Deer Fence. 10.16.2020

This year's new deer fence worked out wonderfully.  Other than the recent tragedy last week when I left the gate open for just a single night.  Just one night.  

Fortunately, that was after almost all of the veggies have been harvested for the year.  I hope the mini apple trees will survive and come back.  We'll see...  in April.

 This photo was in Nov, shortly after the fence was built. This year, having a good fenced garden was a life saver.  It gave a better crop of plants that in previous years didn't grow at all due to deer and, sometimes, rabbits.  It was far easier to manage that my previous make-shift fencing.  I was able to branch out and grow a few things that I wanted to try, and the animals always destroyed before, like beans and peas.  Even the supposedly deer-resistant plants, like onions and garlic, did better.

It was wonderful not having to think of my vegetable garden as a battleground against deer, and also rabbits.  It was the best, most diverse, most productive garden that I have ever had.

Space is at a premium.  Last winter I didn't have room elsewhere for potatoes, which don't need that protection.   Next year they'll go where I currently have sweetcorn and old raised beds. That will free up some additional space.  Also, I won't plant so many snow peas, which can spread too much for the amount that I want.  I might move some squash outside of the fence, although that can be a iffy prospect because deer like some varieties and leave others alone.  On the other hand, raised beds and fruit trees will take up more room than this year, so I need to plan carefully.

 

 

Deer Damage. 10.15.2020

 Yesterday when I was checking the shed, I forgot to close the garden gate.  That's the only time I forgot, all year.

With deer, it only takes once.  They completely defoliated every miniature apple tree, every espalier apple tree, and grabbed a few raspberry leaves too.

It's hard to take a photo of something that's not there.  In this case, leaves.  I'm beyond discouraged.  I suppose that this late in the year, that just means they will head into dormancy.  I hope they won't be set back much and won't try to regrow.  Dammit.

Why The Biggest Expense Isn't Trees and Plants, It's Fencing. 10.17.17

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.

Blackberry Update. 6.29.17

Fenced Apples and Blackberries.  6.29.17

Ebony King Blackberries.  Year 2.  6.29.17

 I think I have enough blackberry cultivars for trial.  It will take 2 or 3 years to see how they really produce, and that will also give me a chance to see how they survive the weather.  Three of the cultivars were planted last year in the winter and spring, and two are planted this year in spring and early summer.  Triple Crown was a container plant from a nursery, that was planted within the past month.  Despite hot weather, it's growing nicely.

Blackberry Columbia Star.  One year.  6.29.17

The varieties are:
Ebony King - old variety, probably diploid, some thorns.
Prime Ark Freedom - new variety, tetraploid, thornless.
Columbia Star - trailing, thornless.  I'm guessing this is tetraploid but I don't know yet.
Arapaho - tetraploid, thornless.
Triple Crown - I think tetraploid, thornless.

Blackberry Prime Ark Freedom.  6.29.17

So far the biggest challenge is deer and rabbit browsing.  Deer browse the tops, eating a significant part of the new growth.  That was a major set back last year, resulting in some complete loss of Prime Ark Freedom - half of the plants that I bought - plus they pulled Columbia Star out of the ground and destroyed most of the top, and ate half of the growth of the Ebony King.    Deer even ate the somewhat thorny Ebony King.  I notice they eat the tops of the brutally thorny local invasive Himalayan blackberries, but only the succulent tops with soft thorns.  All are in enclosures or cages now.  Rabbits ate off the emerging canes, up to one foot - thornless Prime Ark Freedom and somewhat thorny Ebony King.   That means, enclosures must also protect to the ground, Chicken Wire works for that.

I expect to taste some Ebony King in a few weeks, from the one plant, of three, that is producing this year.  All of the Ebony King are producing primocanes now, more vigorous than last year, and I hope my enclosure prevent loss of growth this time.  There may be a taste of a couple of Columbia Star blackberries, although only a couple from canes that survived the trauma and winter.  Prime Ark Freedom is primocane bearing, so there is a chance to sample those in a few months.

Blackberry "Arapaho" .  Two Months.  6.29.17

Blackberry Triple Crown.  One Month.   6.29.17

Only two of the Prime Ark Freedom survived the winter with strong growth emerging this spring, one stronger than the other - very vigorous.  However, I see tiny plants emerging from the roots of what I think are the plants that appeared to die off completely.

Of the new plants that I started this spring, Arapaho is getting off to a good start, and both plants have nice primocanes emerging.  They are in protected cages.  I may rearrange the beds this summer or fall, for better access and neatness.  The Triple Crown was blooming in the nursery pot, at only a foot tall.  There is a nice primocane emerging from that one as well.   I will leave the berries on the plant, to get a taste, if they develop.

If all goes well, there should be a taste of 4 varieties this year, maybe a few bowls of berries in 2018, and a good sized crop in 2019.  That is a big "if", but life makes no promises.  Gardening is always a bit of a guess, a bit of a gamble, some promises, some science and information, some work and some luck.

Home Orchard Chores. Deer and Rabbit protection. 1.19.17

Stone Fruits.  Image via Vintageprintable.com

Today I did some orchard chores.

Last year I planted 3 blackberry cultivars, 5 plants of "Prime-Ark Freedom", a thornless primocane upright blackberry, 3 plants of "Ebony King", a reduced thorn standard upright blackberry, and one plant of "Columbia Star", a new thornless trailing blackberry. Most were in the fig tree row, and were subjected to deer and rabbit foraging. Prime-Ark Freedom was much loved by rabbits, while all of them were chewed, chopped off, and pulled up, by deer.

Yesterday and today I prepped an orchard bed, which consists of the mini-dwarf "Liberty" apple and dwarf "Jonagold" that I moved from Vancouver earlier this winter, and extends to a semidwarf "Winecrisp" apple that I planted bare-root in early 2016. This bed was squashes and tomatoes in 2016. I fenced it off, using 1-inch mesh plastic fencing. This fencing is better to avoid deer browsing, because they cant pull leaves and stems through the mesh, unlike metal 2 x 4 inch fencing.

There was room for a row of the 3 Ebony King blackberries, and separately for the "Columbia Star" blackberry, which will need a trellis. These are not protected from rabbits, who only seemed to like the "Prime-Ark Freedom" variety. In a separate bed, with fencing that should also protect from rabbits, I planted the "Prime-Ark Freedom" plants. Some of these look like they had significant freeze damage.

Persimmons.  Image via Vintageprintable.com

The ground is quite wet. I tried to minimize any tromping, by staying off the garden soil as much as possible and working from the edges.

I also worked on deer fences in the main orchard. Mostly, I now have larger cages for several of the trees, which were subjected to deer browsing via pulling stems through the larger fencing openings. Most got the 1 inch plastic mesh. I have about 5 trees remaining that need some deer cage adjustments, mainly making the cages bigger.

Most of the deer cages are as big as they will ever need to be.  As the trees grow larger, most will be too high for normal deer browsing.   The deer cages are a hassle, and make it more difficult to mulch, weed, prune, and otherwise maintain the area.  Over the next few years, I hope to remove several if not most of the cages, and change to just mowing between trees.

Walking around. Kitchen Garden, Progress Report.. 6.26.16

Jerusalem Artichoke.  6.26.16

Bulb Onions.  6.26.16

 Jerusalem artichokes are growing the best in 3 years.  I have no idea why.  The first year, they barely grew, then were eaten by deer.  The second year, I did not see any growth.  This year there are 2 gigantic plants.  I did not plant them, so they were either dormant for a year, or I missed them last year.

2nd Scion Take, Chocolate Persimmon.  6.26.16

 The bulb onions are bulbing up nicely.  I have never grown them before.  These are a yellow variety, bought and planted the sets late winter.

The second graft of the Chocolate Persimmon looks like it took.  I don't expect much growth this year.   Maybe next year both grafts will take off and grow.

Collard Greens.  6.26.16

Deer Fencing.  6.26.16

 I think the limiting factor on Collard Greens, is slugs.  Since I put down slug bait, some are growing like crazy, others more slowly.  This is my first try for Collard Greens.

I've been worried that deer will take after the Carini fig and others in the row, that are looking so good.  They ate leaves of a fig tree about 6 feet away.  I finally added a strip of fencing.  This is a fairly protected spot.  The cost of deer fencing can be exhorbitant.  One of the most expensive parts of gardening.  This time, I bought plastic fencing.  Price is about 1/2 the metal fencing, it won't scratch me like 1,000 thorns, like chicken wire, and I think it should deter the deer.  They are not aggressive, just persistant to consume anything they can easily reach.

Methley plums are almost ripe.  We ate a few today.

Methley Plums.  6.26.16

Chinese Beans.  6.26.16

 The resurrected Chinese Beans look pretty good in general.  I hope they continue to grow.

The White Potato Onions, that I started last fall from sets from Territorial Seeds, are blooming.  Apparently, that is a rare event and should be treasured.  In Utah, Kelly Winterton has been trying to resurrect (another ressurection) the variety by taking opportunity of potato onion rare bloom events to collect true seeds.  There are several reasons-
Vegetative propagation of a variety over the decades - possily centuries - may weaken the strain due to somatic mutations ande viruses.  Apparently, growing from seeds can restore the genetic potential and eliminate some, if not all, viruses that do not cross the seed barrier.   The seed-grown onions may be much larger and more vigorous, than the division-grown onions.  Seed grown potato onions have potential to develop new varieties.    Since mine are blooming, I will see if they set seeds and if so, that will be a fun project.  At the very least, I hope I get nice big potato onions from the seedlings. 

Winterton speculates that potato onions are a natural hybrid from centuries ago, which have been maintaned ever since, by vegetatice propagation.  If so, he considers seedlings from this variety to be F2 generation, with a lot of diversity and unpredictablity.  It is also possible, they could be pollinated by other onions around the yard.  I have garlic chives in bloom - don't know of those can cross with potato onions.  I removed all flowers from other onions.

Nikita's Gift Persimmon is looking great!  Fruit are swelling nicely.  I did some thinning but not too aggressive, because there are so many leaves and so few fruits.  Still, it's possible there will be a dozen, maybe more, persimmons this year.  If the persimmon gods smile upon us.  This variety is vigorous, stout growth, very healthy appearing.  Saijo has a few potential fruits as well. 

The first wave of Sweet Corn, Trinity, is as high as my eyeballs.  The secone wave, Bilicious, is waist high.  The 3rd wave, also Trinity, is almost knee high.  Subsequent waves are smaller but growing.  The last ones, seeds planted last week, Bodaceous, have not emerged from the soil yet.

I tried to be creative with a tomato cage, made from bamboo and jute string.  I don't know if that will deter the damn deer.  The pictured tomato plant is a grafted Supersweet 1000.

Flowers on White Potato Onions.  6.26.16

Swelling fuit on Nikita's Gift Persimmons.  6.26.16

First Three Waves of Sweet Corn.  #1 = Trinity, #2=Bilicious, #3=Trinity.

Tomato Cage, maded from bamboo and jute string.  6.26.16

Kitchen Garden Update. 5.20.16

Grafted "Better Boy" Tomato Plant.  5.21.16

Tomato Raised Bed.  5.21.16

Here  is how some of the kitchen garden plants are doing.

Most tomatoes are growing vigorously and a few are producing flowers.  The furthest ahead was Jersey Boy, but then the top of that was eaten by deer.  I plan to build a fence, meant to and procrastinated.

The grafted Better Boy has caught up with the others.  The grafting process puts it behind.  The grafted SuperSweet100 was too close to the Deer Superhighway, and therefore has a major setback.  I don't know how much fencing I can put in, it's awkward to work with and there is a cost, but if I want to grow plants that deer and rabbits also love, that's the only choice.

The potato plants are in the exposed  - not fenced - garden, and are growing lush and big.  I hilled them up as much as I could.

Potatoes.  Yukon Gold (front), Burbank Russett (back).  5.21.16

The collard greens are also exposed.  One plant vanished without a trace.  Space aliens?  But the others are all looking good and not chewed on so far.  They look small but actually growing pretty fast.  They have a grass clipping mulch to hold in the soil moisture and keep weeds at bay.

Collard Green Starts.  5.21.16

Egyptian Walking Onions.  5.21.16

I love the look of the Egyptian Walking Onions.  They are past the edibility stage - these are early Spring and late Fall kitchen plants.  Other onions are filling the scallion role, sets that I bought in April and am growing for bulb onions.  Back to the deer and rabbit issue, those beasts don't seem to eat onions or garlic.

I need to fence them in, but some of the okra seedlings remain.  Same theme, some were eaten last week.  That was mostly the transplants, so I won't know if early starting is helpful.  The seeds sprouted nicely without pre-soaking.

Okra Seedlings.  5.21.16

Fava Beans.  5.21.16

Fava bean pods are in the tiny stage, to about 5 inches long.  The plants continue to bloom.  I ate a raw fava bean pod, it wasn't too great, but it was raw. 

Green pepper plants - purchased - are looking good.   Pumpkins and squashes are also looking good.  I think there will be zucchini flowers in a few more weeks.

Sweet corn is looking good.  I continue to plant more seeds every 2 or 3 weeks.  The last batch was "Mirai" - wrinkled seeds that are hard to imagine they will grow.  In fact, it's been cool and rainy, and I read that Mirai seeds will rot if not given ideal conditions.  I'll give them a week and if no growth, plant something else.

Kitchen Garden Bed.  5.21.16

Sweet  Corn.  5.21.16

Graft Union for "Better Boy" Tomato.  5.21.16