Vernal Pool Project and Planting Bare Root Fruit Trees

Weekends are never long enough, especially with our winter hours. I wish I had embarked on my vernal pool project prior to our phenomenal rains last month, but alas it was not to be. Too many things going on, including the planting of all the bare root fruit trees we ordered from Grass Valley's Peaceful Valley Farm. Also on the agenda but not yet accomplished: hen house for four and drawing out the plans for our front gate (will be rustic). For the four years we've been here, we've never had a gate and have always been happy to let all the resident hikers, equestrians, mountain bikers, migrant workers, etc., traipse through the property. However, there have been a series of robberies (notwithstanding those of the home invasion variety a few years ago) in La Cresta recently that are slightly perturbing. Therefore, for us folk in the rural areas, a good-sized pooch or, even better, a pack of pooches, is always in order. Geez, we've even had some teenagers with .22's coming onto our property trying to shoot our quail. What's up with that? Sadly, I guess Robert Frost was right - good fences make good neighbors. Anyhoo, Hana is always at my side when I'm home alone, along with my remote control for our alarm system which has a panic button. And as a last resort, there's always the shotgun.


So I scouted out a location today for the vernal pool that seems just perfect. It's on a flat, low section of the property, with soil that's loose enough to dig up by hand. I'd rather burn up calories than $ for some dude to excavate with a bobcat. I found few resources online that tell you how to make your very own vernal pool. The most comprehensive is "A Guide to Creating Vernal Ponds" by Thomas R. Biebighauser http://herpcenter.ipfw.edu/outreach/VernalPonds/VernalPondGuide.pdf . The EPA also has a page called the "Vernal Pool Construction Workshop" http://www.epa.gov/bioiweb1/html/vernal_pool_construction.html. 


My plan of action is to dig out a roundish pit, about 8' x 10' (or 10' x 10'), at a depth of 1 1/2', then line it with synthetic liner (i.e., pond liner) to prevent the naturally collected rainwater from draining, then cover the liner with some of the excavated soil (primarily decomposed granite). To jump-start the vernal pool ecosystem, I will seed the perimeter with Red Maids (Calandrinia ciliata), Douglas' Meadowfoam (Limnanthes douglasii), and Goldfields (Lasthenia californica). All I can hope for is that I'll get this thing constructed asap and that we'll also actually have some more rain this season.

A nice flat site, down the slope from the garage.

A couple weeks earlier, we received our shipment of 10 bare roots from Peaceful Valley, consisting of: 

Honey Crisp Apple

Comice Pear

Indian Free Peach

July Elberta Peach

Snow Queen Nectarine

Earli Autumn Apricot

Late Santa Rosa Plum

Flavor Supreme Pluot

Flavor King Pluot

White Arctic Blaze Nectarine

We discovered, to our dismay, that there was a gopher infestation around the area we wanted to plant these guys. So, we ended up buying gopher guards from Armstrong Nursery to protect the roots of these nascent fruit trees. It was an all-day endeavor digging out the massive holes for these things, a much better workout than a one-hour stint on the treadmill.

1/8/11 Ugh. Gopher holes. 

1/8/11 Gil, driving the bags of compost down to the planting site.

1/8/11 Boy, does he look jazzed about the task at hand.

1/8/11 Lugging the bags of compost up the hill.

1/8/11 

1/8/11 Hana is hyperactively ecstatic about something...what can I say, except she's pretty goofy for an Akita.

1/8/11 Gopher basket.

1/8/11 

1/8/11 You gotta dig a large enough hole to fit the gopher basket in, leaving about a couple inches of it above-ground so the gophers don't hop right over them when they are rooting around on the surface. Sheesh!

Last but not least, a few awesome sunset views from the back patio. It's why we love living where we live...

1/16/11