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I haven't attempted to grow fruit before 2016 except for strawberries, tomatoes and melons. My landlord for the Fall City garden has an apple tree, but I don't tend it.

I took notice of blueberry plants at home and a good crop in 2015 of grapes from a neighbor so I prepared a six-foot addition on the north side of the farm garden for a mini fruit garden.

I provided soil amendments, tilled what I could and put black plastic mulch over the area. Most of this area had been heavily weeded with quack grass and numerous other native nuisances, so it took about a year to prepare it beginning in early 2015. Throughout the 2016 season I weeded this section, removing lots of rhizomes and weed sprouts.

Based on the recommendation of a friend who believes that the root structure of the trefoil will not interfere with the root systems of blueberries and grapes I began sowing and transplanting birdsfoot trefoil, a type of native clover into this vineyard area in the fall of 2016 to see if it would serve as a ground cover. It is perennial and native so it wasn't hard to get them started in the to-be vineyard.

I had read previously that this clover was considered invasive and had hesitated to introduce it into a garden. Observing it growing all around the garden I noticed that it is definitely not a smother crop - that it competes with all the other weeds without overcoming them. It is a tough plant, taking whoever it can get from the soil and when necessary stretching as far above the other weeds to soak up sunlight.

I transplanted nearby trefoil and collected seeds from others during the fall. The transplants took hold readily and spread immediately according to their natural habit of sending out stolons and horizontal shoots. I'll wait until the spring to see how the seeds germinate and how easy it is to keep out pernicious weeds.

We had blueberry bushes at home that had never supplied but a few berries for the squirrels and birds. They were in too much shade to thrive. So I transplanted them to the farm. I began with commercial compost in each mound along with a bit of complete organic fertilizer. While I was at it I bought four more bare root plants to increase production.

I discouraged fruiting of these, saving their efforts until they had more opportunity to develop good root systems. So we wait until the next season.