Mystery peach tree

Peach tree

No, that isn't the varietal name. It's another tree that I dug up from my old yard and brought with me. I know its a dwarf, self-fertile, and peach leaf curl resistant. I've had a few peaches so far and they are good.

I'm concerned about the way that it is growing though. It is forming a Y shape rather than having a central leader. It's quite top heavy and we needed to add a t-post to hold it up. It almost looks like I could prune off the branch on the right, creating more of a central leader. Or should I just prune a bunch of the branches from both?

See what else is growing in my garden. 



Shop my Amazon Store ____ For sale: chicken hatching eggs

Early Burlat cherry tree

Early Burlat cherry tree. Planted spring 2010

I picked out this variety as it says it ripens earliest in the season and I wanted to have a companion for my Lapins tree which is self-fertile but noted to perform better with a pollinizer.

See what else is growing in my garden.


Shop my Amazon Store ____ For sale: chicken hatching eggs

Highbush cranberry

Highbush cranberry planted spring 2010

I haven't gotten any fruit from this plant yet. I was hoping for my own cranberries for cranberry sauce and dried cranberries. Does anyone know if this differs from the fruit that one would find at the grocery store? If so how?

See what else is growing in my garden.



Shop my Amazon Store ____ For sale: chicken hatching eggs

Western Hazelnut

Western Hazelnut bush

This is another one that I dug up and brought with me from the old house. It is two years old and has yet to produce.

See what else is growing in my garden.



Shop my Amazon Store ____ For sale: chicken hatching eggs

Hanna's choice blueberry bush

Hanna's choice blueberry bush

Unfortunately this is the only bush that still has its tag. I have five or six other blueberry bushes, but they aren't labeled so I don't know. So that means I can't analyze which flavors I like or how each variety is performing or when each variety is supposed to mature. I know that I have Brigitta, North Sky, and Sunshine, but don't remember the rest. Many of these are evergreen shrubs that I planted when we lived in the city and I was trying to screen out my neighbors, then moved, dug them up and took them with me.

Anybody have any blueberry variety recommendations? I would really like to make sure I am growing a bush with heavy yields and large, sweet, fresh eating berries.

See what else is growing in my garden



Shop my Amazon Store -----Purchase chicken hatching eggs

Chicken hatching eggs for sale

Currently I have Australorp hatching eggs for sale. The Delawares are taking a break and I will update the site as soon as they begin laying again. Be sure to check out my hatching egg feedback page.

12 eggs $20.00 24 eggs $35.00

Priority shipping to lower 48 included!

Shop my Amazon Store 

Seascape and Tri-star strawberry plants

Seascape strawberry

Tri-Star strawberry

Other than the alpine strawberry, these are the two varieties that I have in my garden. They are both everbearing strawberries and have produced in their first year. The tri-star strawberry is located in only 1/2 day of sun and I still got a decent amount of fruit! 

Also see: variety recommendations page

See what else is growing in my garden

Shop my Amazon Store 

Honeyberry plants

So I've had these honeyberry plants for a couple of years and they look awful. At first I thought it may be something I'm doing that is causing them to look this way. But, my talented gardener Aunt Grace saw these when she was here and said hers look the same.

I was pretty excited about these because they are said to ripen before strawberries, which pretty much means the first opportunity for fresh fruit. And they're supposed to be blueberry like in flavor.

Anybody out there have experience with this?

Blue sky honeyberry Bush 

Honeyberry bush Blue Belle

See what else is growing in my garden

Shop my Amazon Store 

Video of our first piglet

As promised, here is the video of the new little pig. I guess I wasn't gentle enough when I set the paper plate down for him.... I never knew that pigs jump that high! I hope he stops being afraid of us.

See all of my livestock articles.



_____________

Cabbage root maggots

Thank you, Mr. H, you were correct, my cauliflower problem is root maggots.

Seemingly recovered cauliflower. 

I went out just a little while ago, and saw that the cauliflower appears to be recovering, as the wilting went away. The books I consulted said that the effected plants will generally wilt in the hottest part of the days. Had I not known that the cauliflower's roots were probably infected, I would have ignored the problem.

But, I pulled up the plant and inspected the root. There it was, an ugly maggot.

Root maggot. I broke off the root and let the chickens have a go at it. 

I consulted Steve Solomon's Gardening When it Counts Book mentions that root maggots are a huge problem here in Cascadia. He says that we can delay planting in the until late may through July when the flies are least active. I'm assuming that this also means that sowing seeds prior to that time under protection (row covers and tunnel cloches, etc.) will protect the seedlings from flies (but not from maggots already present in the soil.

Some varieties of brassicas are resistant to the root maggot. He did not say which in this book. Perhaps he mentions the varieties in his other book, which I cannot seem to find at the moment.

In addition he mentioned the work of a man named Blair Adams, who found that wood ashes placed around the plants will actually attract maggots to the soil. But, what does work (even better than traditional barrier methods, he says) is a ring of fresh sawdust placed around the plants, and hilling the soil a little around the plants so that the roots are buried a little deeper.

Evidently parasitic nematodes work well, as long as the nematodes are fresh and haven't been sitting around.

Other pest control articles.


Shop my Amazon Store 
__________________________

Meyer Lemon

So this is the 2nd Meyer lemon tree I've purchased. The first one croaked on me pretty quickly. I think this is because I keep reading that they really don't like much water, and so I go a long time before giving it a good drench. Then the leaves start to fall off. Someday I will figure it out. I really want to have my own lemons (and limes).

The smell of the flowering trees is truly lovely.

Oh, and the goats like to eat citrus too. So several of the fruits on this tree were munched off. Looks like I have a whitefly or something too. Darn.

Anybody have any tips or experience out there?

Meyer lemon. Purchased spring 2010. 

See what else is growing in my garden.

__

Oachita Blackberry

Oachita blackberry planted spring 2010. 

I purchased this variety as it is supposed to ripen very early in the season. Hoping to have fresh blackberries as long as possible. I bought this plant from Raintree, but it appears they aren't selling it anymore. The plant doesn't seem terribly happy, unlike the chester and triple crown blackberries that I planted. I'll update the blog next year to let you know what happens.

See what else is growing in my garden.








_____________________________________________

Himrod grapes

Himrod grapevine. Purchased from Raintree and planted spring 2010. 

I purchased this variety because it notes that it is a seedless and early ripening variety. I hope to make lots of raisins and have lots of fresh eating grapes.

See what else is growing in my garden.



____________________________________

Italian Alpine Strawberries

Italian Alpine strawberries. Grown from seed purchased from Territorial. 

As lovely as these little plants are, the flavor is very bland and they are mealy. I may even rip them out and try another variety. I was hoping for a variety that I could use in many areas that receive half shade.

View all of my recommendations here.



__________________________________

Pawpaw trees

These are the pawpaw trees that I planted in the spring. I have totally neglected them but thought that they would have performed better. Now I know from my tour at One Green World that they need a hefty dose of nitrogen. 

Mango pawpaw tree

Pennsylvania golden pawpaw tree

This is part of the series: What's growing in my garden

_______________

ZVP35X8H3QFY

My australorp flock

9 happy hens with their protective yet docile rooster. 

My australorp flock that I purchased back in march is laying fertile eggs and I am ready to start selling them.

The australorp is the australian's version of an orpington. They are black with green, similar to the color of a beetle. Their egg-laying is one of the highest rated (5/week on average) and they are large meaty birds so they are a dual purpose breed.

The australorp is rated as a "recovering" species on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy's list (meaning it was nearly extinct!). http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/poultry/chickens/australorp/index.htm

Here are some more external links:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/australorp/14027
http://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/Australorp-B14.aspx


Hatching eggs for sale 


__________________________________

Trapping slugs with boards, tiles, rocks: here's what I've learned

If you haven't been following this experiment, let me write up a quick summary for you:

Trapping slugs is only minimally effective and is only that effective if you remember to go out every single day and check under every single trap. And you will only gather significant amounts of slugs if you place out very high numbers of traps.

Since slugs like to hide under boards, rocks, leaves, mulches, etc., I decided to try to see how effective it would be to trap them. I gathered every flat board, tile, and rock I could find and placed them under my slug infested bean plants, an area of roughly 50 square feet. I ended up with around 25 traps that covered at least a third of the infected area.

I had high hopes for this experiment. I thought that if I bombarded the area with traps, rather than place them randomly throughout the garden, I would have gained control rather quickly. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

I kept the traps out for nearly two weeks, and I have collected and destroyed just as many slugs on the last day as I did on the first day. Initially I wanted to figure out just how long it would have taken me to gain control over the slug population in that area of the garden, but I am feeling now that the time I spend on flipping over ever single trap and destroying what is underneath is... well, not exactly a waste of time, as it obviously is mildly effective (IF you remember to go out everyday and destroy them) but I think my time would be better spent on another method of control.

While I was trying to gain control over the area, I was not oblivious to the fact that slugs were proliferating in every other area of my garden. I don't have time to trap every single slug and need to come up with a better approach.

Yesterday I had an aha moment when I was outside weeding. Weeding is one of the most effect methods of reducing slug populations since they won't have many shaded ground covers to hide under. I've got blackberries and all other manners of weeds trying to crowd out all of my vegetables. But I can't get anywhere fast with my little 3-4" hoe. I need a bigger hoe. The little hoe is still very useful for getting inbetween plants, but is going to take too darn long to hoe all my gardens with it. Also I am going to need to increase spacing of the plants, which will allow me to hoe easier.

Clearly I will need to do something about the current slug population. I will be experimenting with baits soon... how to use them most effectively. Stay tuned!



_______________________________________

Columnar Apple Trees

I have one of each of these columnar apple trees: Scarlet Sentinel, Golden Sentinel, Northpole.

All of these trees I've owned two years. I dug them up from the property my husband and I sold and brought them with me.

Some of them are starting to lean. I suppose I should put out stakes.

I've tasted fruit from both the scarlet and the golden sentinel, and both are good. They are bred to bear fruit early, so I think I may buy one more of each variety.

Golden Sentinel. 

Scarlet Sentinel. 

Northpole. 

This is part of the series: What's growing in my garden.














________________________________________________

Enterprise Apple Tree

Enterprise apple tree. Not sure where I purchased it.... I think it's from Raintree.

This is part of the series: What's growing in my garden.

_________________________________

One Green World nursery tour... part 2

Also see: One Green World nursery tour... part 1

This apple tree is showing signs of drought due to a gopher eating the roots. She showed us the gopher holes. I asked her how she could tell the difference between gophers and moles. She said that moles have the lines they dig up leading to their mole hills but the gopher lines aren't as evident. A gopher hill looks horseshoe-ish versus a little hill. Gophers will actually eat the root rather but the moles just make ugly lines and hills. She said that they've learned how to gas the gophers with sulpher which you can find out about through extension services.

Apple tree showing drought from gophers eating the roots.

Ushaped gopher mound. 

Gopher hole

The pawpaw is another underutilized fruit. It's biggest problem in this climate is slugs (imagine that). They need huge amounts of fertilizer, particularly nitrogen which is best done in the spring. They form a big taproot. They hate weeds... in fact they used some dutch white clover but it was far too agressive and became weedy. The pawpaw fruit will ripen on the counter if you pick it too early. The trees will probably start producing in their 3rd year if the tree was grafted. You can freeze the pulp and make it into a gelato, which I tasted and OMG that was good.

Pawpaw tree... some leaves show slug damage. 

More slug damage on a pawpaw leaf. 

The aronia berry is not for fresh eating. Trust me, I tried it. Yuck. But the berries are very high in anthocyanins, so it would be good for medicinal qualities. Also a very strong dye. It is a North American native.

Bird nesting is very effective for control of birds.

The Russian Olive grows in Eastern Oregon and is considered invasive.

Jujube

Autumn Olive... I think this is the right photo. At any rate, she said that the tree fixes its own nitrogen, has tasty berries that are high in licopene. Tasted like whisky to me. Must've been fermenting.

Seaberry--I found these to be very sour. There is a German variety which is very acidic and a Russian variety that is a little oily. It makes great juice with sugar. She said that she had juiced some russian berries and left it for awhile and a large amount of cream seperated out. That may be an interesting culinary experiment for someone... seaberry sorbet/ice cream?

I can't seem to find the right photo for the seaberry.

The Medlar is a funny looking fruit. When ripe, you open it up and it is like eating a little cup of applesauce. They ripen like a pear, from the inside out.

The Medlar

Callaway Crabapple Check out this beauty. Well, the photo doesn't do it justice. Anyway, she said it hasn't caught on at all and they will probably phase it out. Too bad cause it really is pretty. The fruit is actually decent eating and the tree was loaded with bright red cherry looking fruit. I want.

Callaway crabapple

So pretty! The fruits were even brighter in person.

Some miscellaneous tasting notes:


The Kew crapapple wasn't terribly interesting. It tasted a bit like a red delicious apple with a bit more flavor.

I don't even know what the azarole is but I wrote "blah" in my notes.

Didn't care for this mountain ash fruit. Maybe heavily sugared it would've been better. 

These are the two grape varieties I tasted that I would consider putting in the garden. 

The hardy kiwi tasted like a mellower commercial kiwi without the fuzz. Good.

This is what stole the show. The pawpaw gelato was crazy good. I wonder if they added much heavy cream?




Curious to see what I've got growing in my garden? 




_________