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[Beekissed]

Yes!!! There was another feller collecting in that town and at least two times I got leaves that were going to be his, but the folks said they'd give him the next batch. I felt like I was poaching on someone's land. Figured I was being too greedy if I took more than I really needed if this fella needed them too...he was covering a 2 acre garden!

 

[Beekissed]

Finally got the leaves spread all the way on the garden and smoothed a little. Then we got a rain after this pic was taken and that really settled them down. I'm really pleased with the current depth and hope we get plenty of rain and snow this winter to help with breaking down the leaves.

I decided to use some used, extra rolls of deer netting I had stored, along with some push in stakes we also had lying around to put some leaves around the apple trees...but didn't have enough to do each one, so settled on every other one instead.

I've got the peach trees yet to do and that will use up all my netting and stakes, so no more having to make room for such things in the shed. Good use of old things and the extra leaves I had. I'll be adding to these leaf pens as time goes along, now that I have a trailer to use....horse manure, sawdust, mulch hay, straw, etc.

I'll see how effective this is this next season...if it is, I'll buy more stakes and netting to do the rest of the trees next fall, if the Lord wills it.

 

[Nyboy]

Bee I am afraid to ask, having planted a lot of apple trees this spring. Do deer like apple tree bark ?

 

[ninnymary]

We were on our way to the store when we saw 2 guys raking leaves. We stopped right in the middle of the road! (No cars coming, haha). We got 7 bags of leaves! In addition they were so nice that I tried to convince them to have chickens! I invited them to come see my coop and they took our names and numbers. This is one of the reason that I love living in Alameda. It still has that small town feel where people are so friendly and almost no crime rate.

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

Bee I am afraid to ask, having planted a lot of apple trees this spring. Do deer like apple tree bark ?

On very tender young trees they can and will nibble the ends of the branches off the tree and they love to rub their antlers there, breaking the tree right off or damaging it so much that it may not recover...over at our homestead we had several young apple trees broken off in that manner, right in the yard! Even rabbits like to take a nibble of apple saplings if it's a hard enough winter. Most folks who put out young trees around here will either place PVC around them, so far up the trunk, or they will build sturdy, small fences around them so the wild critters can't damage them until they get some good growth in them.

 

[Beekissed]

We were on our way to the store when we saw 2 guys raking leaves. We stopped right in the middle of the road! (No cars coming, haha). We got 7 bags of leaves! In addition they were so nice that I tried to convince them to have chickens! I invited them to come see my coop and they took our names and numbers. This is one of the reason that I love living in Alameda. It still has that small town feel where people are so friendly and almost no crime rate.

Mary

I love that story, Mary!! Sounds just like me! Usually I'm a very safe driver, but this leaf season had be slamming on the brakes(no one behind me either, but still not a good idea) when I saw a huge depository of leaf bags. My son was riding with me and he'd exclaim over the whiplash each time.

I'll be taking eggs back to those places where the folks were friendly and eager to share their leaves, just to build good relationship for next year's leaf abundance.

 

[Smart Red]

Bee I am afraid to ask, having planted a lot of apple trees this spring. Do deer like apple tree bark ?

No, Nyboy, deer LOVE apple tree bark. The second year after planting I lost three trees to rutting deer. The lesser damage was to the tender ends of the branches. Mice and rabbits LOVE apple tree bark. Deer will wait until most of their other food is gone before going after such things as apple and maple bark.

I kept a shield around the fruit trees until they were tough enough to no longer be so appealing to mice and rabbits.

 

[ninnymary]

Bee, that's a great idea about the eggs.

Mary

 

[baymule]

I took two bags of leaves and put them in the Hawg Hut. We had our first frost last night and for us, it was COLD! The pigs burrowed in the leaves, when i did my flashlight check at 10:30 on the back of one of them was visible.

 

[Beekissed]

I bet that's one cozy hawg hut tonight! If you had enough, it wouldn't be a bad idea at all to provide them some deep litter of some kind around that hog hut to keep that area less muddy and wet so they won't be tracking all that into the hut. I know it's pretty much a given that pigs are dirty but they aren't as dirty as most folks would imagine if they have good digs in which to live.