Mulching 'n Stuff

I've been trying to lay low and rest up for my next project, but I always seem to find some little thing to do that turns into a big thing I have to finish. 

After finding the old apple tree near the road, I decided I'd like to clear the young maple and oaks that were beginning to crowd it out and shade it from the much needed sunlight.  Taking a few trees turned into an all day Chainsaw Fest, and the next thing I knew I had cleared most of the trees along the stone wall.  I also discovered a smaller apple tree that was hidden within the stand of young trees.

The V shaped tree is the old apple.

    The smaller apple tree.

I'm still working on taking a few last trees, and am happy with how open it looks.  This surprises me, because my original idea was to leave this an overgrown mess to ensure privacy.  Now I have a vision (don't I always?) of the area cleared to the wall, save for the apples and larger oaks, and planted with grass.  I can fence along the driveway and up to the smaller apple tree for the mules.  I've left a few birches near the driveway and may take those, but for now I think I like them.

In the vegetable gardens, I've applied a layer of mulch to most of the beds.  The mesclun/spinach/mustard green section is just coming up and I couldn't cover the tender little greens.  Everything else has a beneficial top layer, though.  Mulch helps protect the soil from drying out, keeps weeds down, and can add nutrients to the soil.  I chose natural cedar bark mulch, because it's what my local hardware store had on hand, and I didn't feel like heading into the woods to rake pine needles.  Yes, I was being lazy!

Everything seems to be thriving except for the newly planted strawberries, which were bare root purchased at Tractor Supply, so it may be that they're just crap.  The onions are doing ok, but I've had a few of them rot.  Research tells me this could be from a fungus.  If that's the case, I'll most likely lose all my onions and have to plant something else in these beds.  I'm hoping it's just a combination of late planting, over watering, and insane temperature fluctuations this spring, but we'll see.  It may just be that I'm not cut out to be an onion farmer.  Other than that, I've lost one cucumber plant that twisted on its stem and broke.  I've toyed with the idea of planting a few more seeds to augment the cucumber crop.  If I'm going to do that, I'd better get it done now.  New England growing seasons are notoriously short, and time's a-wasting.