Our orchard is planted! Hooray! We have successfully put in the ground about 200 apple trees, pear trees, gooseberries, currants, and pea shrubs. Now, they have about a month to root in before starting to go dormant for winter. We have had frosts already, including a hard frost last Monday, Labor Day. The bottom photo is looking west over the orchard, as the final 2 guilds are about to be planted.

So, now I'm starting to look forward to our winter greenhouse planting. Having made it through last winter, I am feeling confident and more in tune with what we want to be doing during the dark, cold months. My plan is to take out any tired summer plants in the next few weeks, and get the cold hardy varieties in the raised beds and growing before real winter hits. That, of course, could be in November, with -40 temps, as we experienced last year! But we'll be ready, and hopefully the plants will be too, and we can continue to supply our followers with fresh, local, organic produce. That's not something one sees often in January in Steamboat Springs.