I removed the rain cover from the genetic dwarf peaches. It worked - no leaf curl at all except one branch that was sticking out in the rain. The bigger tree is Garden Gold (I think).
This tree is very lush, but only about five feet tall. Under all those leaves one can find growing peaches. They were too thick so I removed about 90% of them, a few weeks ago.
The winner for the first squash blossom, is yellow summer squash "Saffron".
The heirloom zucchini, Costata romanesca has a lot of flower buds. The plants are incredibly vigorous. They look like rhubarb plants at this stage.
The first flowers this year are all female, which usually means they won't form squashes. Sometimes they do anyway.
Having an irrigation system on these is a real life saver. It's a lot less carrying of buckets and hoses. Squash leaves show water stress by wilting, and there is none of that so far.
So far, this looks like a good fig year. I counted forming figs on Lattarula and stopped at 50 figs. There must be at least 30 on Desert King, and at least "several" in Brunswick (a special treat) and even Petite Aubique (heavenly but a poor producer). I think buds are forming for a fall crop on Celeste and Louisiana Tiger. The fig trees that bear summer crop have branches drooping to the ground. The wood is willowy, new growth and figs are heavy. That would be great, except it places the ripening figs at salad bar height for deer.
I tie the branches upright, using the trunk or other branches for support. I was cleaning the garden shed and found more yellow jacket traps, so cleaned those and added new bait.
For fig trees that make a fall crop, removing the tips from vigorous new growth stimulates new figs to form. It's simple. The growth tips are brittle. I just bend them and they snap off. Before.
The old Kenmore sewing machine has a cover, but it's gigantic, clunky, and takes up a lot of room. I thought it would be good to make a quilted dust cover for it. A clean sewing machine is a happy sewing machine.
This is the result. It's reversible. In "Sunflower Mode", each end has a pocket and a handle.
I don't know what the pockets are for. They are there if needed. The handles aren't necessary buy are kind of handy. Handy handles LOL.
Turn it inside out, and it's in sort of antique'y quilty mode. No pockets on this side, just handles. The handles on this side are sewn between the pockets and handles on the sunflower side, so the quilt isn't too thick to sew together.
This started by cutting pattern paper to fit the sewing machine. I gave it a couple extra inches in every direction because quilts shrink when first washed.
I sewed together a quilt sandwich, big enough to fit the patterns. One side was the sunflower cotton fabric. (there was an extra block in the pattern for a front pocket. I didn't use that).
The other side was from a roll of "vintage look" strips that I bought mail order during the worst of the pandemic. They were on close-out and I wanted something to learn on. I just sewed them together to make a sheet.
Between the fabrics, I used 1/4" cotton batting, left over from a quilt. I had to join together two pieces. I used the three-step zigzag setting for that.
I'm not sure I knew the Kenmore could fit a walking foot, but it did. I used that to quilt the fabric in diagonal 2" squares. I used the guide on the walking foot instead of marking lines with tape. That went much faster.
Then I cut it all put. I lined the patterns on the striped side so they would be even.
It looks a bit like a big pillow ate a toaster LOL.
(Source - heavily modified from a pattern on the blog Sewcanshe.com).
I put in a drip irrigation line for the rest of the squashes, as well as so mini dwarf apples and potted lilies.
Last year, the squashes were my biggest watering burden, so I'm glad they are on an irrigation line now. They are really taking off and growing. I do need to stake the hoses down. They are somewhat of a tripping hazard.
I still had some cherry pie filling in the freezer, so made a pie. The crust was very difficult to work with, brittle and kept falling apart. My guess is the flour, which was the last of a big bag of institutional bleached white flour bought by internet during the early part of the pandemic. The crust was too brittle to top the pie so I tried a lattice topping but that fell apart too.
Still, the flavor was good. Even the crust was good, despite the difficulty in working with it.
I think there is some rhubarb on the plant, calling my name now. Maybe that's next.
I made a trip to the store and saw these. They were pretty messy but the price was quite good, so I bought a couple.
I think these are described as deer resistant, so it's a test. Plus, some survive the winters here. I have larger Alstromeria that I from divisions last year, in my garden, overwintered from last year. But these look like they will become quite colorful. I think they will fill in and bloom a lot more, once they establish.
In November I cut an offset from the big Hardy Chicago fig tree. I was unable to obtain more than a few tiny roots. I planted it anyway. This week I noticed a significant start of growth. Seven months later, and all of the other fig trees are already lush and green now. I gave it some balanced fertilizer and water. Now that it is growing, I want to continue the TLC and see if it establishes and becomes a tree.
There are a few more seedlings to plant.
African marigolds - planted the rest of them. The ones already in the ground are already perking up.
The cosmos seedling that I set out a few days ago are growing.
More seedlings to plant - mostly French marigolds from home saved seeds, cleome, and thunbergia seedlings that I think don't like chilly nights and cool days we have now,
I want to plant those during the next couple of days,
I bought this at Bi-Mart.
In this position, it's a nice seat for resting or working in raised beds.
In this position, it's an excellent kneeling pad. The cushion is just the right firmness, and the side handles make standing up again a LOT easier.
I've been wanting to start this quilt pattern for a year. As with some other projects, I'm using fabric from mens's shirts bought at estate sale or thrift shop. A lot is left over from other quilts. There were some that I especially liked so I'm using all of that I can.
Each square is different, but with recurring themes of fabrics and shapes, Here are the first two.
These have in common with the last quilt that the blocks are made from nine squares, but these squares are made by piecing together smaller squares and triangles.
The pattern was published in Today's Quilting, a UK magazine, last year, by designer Lynne Goldsworthy. My version will be more monochromatic, blues, greys, whites.
Here is a nine patch block before sewing together. It's a challenge matching the corners and edges. Also, I am using a crinkly fabric for the white areas, but it's too thin so I temporarily fused it to a white background fabric, which makes it like card stock. The adhesive will wash out when I wash the final quilt, making it softer again.
Here is a container I planted with Sempervivum and Sedum a few years ago. It thrives with almost no care, can dry out without problems, and doesn't mind winter or summer.
I decided to plant this strawberry pot with similar starts from around the yards.
The sedums are cuttings. Just cut pieces from existing plants and poke them into the soil. They root quickly with no other effort. I do cut off the growing tips so they will branch and fill in. Sempervivums are splits from my original plant. They don't have many roots but will establish just fine. There are a couple more pockets to plant, plus a second strawberry pot.
Here is my row of Envol, and my row of Four O'Clocks.
Both are pretty lush. I think the potatoes should be ready to start digging soon,
The Red potatoes from Safeway are blooming.
So are the Envol, a white early potato.
The dwarf tomatoes are growing beautifully, with dark green, thick, lush, rugose leaves. Some of the plants were leaning over so I put in stakes (willow poles) and tied them up. The names are in the photos.
Some of the shorter grape vines are being eaten off by deer. The taller ones that I renovated are doing very well this year. This is Buffalo - a dark purple grape with flavor like Concord, that ripens well here.
A few of the pawpaw flowers that I cross pollinated, "took". Like certain fig varieties, Pawpaws like to fool you and make you think they will bear, then they all fall off. Still, these are the first clusters in a few years.
This one is the variety "Mango", which has never borne fruit for me before.
This was the variety "Sunflower", but it died to the roots. Then the rootstock grew snd this year it bloomed.
This is the variety "NC-1". I think two flowers each may have one fruit each, if they grow.
This is the NC-1 tree, which is really more of a bush (the others are also bushy). I don't think pawpaws usually do well here. The tops of most of mine died in a few years, then new ones grew from the roots. I think they might be better grown as large bushes, on their own roots and sending up new shoots to replace ones that die off.
The persimmons have lots of flower buds now. That probably means a good crop this year.
