Bearing Fruit Trees

Can you find all eight fruit trees in this photo?

We have eleven fruit tress on our shared property. But only two of them are really bearing right now. I do have another that is trying, but not enough to protect it from the squirrels and groundhogs, so the fruit probably won't last long. In the above photo you can see the two peach trees. The one on the left is only two years old. But the one on the right is five. It has given us fruit for two years and has a lot of baby fruit on the tree.

Crowded peaches

About this time I thin out the peaches. Usually I do it a bit earlier, but I've been busy. So some of the little peaches have dropped off the tree. I try to get all the little fruit up and into the compost. And any fruit that drops later. I've found it helps to keep the brown rot down. The first year I had lots of trouble with it, but if I keep it all clean I'll only lose a few peaches. Nothing worth worrying about. I don't spray the tree, so cleanliness is everything.

I thin to about 8" along a branch. But I'm not very even about it. Some times the peaches are right next to one another. Some times far apart. I like to pick the biggest and most flawless peaches to keep. Last year I had to thin out hundreds and hundreds of peaches. This year the chore was easier. The winter was harder and there were a lot of gaps on the branches. I'd be shocked if I didn't take off a couple hundred though. This Redhaven peach loves to produce fruit. I however like fruit that is bigger than a golf ball, so I thin.

My apple tree is not nearly so lovely. And it doesn't produce quite as much. But it did set a lot of apples this year. I thinned it out earlier on. The squirrels however were really enjoying my apples. Last year they waited until the apples were much larger. I thought I wouldn't have to net until July. The peach tree I can net myself since it is shorter than I am. The apple tree however is about 8' tall. I got my husband and two of my townhouse mates out to help. We put up step ladders on either side. So two people were up on top trying to lift it over while two people were down at the bottom unsnagging it and pulling it down. It was quite a production. Netting gets stuck on everything. And note to self - don't wear buttons again while netting the trees.

Energy bars, sandwich buns, and breakfast muffins

And having nothing at all to do with my fruit trees, I decided I'd better get the baking done as the weather was really warming up. Instead of my strategy of baking here and there as I need it, I looked at what I needed for the next several days and baked it all at once so I wouldn't have to heat the house up so much. I did it early in the morning too as it was still cool.

Compost Time

I finally got my butt in gear yesterday and started to turn the compost pile. Well it isn't just one compost pile. First I had to play musical chairs with the other bins and sift out the finished compost along the way. Typically bin 1 (pallet bins numbered from the left to the right) has the most recent garden waste in it. Bin 2 has older garden waste that was turned over from bin 2. Bins 3 and 4 are leaf holding bins. Some Years I can wait until I need compost to turn over the piles but bin 1 was bursting at the seams and needed to be turned.

Since Bin 3 still had some leaves in it I moved them to bin 4 sifting out any finished leaf mold as I went. Since Bin 2 was a mix of finished compost and things that hadn't decomposed, I sifted through it. All finished compost went into Bin 3. All decomposed items went into the overflowing bin 1. I did part of that yesterday and part today. But finally bin 2 was empty.

Once it was empty I noticed that a lot of compost had fallen in back of the bin over the years. I have my cedar fence back there and I don't want that to decompose on me, so I took out the pallet and scooped up all the excess. I'll do that with the other bins when I get them empty next time. Though the fence looked fine as it wasn't really buried, the bottom board of the pallet had decomposed. I flipped the pallet over and around so the undecomposing boards will be in toward the compost. These have been here for about 3 1/2 years. And considering they are cheap wood, they have held up pretty well. If I can get seven years out of the pallets I'll be really happy. I can get free pallet easily enough just by asking around, but dragging them back and taking apart the piles to replace them is a PITA. I'd rather they last a long long time.

Once bin 2 was empty I started turning bin 1 over into bin 2. The top part is all new additions that are getting turned. As I turn them I'm adding a bit of eggshell that I've collected from the kitchen (the bag on top of the compost). And that is where I left it. I'll have to finish turning. And once I get down far enough I'm sure I'll find more compost to sift through. Hopefully it will be done before the weekend.

In totally non-compost non-garden related news, the Macintosh apples were in at the farmers market. I picked up a few to make my husband some applesauce. I'm going to be canning every week I can get my hands on more apples. He doesn't eat a lot of fruit and applesauce is one that he loves. I make it very healthy when I make it for him. No sugar and I use a stick blender to blend the peel into the sauce. I think if I make 75 jars he might be happy for the year. I'm not sure I'll have time for that many, but I'll try. I would also love some applebutter for me.

In Hope of Peaches

Gratuitous Flower Photo

Summer has hit and summer means peaches. Right now I've been buying them at the store. The New Jersey peaches have been really good. I suspect the farmers market will have them this week too and I'll start buying them there. But of course I want my own peaches. I lost one of my two peach trees last winter. I haven't a clue what killed it. I replaced it with an Elberta Queen. It will be years before I see peaches from that one.

But my other peach tree is just loaded down with peaches. And I thinned about 3/4 of them off of the tree. I've noticed that the squirrels were thinning more of them out. Many a day. So I had to protect it. On Friday I put the netting over. I had a choice of 14'x14' or 28'x28'. The 14' one is too small, but the 28' one is way too big. So there is a lot of extra fabric around the base of the tree.

As soon as I left the area I noticed a squirrel immediately come back for another peach. He first touched the bird netting. Then he decided he could jump over it. So he leapt for the trunk and didn't make it because the netting is in front of it. He fell into a pile of netting. He extracted himself. Then he looked at the peaches again. And did another leap. Once again he got caught in the netting. At this point I was scared he was going to get caught in there and not be able to get out. But again he extracted himself.

I thought for sure after the last struggle to get free, he would give up. But this time he leapt and got really caught in the fabric. After five minutes he was still in there. Now I'm not a fan of squirrels by any means. To me they are rats with fluffy tails, but the last thing I want is for the squirrel to die a slow death in my netting. So I went out and had to help him out. He was not pleased by this. Nor was I for that matter. But at least it scared the heck out of him and he left the area for good. I haven't seen any squirrels going for the peaches anymore. I hope it stays that way.

Last year this was the day that I picked my first peach. I won't be doing that this year. They need a little longer. Also I've noticed that the peaches are much, much smaller this year than last year. I wish I knew why. I'm a real neophyte with fruit trees. It can't be water. We have had about 5" of rain in the last month. That ought to be enough. Surely peaches don't mind the heat we have been getting as Georgia comes to mind when you think of peaches and they are certainly hotter than me. Maybe I just need to thin them better. I did leave them a bit closer this year than last.

I also got around to protecting the apples on the trees in the back yard. There are two apples on one tree and seven on the other. So not many. I didn't think they were worth netting the whole tree. So I'm trying to net the individual apples. I'm thinking it probably won't work, but it doesn't hurt to try.

Figs

Paradisio Before

It is going to be hot again today. Yesterday reached 91F. It might today too. So there hasn't been a lot of gardening going on. Mostly hiding in the house in the afternoon. But this morning I finally got around to the fig trees.

Paradisio After

The Paradisio fig didn't die back too far this year except at the ends. Though it is a slower grower than my other one so it hadn't made it to the ends of the trellis yet. I keep the main trunk horizontal about a foot off the ground and have the branches going vertical. The branches get cut back before insulating them for the winter.

Brown Turkey Before

Most of the trunk of the Brown Turkey had died back. In addition some animal - probably a mouse - had chewed the bark off of a lot of the trunk. So it got cut way back. I might have to use something besides leaves to insulate them.

Brown Turkey After

I should have done this weeks ago, but just hadn't gotten around to it. The garden proper tends to be better looked after and I tend to ignore the front yard more. I need to keep after it though.

While I was out tending trees. I dealt with tying up my pear and apple espaliers too. They never seem to want to branch were I want them to. So I cut all of the tops off of them to try to get them to branch more. I would really love it if I could get the structure of the trees done this year but I'm guessing I'll need one more before it is all done.

Fruit

There has been a lot of activity on the fruit front in my yard. Below is my Honey Crisp apple tree. I've decided to let it fruit for the first time this year. It isn't huge, but I'm not sure it will ever get huge. Well you know, huge for a dwarf tree which is never large. My other dwarf apple tree is twice as tall. Sadly that one, a Ginger Gold, seems to be a biennial bearer. Last year it put on a lot of flowers, but the flowers were few this year. I'll only get a small handful from that tree.

I don't spray my trees, but there are numerous pests around here, so I cover each little apple with a nylon footie tied on with a twist tie. It works pretty well to keep the insects out. Sadly the Ginger Gold had some leaf rollers earlier and they did damage the fruit. Though there won't be any insects inside the apple, the apples are deformed. Oh well. If it happens this badly again I'll have to start spraying Bt at the appropriate time. But hopefully not.

My New Redhaven peach put on an enormous amount of peaches again this year. I'm really liking this tree. But it does mean a lot of work to thin them out. I like to have around 6" between peaches, but the reality is about 4"-8". Sometimes even closer or farther. Though on the bottom branches that don't see as much sun I thin them even farther apart. I always keep the peaches that are the biggest and thin out the smaller ones.

I tossed the baby peaches on the compost pile, hundreds of them. There were a lot of peaches to take off. It took me a while to get it done. As you can see I cut down my chive plants too. I wanted to get rid of the flowers before they set seed and the wind we had recently did a real job on the plant and it was more in the oregano and savory sections than in its own.

But getting back to the peaches, I do have sad news. The Reliance peach seems to have died. It has always been late every year. Very late some years. But the buds seem to be drying out. I'm not sure what killed the tree. It had no trouble last year. It is a RELIANCE peach, which is known for its hardiness and resistance to things. I figured maybe the mice ate the bark off under the mulch, but nope. No signs of damage there at all. The roots are still alive as it keeps trying to put up suckers, but no green anywhere on the trunk above the graft. So what killed it? I'm clueless.

Then I finally planted my melons this year. I wanted to do this later than last year. I'm scheduled to go to London when the melons usually become ripe. Now I could just let my townhouse mates pick them and eat them, but I love my melons. They are such a treat. So I'm trying to time it right.

The Rock Wall Garden

My rock wall garden is a long thin garden. Just 2.5' wide and maybe 70' long. Mostly it contains espaliered trees along the fence with a row of strawberries in the front. Today I weeded it and then mulched it with salt marsh hay. I don't use mulch in my main vegetable garden as it attracts too many slugs and snails, but I neglect this part of the yard more, so it needs to be mulched to keep the weeds down and the moisture in. And I hope I don't lose too many strawberries to the slugs.

Three of the trees were put in last year. And the above apple tree didn't put out any branches that I could tie to the wire on the left side. So last winter I chopped the top off of the tree a few inches above where I needed the branch and prayed it would put out one in the right spot. It was annoying to have to cut off so much growth, including two nicely placed branches higher up, but I didn't want to be missing a branch in perpetuity. At least now the missing branch is growing if small. And I have two choices for the main stem to go up. I'll have to choose one soon.

The other two trees are growing well. They both have four branches. Maybe this year they will reach the top of the trellis. It would be nice to have the foliage to cover the fence. I keep thinking I should have made one wire even lower to the ground, but too late now.

It looks like at least one branch on my fig trees made it through winter. I haven't seen any growth on the other fig yet. I've got my fingers crossed for them. And the plum tree that has had so many troubles over the year is looking good this year. But then it usual does in the spring. I'll have to watch it before the aphids take over and keep spraying the fish emulsion and insecticidal soap. I just hate spraying, but the dang tree (a Green Gage Plum) attracts so many aphids. At some point I may just rip the plant out and plant something else that doesn't have the troubles it has.

The strawberries in front seem to be doing OK this year. Last year they barely lived through the summer Some disease got into the bed and spread. Right now I'm not seeing any signs of it though. It has been dry recently. Starting tomorrow though we are in for a week of rain and unsettled weather. Hopefully it won't hurt the strawberries.

I did a few more chores before coming in this morning. I weeded a bit around the yard. Raked up some pine needles to mulch two of the blueberries. And planted six creeping phlox where the now defunct cranberries used to be. It turns out that section of the yard is in the house's rain shadow. So they just weren't getting enough water. We decided to just put in some low growing easy to care for plants. We wanted something higher for the area, but the vent for the water heaters comes out here and we can't block the vent.

First Chores in the Garden

Yesterday was supposed to be a beautiful sunny day just shy of 60F. So of course it was cloudy most of the day. I know we had onshore winds predicted, so I'm guessing our clouds were courtesy of the ocean moisture. Inland it was probably sunny. I don't live too close to the ocean. Maybe seven miles (11 km) as the crow flies. Closer if you count Boston's inner harbor. But that is close enough for the ocean to change our weather. Usually it means we are cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Since it was cloudy, I didn't feel like going out to garden. I was really hoping for sun. So I decided to start making more soil blocks. I could get some more plants seeded. I poured some hot water into the dry soil mix to wet it down and as I was doing that the sun burst out. The blocks could wait. I had sunshine outside.

Though the ground was still frozen it won't be much longer. And there were plenty of chores to do that didn't require turning over the soil. The main chore was cleaning up the paths. Sweet alyssum lines the paths in the summer. They grow pretty thickly into the paths. I wanted to clear them out and get them composted.

Ripping them out was easy. But I never did get the dirt and cruft totally cleaned up. My broom is in very sad shape. It is an old straw broom and most of it has worn or rotted away over time. There isn't much left to it. I really need to get a new one. It was a lot of work to do the little cleaning I did, and it isn't all that clean. A good rainstorm will clean up a lot of it though.

The next chore was to clean up that sad looking kale that I showed you yesterday. I got all the old dying leaves off. The patch still looks pretty sad, but it looks a lot better than it did.

While I was out sweeping, I noticed my apple tree. I had a couple of crossed branches that I trimmed off. But the photo above showes my major issue. On the right side I had three branches, all one right on top of the other, each only 9" from the one below it. This is way too close for my main branches. I really wanted the lower and upper ones. The middle one was the most vigorous one. I wish I could have kept it, but I figured I ought to pick the best branch location. And I really needed that upper branch. There isn't a branch above it. It is the highest one on that side of the tree right now.

I really appreciated the late afternoon sun, but I think my plants loved it more. I've been hardening off the onions and my early greens (lettuce, mizuna, and tatsoi). As soon as I can work the soil, I'll be planting these. Well unless we get some really nasty weather predictions. But the long term forecasts say that the weather will stay nice.

Pruning

I have six trees that are espaliered along my fence. Five of them didn't really need any pruning. I tend to keep these pruned as they grow so they don't get out of control. But the above Liberty apple tree was not cooperating. As you can see the bottom left branch never grew. So sad. So I had to chop it off a bit above where I want the branch to come out. Sadly there is no good bud down there facing the right direction, but I can make due. I'll turn one that is going a bit out or in to go sideways like I want.

It's neighbors the MacFree apple above and the Honeysweet pear grew in just like they should. The above right branch isn't very strong right now, but I'm sure it will get bigger. I've never done espaliers before I moved here, or any fruit tree for that matter. But I'm slowly learning.

I also went out and did a bit of pruning on my peach trees. Like the espaliers I tend to prune as they grow so they go in the right spot. Well as much of the right spots as I understand. The peach trees had a few crossed branches, so they got snipped off. I ought to check my dwarf apple trees in the back. But honestly I don't think there is much to do there either. One of them really doesn't like to grow at all. It hasn't grown more than a foot or so since I planted it four years ago. I might have to replace it at some point, but my townhouse mates don't want to give up on it. They love Honeycrisp apples as do I. But if it never fruits is it really worth it? I suppose I ought to have more patience. It just might take 10 years.

Applesauce

Every year I can applesauce. My family loves homemade applesauce. It is so much better than the store kind. Last year I made 21 pints. We used all but one of them up last year. I think last year's applesauce is just a bit better than this year's. This year I peeled the apples with my apple peeler. Technically my gadget should be able to slice, core, and peel the apples, but mine isn't working right anymore. It peels fine though. The problem is that the peels add flavor to the sauce. I'm guessing that is why it isn't quite as good. This batch made 9 pints. I need at least that much more. So my next batch will be made with the peels and put through the strainer to remove them once the apples are cooked down.

Another problem I had this year was the canning. The applesauce expanded too much and started coming out the tops as it processed. Technically they sealed, but I didn't trust that the seals would hold. So I reprocessed them with more head space. I think I put too much head space in some of them at the end. I'll eat those first. I often seem to have trouble with just the 1/2" that they say to use for apples. I don't know why. I don't have large bubbles in the bottom or anything. Oh well. My first batch is done. I'll buy some more apples at the farmers market next week to make my second batch. I'm hoping in a few years I'll get enough apples to make applesauce with my own apples. I can hope at least.

Onions, Apples, and the Fall Garden

Yesterday I brought some of the Ailsa Craig onions in to the basement to dry. The red onions that were down there were braided and hung up. I now have all my storage onions braided up. I have five braids of Copra and three braids of Redwing.

I finally got around to fixing up the apple tree. I started with about 50 apples on the tree after I thinned it out (you can't see the whole tree here, this is the bottom part). But there are just 17 left (I think) after the squirrels. The first chore with the apple tree was to straighten it up as a wind storm - along with too many apples - knocked it against the fence. The second was to get the netting on to the bottom part of the tree. The top part that was against the fence was totally stripped of apples already. Sigh. At least the defenses on the peach tree seem to be working. I put netting all around it and the bottom is tacked down about every foot with u-pins. Hopefully the same strategy will work with the apple tree. Next year I'll have to get the tree protection on much earlier so I lose less fruit.

It is almost time to plant the fall garden. The seedlings are two weeks old and are getting hardened off. I think I might plant tomorrow morning since it will be cloudy and rainy the next two days. I've got two of the three beds prepped and two of the three row covers on too. The one in the photo is actually netting that you would buy in a fabric store. All it has to do is keep out the cabbage butterflies. I found it for $0.98/yard so hopefully it will work out. I haven't a clue how long it will last in the UV, but I'm hoping. I really do hate Agribon. If it lasts decently, I'll buy some more. I could use some wider material for my beds if I want them raised up more, but at 70" it works for the low hoops. Though right now I have the hoops only over part of the bed as I don't need both sides yet. I want to keep seeding every couple of weeks in this bed. Hopefully I'll do it. I have a tendency to not keep up with succession sowings.

Damn Squirrels

This is my dwarf fruit trees' third year, so two of the five of them have begun to fruit. I've put bird netting around my peach tree. The damn squirrel eats about one or two a day. My apple tree isn't faring any better. I used to have 50-60 fruit on the peach tree, but between the brown rot and the squirrels there is less than half left. The netting doesn't seem to help much. So far the squirrels have found a way in every day. I can tell from the half eaten peaches I find on the ground. But they have started to ripen slowly. I picked six more today.

Though it kills me to give them away as they are so good and not numerous, I split them with my townhouse mates. There are parts of the yard that are mine and I can do what I want with the area and eat everything (the rock wall garden and my fenced in vegetable garden). And there is the rest of the yard, which we both paid for and we all do the work for. I do tend to do more of the work than the others as it is honestly easier to do most of it than tell them what to do. Plus my townhouse mates do things on their schedule not on the plants' schedules. And many of the chores I do have to be done at certain times. Basically I do everything except mow and trim the grass, and some of the weeding. Technically all of the weeding should be done by my townhouse mates, but I do weed here and there. They miss things. They can't tell a weed from a perennial that we planted. We tend to let the Dutch clover grow where it wills. Then the wood sorrel started to take over . To me they don't look anything alike, but they thought it was clover. And they don't get under the plants well enough. I cut down a 4' tall maple growing out of our mountain andromeda. Heck even I missed that one until it was 4' tall and I'm pretty good with finding hidden weeds.

Anyway there are still peaches in there. I tried to buff up the defenses this morning. I hope they work. I really wish I'd have enough peaches to preserve them. Canned peaches for the winter would be so nice. As would peach butter. And peach sauce (like plum sauce but with peaches). Oh the things I could do. For now I'll dream of squirrel stew and try to figure out where he gets in next time.

Yesterday I spent dealing with my gooseberries. I had one plant that needed to come out. It might give out really large berries and be semi thornless, but they are not prolific and they taste insipid (Tixia). My favorite of the two gooseberries that I had left was Hinnomaki Red. This plant has fairly draping branches. And everywhere they touch the ground they root. So I took one rooted cutting and planted that one instead. Since the plant drapes too much, it drags a lot of the fruit into the soil. I wanted to get them up and off the ground.

I've decided to grow the two plants as standards. So I've started their training. I'll get them up to about 2 1/2' off the ground I think before I'll let them branch out. Maybe just two feet.

In the middle of the two standards, will be Invicta which I'll keep as a ground based bush. It seems to be able to hold up its fruit just fine.

Interestingly enough as I viciously pruned the gooseberry plant I found the plant covered in ripe gooseberries. I told my townhouse mates to pick them and eat them when I was gone as they were almost ripe when I left. They didn't. So I have a nice little pile. Many had fallen off already, but I got about two cups of ripe berries.

My cucumbers are starting to come in too. So I made up some more pickle brine for the fridge. I put in dill heads, onions, and garlic from the garden. I also added some spices. As I have extra cucumbers I'll add them to the juice. Refrigerator pickles are the best kind of pickle. They don't ever get heated so they are very very crisp. I don't even soak them in salt like you would for a canned pickle. They just don't need it. You can use any quick pickle brine that you like to make them. I tend to make them as dills, but keep wondering if I ought to branch out more.

I Have Condoms on my Apples

I've never done this before, but the books all say to thin your apples when they are 1/2"-3/4" in size. Most of mine had reached that size. Each spur had set about 3-5 apples and there are a lot of spurs on that tree. Some just a few inches away from another. The tree was just covered in little tiny apples. I picked the largest apple from each bunch and kept that one. Then trimmed off any that were closer than 6" apart. The books say 6"-8" apart. I tried for that.

Then I put on protection for the apple. I swear they look like condoms hanging off my tree though they are really footies. Not the nicest look, but I suppose they would be a conversation piece at a bbq. The little nylon footies expand well and breath. They also keep those nasty insects out. I used a twist tie to keep them on. I'm not going to spray poison on my apples if I can help it. I've also read that ziploc baggies work well if you cut the corners off of them. I don't like the look of them, but I did cover three of the apples with ziplocks. I'll see which makes the better fruit, but it would take a lot of difference for me to resort to the ziplocks on all those apples. Now it is a waiting game. Will I get good insect free apples this year? I've got my fingers crossed.

The apple that got protection is the Ginger Gold. The other apple tree in its third year is the Honeycrisp, but it has barely grown. It really struggles compared to the other. It had set two bunches of apples. I just took them off the tree. The tree really needs to get bigger. It is still only about three feet high. Then I went on to my three year old peach trees. One peach tree had set peaches already. I thinned the fruit, but the fruit is still a bit small to bag. I'll wait a few days. Like the Ginger Gold apple, the tree is covered in peaches. I had to take a lot of little peaches off. The other peach tree is still blooming. It was very late this year. It is right by the driveway and after the 2' snow storm we shoveled all the snow on around it. So the ground defrosted much later even though they are only a few yard apart. That one will need a lot more time before they get bagged.

I did get a couple of other chores done today. I got my Tigers Eye beans planted. I planted a whole 4'x8' bed up with them. I planted in rows 6" apart. But one side had the beans 6" apart in the row, and one had them 4" apart in the row. I want to see if there is a difference in production with them closer together. If not it uses a heck of a lot less seed which otherwise I could be eating.

The last chore was to cut back the French thyme and dehydrate it. I got a cup of dried thyme. Tomorrow I ought to do the English thyme.

Getting Behind in the Garden

Last week I didn't get too much work done in the garden. I did get a few things, but the garden needed (and still needs) attention. Above is my spring spinach that still hasn't been picked. I need to pick about half of it and freeze it. Or at least give it away. What you see is just the end of an 8.5' long bed.

At least I got to the winter spinach on Monday. Don't you just love how large Winter Giant grows? I think next year it will be my only winter spinach as it is so easy to pick and clean up in the spring. And there was a bit more cleaning needed than normal. Usually I would have done this a week ago, but with company I put it off. The leaf miners show up in mid May. I don't cover my overwintered spinach because by the time the miners show up my protected spring spinach is ready. But the final picking for the winter spinach was a week late so I had to scrape off a few eggs on the back of the leaves. Luckily they are very very easy to spot. The bright white on the back of the dark green leaves are so easy to find.

My SIL who was visiting asked if I washed the spinach before I freeze it. Yes I do. It gets well washed before blanching. Then I vacuum seal it. They do keep a lot better if I vacuum seal them. These have to keep for almost a year. I harvest in May, but I eat them mostly from December until April. There is no way they would keep in your normal freezer that long, but my chest freezer downstairs is very cold and doesn't have an automatic defrost. I now have 16 little packets. All I have to do is heat and serve. All the work has already been done. By the end of summer I will have about 40 1/2 cup packets of spinach and chard (about 10 pounds). I use them in the same way so almost consider them the same.

Next up Monday afternoon was putting in the trellis for the espaliered apple and pear trees. I put in four horizontal wires down the 24' length of the fence. I kept debating on how high they should be and how far apart they should be. In the end I think I put them just a touch too high. Now it will be hard to trip the top wire.

This morning I went out to pick some more harvests. But the biggest harvests are still salad greens. Above is a tuna pasta salad made with cooked kale, raw mizuna, and pickle relish from last year. Then there is the nice mixed green salad. Which finally has something not green from the garden. Radishes! The first of them. This year I covered them since the root maggots got in them last year and destroyed most of them. And I couldn't tell if it was good or not until I cut into it. But so far this year they seem to be all good. My love hate relationship with my row covers continues.

This afternoon it was on to using string. Above is my mache going to seed that was shading out the parsley and getting into the peas. I tied it all up with some bamboo sticks and string. Now hopefully it will stay in its spot.

Then it was onto the peas. I put metal stakes in when I plant the peas, but the strings don't go up until they need them. And I was a bit late. They could have used that first string to grab onto. But at least it is done. I also strung up the cilantro that is going to seed. I have two different ages of cilantro in the garden. What overwintered and is going to seed right now. And what germinated this spring. Currently that is what I'm picking and eating. But the ones in bloom fall over easily and shade out the new ones. So they had to be controlled.

The front yard also needed attention. First on the list was pruning and putting the 16' long trellis for the two figs. These are done in a candelabra or vertical cordon shape. I have two main branchs that follows a pipe a foot off the ground. Each branch going in a different direction. I didn't have the wires up from the pipe to the top of the fence. So I added some small eye screws to the fence cross bar and put them up a foot apart.

Yesterday I was at the nursery and bought a few pots of flowers and 6 packs. I planted the flowers in front of the apple and pear trees to be espaliered. I need to get some more as I want to put a few more flowers in front of the peach trees and maybe at the end of the driveway. I wish the nursery that was close enough to walk to had a larger selection of plants. I suppose I'll just have to experiment with what they have.

The rain chased me in. I'm not sure I needed to go inside yet. The rain didn't last. It keeps threatening but nothing is really falling. I'm going to have to water the garden again this coming week. I'm not happy about that. But I really shouldn't complain about such beautiful weather. We have just had so much beautiful weather. And I have been enjoying it.

Fruit Trees

I ordered three more fruit trees to put in my old asparagus bed that died. Thursday the first of the packages showed up. It as from Miller and it was Liberty and Macfree apples. Both are disease resistant apples. I planted them up on Friday. I'm going to espalier them against the fence. I'm hoping it works.

I have three other trees along that fence that I'm doing as espaliers. The first is a plum tree. It has been struggling with aphids every year, but it seems to be doing a bit better this year. I'll have to cut the neighbor's lilac bush back to the fence line though as it is coming over and starting to shade the tree. The other two are figs. Figs aren't really hardy here. They will die back to the soil if you don't insulate them. So last year I dumped leaves on them and as you can see I got some of the branches to survive and those early figs are already starting to form. I'll have to get more serious about insulation next year now that I know it can work. The shape I want to do is a vertial cordon shape for these. I want to cut each vertical branch off every other year. Figs can produce fruit on new and year old branches. And the new branch fruit will probably never really ripen in our climate. But the ones from the year old branches can. So if I cut out every other branch I'll have year old branches every year to get fruit from. It still remains to be seen if it will work or not, but I have high hopes.

The other tree on order, a pear tree, came on Friday, so it got planted up this morning. If you notice the plum was in a fan, the figs were in a vertical cordon shape, but the apples produce best in a horizontal cordon shape. They like when their branches are parallel to the ground. So the apples and pear will be done that way.

I do have other trees in my yard that I put in a couple years ago. I have two more dwarf apples (Ginger Gold and Honey Crisp), and two dwarf peaches (Reliance and New Red Haven). I'm hoping to get fruit from two of those trees and maybe three. The Honey Crisp has hardly grown though so if it does produce then I'll take all the fruit off. But I think since the trees are in their third year now, I can let them produce. I hope. I really want some home grown peaches and apples.

I really know very little about fruit trees. I've certainly read about them, but have no real experience. So everything I do is taken on faith. A lot of how I garden is to try things out and see for myself. But with trees they just take so long so you have to do what others tell you to.

Getting Behind

In posting not in doing the work. Since my last update on Thursday I've done a lot of things. I finished turning the other compost pile over (about a cubic yard). My townhousemates, husband, and I weeded the whole yard and spread 2cuyds of mulch.

The herb circle had its bricks redone so the newly planted sage would have some space. Also in the last year I layered some new plants off of the rosemary. I just pulled some branches down in spring and covered them with soil and a rock to keep it from coming out. This spring those branches had roots on them. I moved them to other spots in the garden. This way if one dies another might live. This year all the ones by the foundation died. Maybe next year it will be somewhere else. Even hardy rosemary is barely hardy here.

I planted up all my zinnias and cosmos. I have two beds they go into. One is my rock wall garden which is where the road enters our property. Technically the rock wall garden is not "our" land. It belongs to the private road which dead ends at our house. Since it is a private road I am required to keep up the land as the abutter of the land. Which means I use it to grow fruit mostly, but I do add in flowers. The other spot is a small spot along my garden fence near the driveway. I mixed the cosmos and zinnia together. Two zinnias for every cosmos planted. You might also notice the basil in that flat. I planted them too. It is a bit early for basil, but it has been so nice recently. Hopefully they will survive. That was the last of my seedlings I had grown. I'm thinking of direct seeding anything else I need. But I may change my mind on that.

I noticed my kale was starting to bloom. I picked all the blooms off for a spring treat. But I also chopped down all the Blue Curly Kale. I left the bottom parts of the stem which will hopefully try to grow out again.

I froze most of it. Yup I just get finished eating my frozen greens from last year and I start packing them in again. Most of my kale that I freeze comes from my kale in the spring and not in the fall. I'd love to have at least 30 packets frozen. Each packet is about 1/4lb of kale or one serving. I do have some more kale out there that I didn't chop down. I'll probably process that variety once the chopped down stubs start to show some green on them. I still want to be able to eat a lot of fresh kale this spring. If I'm lucky I'll get a lot more greens. If I'm not the plants will just try to send out scraggly flowers.

I decided that I would move the asparagus bed. I'm going to kill the plants in the existing bed. There are only 3 out of 22 still growing so it won't be hard. I don't know if it is a virus or water issues or something else. I'm going to put the new asparagus plants that I ordered where I had planted my blueberries. I moved the blueberries to one section of the rock wall garden where the asparagus had been.

I still have a lot of linear feet along the fence as the old asparagus plot was rather long. Caroline, one of my townhouse mates, requested it be a green wall. So I'm going to espallier some fruit trees. There are three 8' sections to fill so I did some research and picked out three trees. The pear is a Honeysweet which is self pollinating which is required as I'm only planting one. There are other pear trees in the neighborhood, but they really aren't that close. Then I picked out two apples. I wanted easy care ones for this section as they will be along the fence and won't get as much airflow as ones I have planted in the yard. I wanted a Macintosh for applesauce so got a Macfree. The other is a Liberty. I tried a Liberty at the farmer's market last year as I was thinking about one. Both are Macintosh type apples. Both are resistant to scab, cedar apple rust, mildew, and fire blight. Hopefully they will do well here.