Tree Circles

HELP! The previous owner has tree circles around most of the trees by the house. Even though it is a pain to remove the rocks, this gardener thinks it is worth it. I do not know why anyone would do this in the first place, but if you are going to please at least use mulch instead of rocks!

Thorny guy and I planted two honeycrisp apples and one weeping crap apple which we bought from Friends of the Parks and Trails. After removing the rocks, (thanks Thorny guy) we used the sod to fill in around the tree. Now doesn't that look better?


Note from Thorny Guy: To further deter tree circle enthusiasts out there, after a year or two the rocks get dirt, branches, and weeds all mixed in. This allows grass and weeds to grow among the rocks (especially when there is no edging) which looks bad. When you come to your senses and you go to remove the rocks , everything has to be dug out which is killer on your hands. Even though the rocks are gone around this tree, I have a strong feeling I'll be hitting these rocks with my lawn mower for years to come. The only thing to do is to invest in a lawn mower blade sharpener!

Bloom for me

Finally the daffodils are blooming. It has been a very slow spring, especially coming from MD. Hopefully that means that getting things late into the ground will be alright. I just planted carrots, lettuce, and sugar snap peas.

We have strawberries! Today we brought 100 strawberry plants for $5 off CL from a lady in Cottage Grove. She had an overgrown plot of three different kinds strawberries. Last night we tried to get them into the ground before the sun went down. Hopefully the deer and rabbits will leave them alone until they get fruit, then we will probably have to put some kind of netting over them to keep the birds and rabbits out. The lady also gave us some Jerusalem artichokes, but warned us that they make you gassy. I need to look how to plant them.