Harvest

 A good crop from the wee trees.

 

 

 

Apple Red

 Ready for harvest

 

 

Tiny Apple Trees

Fuji Apples

 

 

 

Gala Apples

 

 

Green Waste

The mornings are so nice and cool it seemed like a shame to be stuck indoors doing chores. I decided I would clean up the area where the The Man has been splitting logs.

But first I needed to get the Green Waste bin from the main road. The Man is so organized with his tools and equipment it was easy to find what I needed.

 

 I don't know how to drive the tractor but the Subaru worked just fine to get the empty bin.

We have a mountain of oak stumps after all the tree-trimming.

Only the good pieces of wood - straight, clean, ~ 12 inches - need to be kept. I stacked those and discarded the other stuff: rotten wood, small or irregular pieces, bark.

 

 

The Man will use the tractor to haul the full Green Waste bin down to the main road. He doesn't like me to help when he's throwing the split wood onto the pile but I can do the clean-up when he's not around.

It's very satisfying work.

Lovely Flower

The Agapanthus in the front garden is a riot of stalks, flowers, and buds; bees and hummingbirds.

Gala

Gala Apple Blossoms

 

 

Wishful Gardening

All these years and I'm still not much of a gardener but I have had a few successes, which is to say that I haven't killed all the plants. Well, okay, so it might be a stretch to say they're all thriving but hanging-in-there counts too.

Occasionally my indoor garden includes Mung bean sprouts growing on the kitchen counter. They only require a water rinse twice a day and seed to sprouts takes less than a week. (Tip: Soak the beans in water overnight before putting them in the sprouting trays.)

I've had luck with Yellow Pear tomatoes. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a bountiful crop but if I have enough to add to our summer salads that's plenty good. In the fall I save a few handfuls of these little heirloom tomatoes and replant them the following spring.

Perhaps it's our environment - large shady oaks with far-reaching thirsty roots - that stunts the growth of our plantings. We planted two bare root apple trees in the front yard and five years later they still look like the sticks we stuck in the ground - with just a few more branches.

So imagine our surprise when this spring the Gala apple tree (stick on the right) flowered heavily and now all the flowers are turning into wee apples. Yes, lots of wee apples. And then you can imagine how I felt to find a hairy creepy caterpillar taking bites out of my apples.

So far I have only found a single caterpillar on the apple tree but I've been seeing his friends on the rhubarb. The hairy critters get squished when I find them but in the meantime my baby apples needed extra protection.

I covered them with Organza bags.

I'm not sure if the bags will protect the wee apples - I hope they do - but the Organza bags and their ribbon ties sure make a lovely sight on a breezy day like today.

I think the birds volunteered seeds to one of the big planters because a mystery plant has taken root. The pot had been empty (the geranium died) so I'm leaving the mystery plant alone for now. Since it's green, it counts.

Pinching Out Suckers

Right now it's 57° outside and the windows and doors are open, a slight breeze stirs the cool air inside the house. The early morning cool down helps to keep our well-insulated home comfortable through the heat of the day and we rarely need to turn the AC on. Another hot day is expected, 100° and upwards.

My animal chores are done: everyone has been fed, the goats and chickens are out and about, all the water buckets have been refilled.

In just a bit I'll go back outside to water my small garden. The volunteer heirloom cherry tomatoes are thriving. Last year I planted Yellow Pear and Chocolate Cherry tomatoes so I'm not sure what's coming up. I didn't intend to grow reseeded plants from last year's crop but I dithered too long and there they were. They took well to being transplanted to their own pots and I already see a couple of teeny tiny tomatoes.

As I pass by an open window I notice the air smells clean. Last evening the air was thick with smoke from a 1500+ acre grass fire north of us. It was the third fire in two days situated at the training area at Camp Roberts. The first fire occurred just past midnight, I caught the whiff of it at 2 am. Luckily the first two fires were put out quickly. Hopefully they'll be able to put out the "Yankee Fire" as easily as pinching out tomato suckers.

Hello first day of summer, 2018.

Good Luck Gardening

"Life, uh, finds a way." Dr. Ian Malcolm  (Jurassic Park)

When we lived in Hawaii we grew an avocado tree from a pit. You know: poke the seed with toothpicks, stick it in a cup of water, get it to root, and plant it in the ground. The tree grew to about 6 feet tall. It took about five years for our home-grown tree to fruit tiny little avocados. Then we tried to help the plant along by adding mulch. We were remodeling our house so we added fresh sweet sawdust.

First, the little fruit stopped growing, shriveled, and dropped to the ground. Then the branches withered and turned black. We watered more. The avocado tree stood there in the middle of the yard for months while we patiently watered and waited for it to produce more fruit. Then one day the two dogs ran into the tree, knocked it over, and carried it away. It was a stick, a dead stick.

I'm not sure when it dawned on us that we had killed the tree. Possibly, only when the dogs were happily chewing it into splinters. Unfortunately, the sprinkled sawdust was from HI-bor wood, pressure-treated borate lumber used for resistance against termites and fungal decay in Hawaii, good for a home remodel, not so good for an avocado tree. Poison.

Surprise: The lovely purple lisianthus survived our two weeks of winter cold and buds are already appearing on the little cared for plant.

Last Summer 7/13/14

Surprise: We have a daffodil in bloom. It's a first appearance for the happy yellow flower.

This week we welcomed two bare root apple trees to our home. The still dormant sticks will produce Fuji and Gala apples in three years. If they're lucky.

Our plants certainly seem to do better if we don't help them along. Our best policy for gardening may be to keep ourselves at a fair distance and let the plants thrive on their own.

Spring Hopes Eternal

Every spring The Man and I visit our local garden center to pick out the pretty plants that are doomed to die. We mention to the person helping us that we should purchase our plants then upend them in the parking lot because they won't survive our loving care. They laugh and so do we but actually we're not kidding. The Man and I don't have a knack for gardening.

Last year, with the patient help of Debbie, the Garden Lady, we selected alyssum, lobelia, and lisianthus. Heat and shade-tolerant plants. Supposedly easy-peasy plants. At the end of the season, just before the first frost took them they looked like we had just planted them. They didn't flower or flourish. They just sat there in the dirt. Waiting.

Last week, Liz, this year's Garden Lady, asked us if we thought it was the soil, overwatering, or under watering. I said, "All of the above." She glanced at my geraniums with pity and moved away to help another customer.

I'm happy to report the geraniums are looking pretty good in their new flower pots. We were encouraged and visited Home Depot this week for more easy peasy plants: marigolds and zinnias.

The next day we discovered the zinnias not looking too well. It was embarrassing to note that we killed them in less than 24 hours. A record if we don't count the time we broke a basil plant in half on the car ride home.

We decided to plant them anyway even though Home Depot has a dead plant return policy. The zinnias did perk up when we planted them in the sun. They don't look as good as when we brought them home but we're still hopeful.