Apple protectors for birds and bugs. 5.15.2020

While thinning apples, I noticed some had been partially eaten by birds. I also read on a gardening website about people anxiously awaiting their Redlove apples, only to have them eaten by birds who apparently mistook them for cherries.

This year will be the first chance to taste my Redlove Calypso and Redlove Era apples, with only 2 or three of each per tree.  I'd rather be the one to taste them, not some stupid birds.

Last year I bought some organza gift bags, to see if individually bagging apples on the trees would prevent some insect damage.   Some people claim that doesn't prevent bird damage.  So, I sewed holographic scare tape to a couple of organza bags, and cut flaps so when the birds are looking at the bags and thinking "that stupid guy thinks those bags will keep us out", they will be distracted by the flashing moving lights.  Last year, the scare tape helped a lot with blueberries and cherries.

Organza bag / scare tape on a Redlove Era tiny apple.  5.15.2020

Updates. 8.26.17

Blueberry Pie.  Mid Aug, 2017.

 I haven't been keeping up on the garden blog.  With historic high temperatures, no rain - expected this time of year - and deer issues, I haven't had the time. 

I'll come back and add some text later, but here are photos from the past couple of weeks. 

The blueberry harvest was great.  The difference between this year and previous years, was bird netting.  Made all the difference in the world.

I wondered if there would be sweet corn, due to the slow and irregular germination.  Plus rabbits eating a lot of the plants.  Now, there is a good harvest of sweet corn.

Sweet corn, beans, chilis.  Mid Aug, 2017.

 The beans that I recovered from 15 year old seeds, last year, are doing quite well.

Peppers are doing great in their cement block raised beds.  They do have deer protection fencing.

Two of the chestnut trees that I planted late winter, put on 3 to 4 feet of new growth.  The other one put on about 3 inches.  I'll sort out the varieties later.  They are well protected by deer fencing.

I wondered if I planted the onions too early.  They did amazingly well.  Huge onions.  The biggest were Ailsa Craig.  Growing from seeds, and planting early, definitely worked.

Sweet Corn, various planting times.  Mid Aug, 2017.

Russet Potato Harvest.  Mid Aug, 2017.

Chilis in cement block raised bed.  Mid Aug, 2017.

Chestnut tree, first year, mid Aug 2017.

Chestnut tree, first year, mid Aug 2017.

Ailsa Craig onions.  mid Aug, 2017.

Thinning and Zipper Bagging Fruits. 4.25.15

Aubique Petite fig with zipper bags.  4.25.15

Apple cluster before thinning / bagging.  4.25.15

 Today I started bagging fruits, apples and some pears and figs.  The apples are the most important. In my yard, I lose most apples to coddling moth.  Bagging early should prevent that.  Some pears are lost, but not as bad.  Figs do well.  With figs, this is an experiment to see if the bags will deter birds or hasten ripening.  Protecting them in fall would be more important than now, due to shorter rainy fall days that slow ripening, reduce flavor, and encourage mold.

Prior posts about bagging fruits.  Summary -  Easy.  Greatly reduces disease and insect damage.  May be beneficial for some bird damage.  May hasten ripening.  Very few negatives, some report mold on peaches but not so much for other fruits.

I thinned apple clusters to one fruit per cluster, and removed all flowers within 6 inches.  That is pretty severe, but most years my apples are smaller than I would like.  Thinning can help them ripen faster, grow larger, and maybe more flavor. 

This was not much trouble at all.  Puttering meditation.  Puttering medication.  Kind of disappointed when ran out of bags.

Most articles recommend bagging when fruit is dime size.  These are smaller.  I don't think that's a negative.  If they all rot and fall off, I'll know what I did wrong.

Apple singlet after bagging.  4.25.15

Zipper bagged apple bush.  4.25.15

Finches

Through the glass of the home office window. The little point-and-shoot camera lacks the crystalline clarity of the Nikon super duper SXYZ camera. For that matter, so does the glass. Its OK. The birds don't mind. Carpodacus mexicanus.

Winter Kitchen Garden Chores.

Nice place to build a nest. Even the most dedicated kitty cat can't get through the mess of rose thorns. The roses will need pruning but that's not urgent yet. The nest will go then - I think they build a new one each year.

This was Jan 1st before I started cleaning up the rose & fruit bed. I felt bad about letting it become such a mess last year.
Looking at this, I wondered if I could get it cleaned up. What a mess.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've pruned all of the roses (mainly on Jan 1st) and raked out the weeds. Charlie may not approve. He likes messes. But he tolerates my idiosyncrasies. Then this weekend, a layer of bark nuggets except the area around the raspberries.
Behind the apple tree, the " yellow everbearing raspberry "Fallgold" was still a mess. These are great raspberries. They started as a small grocery store bare root start. Now they are starting to take over their neighborhood.
My photo is bad. I trimmed off the tops at about the top of the photo. Removed one clump and moved it to a better spot on the opposite side, more in the direction where I wanted them to grow. Pulled up about half of the canes, concentrating on pulling up the scrawniest ones. These are "ever bearing". They bear early summer on the canes that grew last summer and fall. I shortened these a little because they bore at the tips last summer, an once a node has produced fruit, it's done. Below that level, they'll grow branches at each node, and those branches will bear fruit. Once they have done the second fruiting, they are done. So I also removed all of the spent canes from last year. Much tidier now. Now to head off to the bark mulch place and finish this garden bed, so it's ready for Spring. I feel a bit better now.

More:
I hauled another 3/4 yard of medium bark nuggets, spread them on the rest of the middle mini-orchard/rose bed, one side border, and some under a fig tree that I cleaned underneath first. This is already a better and earlier start than next year. Still lots to do however.

For the container gardens, I cleaned up the surface on 2 additional barrels. I planted seeds, a mini-ball shaped carrot ("Parisian Market"), more mesclun, lettuce mix ("Bon Vivant Blend"), a Chinese greens mix. They may not grow, because the seeds were old (1 to 3 years) and because, after all, it's only January. On the other hand, some seeds can last for years (I've blogged on that before, and tested some last year), and it doesn't matter if they take a month or more to come up. Plus, they may be hardier for being planted in the winter and allowed to grow with the weather. Plenty of weeds are already sprouting, and some greens are just a few steps removed from "weed". If they don't sprout in, say, a month, I'll buy some new seeds and try again.

Critters

It's great to see that there are critters around, especially beneficial ones.

Toad was hanging out in the Schlumbergera. I see toads or frogs now and then. They eat insects, so are good to have around.

Studying diligently, but I occasionally look up form the window. Hummers have been actively hanging out at the feeder. Difficult to take photo due to sun behind the bird, and window between me and the bird, but here it is.

Hard to say if same or different hummer.
Lots of birds going after the seeds as well. They are quite wasteful, throwing seeds around. I don't know if they are also on the ground picking up spilled seeds - that is below my view.

More on critters....

Kitty Cat decided that a freshly applied area of barkmulch, front border, was the world's biggest and best litter box, adding little hills and thereby bringing weed seeds back up to the top - violating the principle. I found an old bottle of chili pepper, probably over 10 years old. I sprinkled the chili pepper all over the bed - we'll see if that spices it up for her, or if she decides to move on.

Slugs are still active - bed of newly planted beans sowing evidence for slug feasts. I sprinkled around a generous helping of organic slug bait.

Back to studies. Currently studying >8 hours per day. Nice change from the usual schedule.

Working from home

Working at home. Admittedly, on my "Day off". However, assuming that I'm going to work anyway, and it's all on the computer, there are some advantages:



1. Comfort. I can use the more casual furniture and be much more comfortable.
2. My loyal companion is there to keep me company in a good way.
3. No interruptions and derailment. I work much, much more efficiently.
4. I can keep the heating pad going for my multiple aches.
5. It's really more ergonomic.
6. I have my "jungle" to keep my spirits lifted.
7. Even though I've posted it on the internet, my office is MY office, a private place where no one can interfere, evaluate me, pass judgement on my decisions.


8. I love watching the birds at the feeders. Unfortunately, when I grab the camera, they all fly away. So here's just one. It's very relaxing and lifts the spirits, when I see motion from the corner of my visual field, look up, and there are the birds. My workspace faces the window.

9. Did I mention my loyal companion, Charlie?
10. No gas burned getting there.
11. No need to bring meals or eat out.
12. No traffic hassles.
13. When I do break from the issue at hand, it's to do something that regenates me, rather than derails me.

So I don't mind too much, working at home. And I am happy that it's a bit greener than working at work.

Quince with Chickadee

Picture is today - The chickadees like to hang out in this quince bush, and individually head to the feeder for their seeds. They take turns politely.

Birds at the feeder: House Finch

Most authorities recommend keeping a healthy population of birds around. During the summer, many of them eat insects.
Based on photos on the internet, these are male "house finches". House finches are vegetarian, so probably not much benefit for the gardener. But I still like them. The birds have eaten about 15 pounds of seeds so far this winter. Except the seeds that the squirrels got first.

It's snowing and snowing and snowing! Dark-eyed Junco

The city is near stand-still. Amazing, for this area. We found some bird seed to feed the hungry finches. Feeding the birds now helps the garden later.

I'm going out on a limb here, because they are not too clear. But I'll tentatively identify these as :Dark Eyed Junco". A photo can be found here. Dark-eyed juncos eat seeds in the winter, and insects in the summer, according to this site.