The plants love it. All of the trees I planted last year are blooming and sending out new leaves. This will be their second year in the ground. This is one of the bare root fruit trees. I think it's the apricot. I'm supposed to pull off any fruit that starts to form so the tree can put it's energy into growing roots. I can let the fruit ripen next year. It's hard to wait.
I think this is the nectarine. I always get these two mixed up. No flowers on this one but it has tons of little branches and lots of leaves. When I put these in they just looked like a stick with some roots. No dirt or branches or anything. Once they went in the ground and got some water they burst out with new growth. It's kind of amazing, the energy stored in those little sticks.
This is a fruitless purple plum. I got it for free from DWP's shade tree program. It spent all last Summer with about ten leaves on it so it's already having a much better year. I think the purple will look pretty dramatic on the hill once it gets a little bigger.
This Sycamore is also a DWP tree. It's just South of the house, so in ten to fifteen years it should throw some nice shade.
The echium that Samantha gave me is also doing well. I probably should have waited to take a picture when it is in full bloom but even the foliage is beautiful.
And of course the grass has been growing like crazy. Here it's about to take over the chicken run. It's going to seed now and the whole hill has a different texture and sound. You can hear the grass hissing in the wind.
The grass will turn brown soon and then it will be time to cut it. The Fire Department requires that the brush be cleared by May when fire season starts. Did I post photos of the fire in the valley last year? It was on Halloween night. I don't know if a jack-o-lantern got turned over but one whole side of the hill burned at the end of the valley. No houses were damaged and the Fire Department had it extinguished quickly but it was still pretty alarming.
