A couple weeks ago I asked if I should separate my fruit tally from my vegetable tally. They are mostly different in how their expenses are done. Vegetables are mostly annuals. Money goes into more seed every year. While fruits are a large expense up front for the plants. Then they take a long time to produce. The few that weighed in on it thought I should separate them. I agree. It will be interesting to see how long the edible landscape takes to produce. And to see how long it takes to pay for themselves. I thought about separating them into perennials and annuals, but I'll just go with what we typically call fruits - not botanical fruits, but what we call fruits in the kitchen. So rhubarb would be a fruit, but a tomato would not be. The scientist part of me is screaming that doing it that way is so wrong, but it seems the right way to get most of the perennials together. The only perennials that won't be counted in this manner are the herbs and asparagus.
So far in the fruit garden:
- $37.45 from Nourse Farms. Gooseberries: Hinnonmaki Red, Invicta, Trixia
- $119.05 from Miller Nursery. Dwarf Peaches: Reliance, Red Haven; Cranberries: 6xThunderlake
- $62.05 from Pinetree. Rasperry: 5xJaclyn; Strawberries: 10xEarlyglow, 10xSparkle, 10xSeascape; Alpine Strawberry seed: Yellow Wonder, Ruegen
- $142 from St. Lawrence Nursery. Blueberries: 6xNorthblue, 6xNorthsky, Northcountry, Friendship, Patriot
- 94.66 from Grandpa's Orchard. Dwarf Apples: Honeycrisp, Ginger Gold; Plum: Green Gage
- $46 from NOFA for fruit tree fertilizer
For a total of 360.55. I'm still missing some things. I need good pruners. I'll need acid loving fertilizer for the blueberries and cranberries. I'll need peat moss to make their soil acid. I'll need three fig trees (two brown turkey and a paradiso) which I will get locally in spring. I will need a support system for the figs and plum since they will be espaliered. I will needs stakes for the dwarf trees. And I will need a rhubarb plant since I forgot to get one from Pinetree when I ordered.
Does anyone in the Boston area have a rhubarb plant they wouldn't mind splitting in the spring? And while I'm asking anyone have Chocolate Mint or other kinds of peppermint? Or any other splittable perennial herbs? It would be fun to have blogging friends' plants growing in my garden and I'd also get to meet you (preferably in your garden or mine). Its not worth anyone shipping to me. I just know I would get offers from far off if I didn't say this. But I can buy all this locally for not too much. It isn't worth paying to shipping plants.
I had no harvest. But I did eat some from the garden. Mostly I was bad this week. I was eating bagels for lunch. I had them with homemade blueberry jam or apple butter. Neither from the garden though. The one thing on the plate from the garden were the pickles. I ate a whole pint this week. I also ate some home canned salsa and tomato sauce from the garden. Oh and yes herbs. I always have garden herbs in some way in the meals. Rarely a week goes buy without thyme, sage, and/or oregano being used. This week I added in my frozen basil which I don't use nearly enough.
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
It sounds like you're going to have some wonderful things planted there. I wish my rhubarb would be big enough to split this year, if only to get to meet you. It would be great to have a Boston area meet up one of these days.
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ReplyDeleteNo harvest here either. For those of you urban homesteaders who are interested, it is a call to action day for those who would like to bring attention to the issue of trade marking 'urban homesteading.'
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're getting excited about your new garden! Can't wait to see what you do this year. I took a peak at your 2009 vs 2010 harvest weights, and what a difference! Do you have a number you are shooting for this year?
ReplyDelete~~Lori
Wish I had space for the fruit trees! I'm envious!! I am putty in some berries soon...
ReplyDeleteWhat is the square white food on your plate?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid to find out what I spend on my garden! :0
ReplyDeleteI'm STILL harvesting broccoli and the cabbage is starting to *ball* up: yippy: maybe cabbage by March 17!
One advantage you have up north is time to plan while your garden is dormant! :)
ReplyDeleteI have a huge rhubarb plant that just gets in the way, and no one on either side of the driveway is excited about rhubarb. You could either divide it, or just come here and harvest.
ReplyDeleteWondering about the square white stuff too :-)
ReplyDeletep.s. A Boston area meetup sounds great. I would drive from RI.
ReplyDeleteThe listing of items in your fruit plantings is wonderfully diverse! I am so envious! I do not have any more areas on my property that get adequate sun to plant fruit trees or more shrubs and it breaks my heart because they provide such bounty once established. I think breaking the two components out for tracking makes good sense and will provide more useful data.
ReplyDeleteLunch looks yummy! I am using up some of our pickled items for lunches and snacks too lately. I realized I had been holding back on the pickles and the dilly green beans and there was no reason to be reserving them for so long. So it's fair game now and I know they won't last long.
I'm very jealous of all of the fruit you are getting to start! I am not certain that we'll be in this house 5 years from now, or I would plant fruit too. I look forward to seeing your harvests as they come! That's fun that you ate a pint of pickles this week! I don't know that I've ever done that!
ReplyDeleteOh! your order is amazing. I'm hungry just thining about it all!
ReplyDeleteThe first thing my grandson Kevin asked me was "What kind of fruit are you planting?". When I told him it would just be the strawberries and raspberries, he was disappointed. Maybe I'll have to give in and replace the dead blueberries, and get a rhubarb start.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you have room for all of these wonderful fruit trees/plants! You are going to be very busy this summer and fall and I can't wait to see your summer garden and harvests!
ReplyDeleteHi Daphne!! I sure have missed reading all your posts. I have some catching up to do if I can ever find the time. I seem to be way behind on everything at my house.
ReplyDeleteWhere are you going to plant all the fruit trees/plants? I am hoping to expand my garden this year. My precious MIL gave me a fig tree that she had rooted and I want to get more blueberries and blackberries.
I also need to read the great info that you gave me on tomatoes and, hopefully, increase my harvest.
Your fruit tree plans sound delicious. Plums and peaches, raspberries and rhubarb, and gooseberries, too. YUM. Almost enough to make me miss winter ; ))
ReplyDeleteYour breakfast/lunch looks wonderful. I'm envious of everyone's fruit trees.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, I wish that we lived closer. I have a lot of perennial herbs that could definitely be divided again.
ReplyDeleteIt will be fun to watch your orchard grow!!
I think your bookkeeping method sounds logical. My folks had dwarf cherry, apple, and pear trees on the farm. They were wonderful. Enjoy your fruit.
ReplyDeleteI had a borderline feeble harvest this week. LOL! I'm ready for spring to arrive!
ReplyDeleteThe Mom, it would be fun to have a Boston meetup. Maybe we could plan one someday.
ReplyDeleteOttawa Gardener, I've read about that in other blogs today. I was really sad to hear about it.
Dirt Lover, I am excited about it. My last garden didn't have all that may fruits. Bushes yes, but no trees. It was a fully forested yard and I couldn't bear to cut any of the trees down except one for vegetable garden. I don't have a number I'm shooting for this year. I'll have more space than every before. But in reality isn't all about the weight or the "income". As many noticed I'm really into dried beans and for the area they really don't produce well. But I'm going to plant a lot of them anyway since it is what I love to eat. In my last garden I was more about optimizing what I ate from the garden (though still snuck in a good row of dried beans). This yard is big enough to be a little more free with what I plant.
Deb, I love berries and fruit. I can't wait for them to produce, but of course it takes time for them all.
Katrina, that is Vermont cheddar. I just love cheese.
Lynda, It is very hard to add up all those expenses. They seem so large when you are spending it all. And yay for cabbage. In the past I haven't grown much of it since it takes up so much space, but I hope for more this year.
Fruit! What fun! And we can't stand the thought of cutting down any of our oaks either. So, with you on that one. I'm willing to gamble on fruit I can pick up locally for not too much $$. This week it was a thornless blackberry that is out in the back beyond.
ReplyDeleteOh, and down south in these parts, we fertilize fruit trees with palm fertilizer and blueberries with azalea fertilizer. Saves some money.
Can't wait to see your babies!
Mary, That is true. I really hate not having my fresh veggies over the winter, but it does give me down time to plan things out. Especially this year with a new garden.
ReplyDeleteNoa, you mean YOU don't make something from rhubarb. How about rhubarb tarts?
Karen Anne, as I told Katrina, it is Vermont cheddar. Yum. Yeah a Boston gardener meetup would be fun. Maybe someday I'll organize one - or someone else will. Too much on my plate this year I think though.
kitsapFG, well right now I get sun. I will see what happens in 10 years if I get others trees shading my yard. Luckily(?) the southwest neighbor has paved over his yard. He won't be planting anything to shade the garden for sure. I'm still working on the south east neighbors. I'm just hoping on that side.
Megan, I've done that a lot over the summer. I eat a lot of refrigerated pickles.
Barbie, Me too. I can't wait for figs.
Annie's Granny, blueberries grow wild out here. The soil is so acidic (usually not my brought in stuff) that they just grow so easily.
A Kitchen Garden in Kihei Maui, I will be having a busy year. But I think I'll get used to it soon enough.
debiclegg, well I haven't been posting all that much this winter. Not too much going on in the garden front except ordering plants for the spring. I'll plant them all in the yard. We only have one tree in the whole yard. The north west corner has a maple tree. But the rest is empty. So the trees will be the trees on the lot. I have a lot of learning to do this year since I've never grown fruit trees before.
ReplyDeleteJulie, I had a chance once to move close to San Fransisco. I had a big issue with losing my season. I guess I just couldn't give them up. With the winter this year I might be regretting that decision.
Mac, thanks
Robin, that is too bad. But I can always find them here.
tempusflits, I thought about a pear, but I only like pears canned. I figured I ought to plant things that I like both way.
Holly, I am too.
terry, In some ways it was easier to be presented with a house that had nothing for landscaping. That way nothing had to be pulled out and I could do it the way I wanted. I wasn't willing to gamble on the fruit trees they had locally. I picked two apples that I liked. One early one mid-late season but both bloom at the same time. I did the blueberries mailorder because many are half height crosses which will look nice in the landscape for their size. They are really had to find. Even mail order. I ordered the raspberries and strawberries mailorder because Pinetree is so dang cheap. Much less expensive than any other way. I think the main thing is that I like to KNOW that I'll have my plants there.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see your yard/garden after you get all that planted! Isn't gardening invigorating?
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