Wicked Good Birthday things!

You have all heard me lament on the poor quality of the soil here at Wicked Raven Farm - it is bad.

Below is a photo of what most of the ground looks like in the yard here.

It is bad because of the Millers Reach Fire that happened 20 years ago.  The fire burned so hot that it burned off all of the topsoil and organics and left us with just clay and sand with a 3" layer of ash in between. 

Here is an expanse photo in the front of the house - away from the lake.  The previous owner had made all of this grass but we have let it go and we will be planting orchard and herbs here - eventually filling the space.  We do mow it when it gets long but that takes a long time as we dont water this side.  It cracks in the summer just as if there was an earthquake.

On a positive note the turf here grows wonderful little alpine beauties like the pussy toes (left) and the alpine azalea (right).  Only because the soil is bad for other plants and perfect for these ones!

 One of the wonderful things I was given when my son passed away earlier this year was 7 trees to plant in memorial.  5 apple and 2 Cherry,  They are from a local grower here in the Big Lake called Fire Apple Orchard and they have a "U-Pick" orchard with at least 150 trees.  My wonderful co-workers went together and made a fund to purchase the trees.  Part of the trees will go to the school to add to the orchard there.  So far at the school we have two apple trees and lots of choke cherry - one of which has died and we are thinking of replacing it with one of the new cherries or else an apple - well see when the time comes what will go in the space best - anyway - I digress - the reason I bring it up it that when it was time to pick the trees up from the farm I had no place to put them - I was out of good dirt!  So my parents picked them up for me and are housing them at Snowfire Gardens until spring when - ta dah!  I will be able to use my birthday dirt!

When my parents were out over the summer this year and saw all the work I have to do to put in just one tree they agreed that I need dirt.  And yes - that is what the sunset looks like in Big Lake in October!

SO for my most recent birthday - its so fine to be 49 - they got me a pick up truck load of composted soil.  It is beautiful!  It smells like great dirt - you know the smell - that summer, just right, black, moist soil smell!  This particular soill happens to be from Susitna Organics here in the Matanuska Valley.

We covered it with a tarp and unloaded it onto some old boards so all the good nutrients wont leach away over the winter and early spring.  I will have good dirt to put my new trees in!

I have used some of it already this fall to mulch the Peony's and some of the other plants around the farm as well as add a layer of late fall nutrients to the apple and cherries. My sister came out and helped us put the leaf mulch down while her daughter was at a birthday party.  Perfect! It is a good thing that I was able to do that too as we have had no snow to speak of and the plants would have suffered otherwise!

The kids at the school asked about my birthday gifts and they laughed when I said "Dirt"!  Im really happy to get dirt for my birthday - I hope you get some too!  I did have another birthday treat that relates to quilting and Ill tell you about that next time!  Stay tuned!