picking in Silsbee,TX
Thanks to a recent picker we have this great family video picking their blackberries.
With the major pruning done and our hot summer still on, we are watering heavy. Another chore that needs to be done is tying up this years growth on the trellis and tip pruning. We spend hours over the summer doing this. Tying up the primocanes or this years growth lets us mow easier and allows the canes to grow up stronger. Also we can now spray Round-up to kill the weeds. Cane tip pruning lets the canes produce more branching growth .
Wow , the hot weather makes removing floricanes an hot job even hotter and it seems to last forever
waiting to be pruned
prune me next
We finally got the floricanes pruned out
pruned out
The canes get picked up and burned since insects and disease can overwinter on old canes.
pick me up next
pick up aisle two
This hot weather is no time to be adding water lines but some things need to be done.
Using the Earth Saw by Little Beaver of Livingston Texas, trenching takes no time. We are drip watering every 3 days for 7 hours to ensure deep watering. Blackberries need 1 inch per week and in this hot weather 2 inches.
Blackberries first seasons of growth is vegetative cane growth which is called primocane. Over the winter the cold weather changes primocanes into floricanes which produce the fruit. At the end of the season all this old growth floricane must be cut out. Over the next few days we will begin this hot time consuming job.
