I ordered 5 bare rooted pear trees from Bob Wells nursery. They showed up today in one big box.
I’m impressed with how large these trees are. They are larger than some of my trees I’ve had in the ground for 2 years.
I planted them in the swales before sundown. It’s forecast to be very warm this week, so I hope they get a good start.
Amber pulled up the onions. Some of there were huge. I think onions are year-to-year the easiest crop we grow. She rigged up some wire fence across a few saw horses and hung the onions on the wire fence to dry for a week or so. He plans on freezing some and storing the rest.
We also harvested broccoli, as the weather is getting too hot. The bugs are eating it up quickly and most of it has already bolted. Good eats though!
The tomatoes are getting really close to being ripe. We picked a few that are starting to turn red because we don’t trust the local wildlife to leave them alone. The bushes are getting really tall, to the point we are going to need to top them to keep them from falling over.
The melons in the backyard are growing well. Sweet corn seems to be doing well too. Okra, not so much. I sprayed it all with a foliar fertilizer (Hasta Grow) and I hope that helps. A big mistake from last year was letting the wild non-edible melon continue to grow. The seed it released is now germinating and I have hundreds of those plants growing, in and among my useful plants. Lesson learned: stay on top of the weeding!
We also harvested a few carrots (meh). The blackberries are starting to get ripe, but they are absolutely covered with moths and wasps. Some of the plums are starting to ripen, but they are all infested with bugs because I didn’t spray insecticide at the right time. And our chickens have been naughty and are hanging out and laying eggs in our raised beds. The local rat snake found the eggs and had a nice meal.
My oldest fruit trees along the west side are finally producing fruit! I wish I would have been on top of spraying them for insects though. I lost 7 young fruit trees from last summer’s heat and transplanted the 4 figs that survived in pots last summer.
A few of the blackberries are already starting to ripen. I’m surprised by the number of blackberry plants that have died off. Only the thornless varieties have died, the native thorned variety I have is multiplying faster than I can keep it trimmed. A wasp was occupying the fruit I was photographing.
The raised beds in the front are all doing great. The squash and cucumbers I planted a few weeks ago are all popping up and I’ve already thinned them out. I added a layer of old tree leaves as mulch. We need to hurry up and harvest the broccoli before it bolts. Onions are almost ready to harvest. The peas are putting out fruit faster than we can keep it picked.
In the back in-ground row-garden, all the mellons, corn, okra, and cover crop is starting to come up. I thinned out the melons today and tried to transplant some of them. We should have enough melons to supply the grocery store if these do well.
We planted 4 tomato plants in the raised bed in front of our house. This bed is usually just out-of-control mint. I’m happy to see the start of delicious tomatoes well on their way! We are having a hard time keeping the chickens out of this bed though. The love to hang out and dig around.
Hover over the icons on this map to see more information about the garden and permaculture elements.
The Pomegranate Tree I planted last fall didn’t bud or leaf out this spring, so I called Stark Bro’s and they shipped me a new one with zero hassle! (This was tree 16 shown here) It was delivered by FedEx today, so I replaced it.
I also picked up one more pepper plant at the CCMGA Plant Sale this morning, along with a few flowers and a thyme plant. After these were planted, I mulched the beds with leaves. I still left areas un-mulched where I have seeds planted.
I picked up some pepper plants and another tomato plant from McKinney Feed and Seed yesterday, and planted them today, along with some lime beans and bush beans. Sometime last week, I planted cucumbers, cantaloupe, and watermelon. I took pictures of my new trees also.
The order I placed in October from Pense Berry Farm arrived yesterday, so I planted it all today. The blackberries are a special
18) Santa Rosa Plum
22) AU Roadside Plum
near 1,2,3) Prime-Ark Freedom Blackberries (quantity 6)
Over the past 2 days, I’ve planted 8 more fruit trees.
13) Asian Pear w/ grafts of: Hosui (12), 20th Century (3), Chojuro (6), Shenseiki (9)
14) Fuyu Japanese Persimmon
15) Sweet Treat Pluerry
16) Wonderful Pomegranate
17) Cherry w/ grafts of: Stella (2), Black Tartarian (4), Bing (7), Rainier (10) *
18) empty space
19) Pennsylvania Golden PawPaw (Grafted)
20) Sunflower Pawpaw (Grafted)
21) Mango Pawpaw (Grafted)
(graft positions given w/ North = 12 o’clock)
* = yes, I realize cherry trees won’t set fruit here because of our lack of cooling hours, but I wanted to try it anyway Continue reading
I brought in about 25 cu-yds of local tree mulch and spread it out in the area where my trees are planted. I have at least 6 inches of depth in most areas. This should help cut down the number weeds that are competing with the fruit trees for water and nutrients, absorb water when it rains, build good soil over time, and help increase the soil health.
Most everything I have planted is doing great. The snap peas are loaded and ready to harvest. Onions are getting big. I have some peppers and tomatoes on the vine.
The blackberry bushes I planted a few years ago are loaded with berries. All my new blackberry transplants are alive and doing well. Continue reading