Pruning, sprays, and apples

Today was day off from work.

Pruned more roses. Most of these are either David Austins or cutting - grown "found" varieties with no name. I cut most back to about 18 inches to 2 feet, removed dead stems, and removed old 3rd and 4th year canes and puny little ones. Some authors now state that roses can be pruned back with a hedge clipper to a uniform height, and the range of 3 feet is better than smaller. However, clearing out old growth and twigs, they will be easier to maintain next year. Fewer old stems will mean less carry over of any residual disease. Fewer, more robust stems will mean easier to spray with neem when blackspot hits. Although I didn't spray at all last year. I hope the pruning stunts them a little next year - they were way too big.

Sprayed the genetic dwarf peaches with Lily copper spray. The spray includes an adherent to make the copper stay on the stems. Today was just slightly drizzly, morning only, so most should stay on the stems. I know this is way, way too late by the books. They should have been sprayed in December. My thought now is if the spray reduces peach leaf curl by a bit, I may still get some peaches. Even if PLC is not prevented entirely. As always, we'll see. I may spray again in a few weeks, and again before buds open. Depends on my schedule.

I used up left-over spray on the pear tree, some roses, a cherry, and a fig tree. I don't know if it will be helpful, but I hated to let it go to waste.

We have a lot of apples remaining in the refrigerator. I just ate a Liberty. Surprisingly good. Much better than a commercial apple.

More New Year's + 1 Pruning

Today I pruned the rest of the grape vines. I pruned them back to 2 to 3 nodes of last year's growth, then thinned out a few of those as well. This leaves about 15 to 20 nodes per vine. If each node gives one bunch of grapes, that's about 65 to 80 bunches of grapes. More than enough for some eating grapes. There was a lot of winter kill, so they may not all bear. That's OK.

I also pruned the columnar apple, North Pole, shortening spurs to keep the columnar shape.

Then I pruned about half of the back yard roses. Some of the David Austin roses were at least twice my height, so about 12 feet tall. Wow! Too tall and too messy, cut them back to about 2 feet. They should come back fine. This is counter to conventional wisdom, that they should be pruned when danger of frost is past. However, they start growing before then even if unpruned, and my neighbors prune midwinter and have good growth, so they should be OK.

The Illinois Everbearing Mulberry got a couple of snips but is too puny to call that pruning. Just enough to guide shaping of the young tree. Last year was it's first and it had it's first "two" mulberries. So this year there may be a few more.

I freel a little better about the yard. It's starting to look more groomed / less messy. That's a good part about winter cleanup.

The brush pile is growing quickly.

A few late fall flowers, and kitchen garden produce

Late summer planting of Roma bush beans. These are very good stir-fried with mushrooms, garlic, and peanuts, along with some stir fry noodles. Yum!

A few last roses showing me they're still here. They are mostly such a mess, I'm looking forward to pruning them back this winter. Weeds took over. That is largely the job of kitty cat, who decided that the mulch was the worlds biggest and best litter box, stirring up all of the mulch with weed-seed-laden soil below, and fertilizing as she went along. Still no solution for this challenge.


Nice Dahlia. It's survived many years in that location. I thought it was dead, but there it is.

I keep saying it over and over, but best pepper crop ever!

Garden Log

Today was a day off from work at the office. I tried doing homework - my take-home laptop had a new security system installed, now I can't get into it. So plan B, I was using my own laptop, but the cord developed a short and now needs replacing. So plan C, my old desk top. Slow - now a bit faster.

So, took the pile of prunings to the Recycling center. Here is the pile at about 1/4 its final size - I didn't take a photo today. It towered over the truck. I had tried grinding them in my brush chopper - it clogs up over and over, big hassle. I tried running them through the lawnmower - too much work. So, into the truck and off to H&H recycling.



Normally, I don't let the yard get so out of hand, but last year was intense. Things grew out of control. Much of this was lavender and rosemary, roses, ivy and blackberry vines. Also a big pile of lilac prunings that I never got around to chopping, from last summer. The ivy and blackberries are the curse of invasive exotics. The pile smelled really good due to the massive pile of herbs. Rosemary and lavender continue growing through the summer, even without watering, and over the past several years have become huge bushes. Plus, I had let volunteers grow, but they have degraded, drab flower quality even though the foliage is aromatic. So a lot of those got pulled up, and all were pruned back severely.

To make the trip worthwhile, I bought a truckload of yard-waste compost - which I was going to do anyway. That makes the trip about zero carbon balance-wize for the prunings.

I cleaned up the back yard rose & fruit raised bed. Raked out old top-layer which contained leaves, some bark mulch, and some weeds and prunings. Weeds to the chickens. The rest, to low spots in other beds, to be covered over later. Then a nice layer of steamy, black, earthy-smelling compost.

If the cat doesnt use this as the world's largest litter box, that should do it for the year. A big if - depends on what she takes a shine to. It would be OK, but she stirs up the material under the mulch, mixing it together, and the exposed weed seeds sprout and grow rampantly. If she does, then it may get another layer of something. Not sure what yet - chopped straw is a strong possibility, but only after rainy season is over.

I like the appearance of a garden bed, when it's all cleaned up, pruned, weeded, and has a fresh layer of compost mulch. It looks so "ready" for the year. Now it's pouring rain, mid 50s. That will settle the mulch nicely.

I trimmed some of the center growth from the fig trees. Not much, but enough to keep them open. Took the tallest branch from petite negri, to keep it low and open. Not sure yet how much freeze damage they have. Some tip buds look dead, but pruned branches have nice green cambium.

New Year's Day Rose Pruning

This is considered the "wrong time" to prune roses. However, I see it done now, and earlier, around my neighborhood and their's do fine. The theory is that early pruning stimulates early, frost sensitive growth. That tender growth uses the plant's stored sugars, and when the new grow freezes and dies, there's nothing left for replacement growth.

Maybe my neighbors created a Darwinian evolution, with the easily killed varieties now dead, and the varieties that tolerate midwinter pruning thriving. Whatever the case, waiting longer means more work in the Spring, so I also pruned one of our two rose beds. Most of these are David Austin, own-root varieties. A few are rustled (home cuttings from a bouquet or rogue bush in the treeway), also own-root. A couple are grafted tea or florabundas.

Difficult to see them in the jumble. Heights from 3 to 6 feet tall.

Some modern authors recommend just cutting back a little, with shears, and not being too specific with what is cut. I suspect they haven't tried this method organically. I try to remove all dead and diseased canes, and all crossing or misdirected canes, and generally thin a little. I also cut them back more. My theory is that I'm removing more disease potential, and since I grow organically I don't use any toxic sprays. There may be fewer or less humongous blossoms, but there are plenty and I like them as they are.

After, most are now 1 foot tall. A few grocery-store miniatures, that I felt sorry for and planted about 5 years ago, I pruned almost to the ground. Tamora, a rank-growing David Austin variety, I basically pruned to 2 feet and didn't thin much. Too difficult now and I was wearing out. Scepter'ed Isle, another own-root David Austin variety, had grown to 6 ft tall. I pruned it back to about 2 feet, it was just way too tall.

Fresh Fruit! Garden Log for mid June.

Ning's Cherries are almost ripe. This is the oldest tree, about 7 years old. The 4-year-old trees just have scattered cherries.

The strawberries have been producing for a week. This is a typical day's haul. Plenty for our needs. The most productive have been the ones around the rowse bed and around the tomato patch. Fertilized only with compost.




Other Garden Notes.

1. Figs. I've pinched out the terminal buds on all of the fig trees. Those that were pinched 2 weeks ago have responded with new fig embryos at each leaf node. I've removed about 1/4 of them, in hopes of earlier & better figs. Brebas not yet ripe but growing larger day by day.

2. Peaches. Most are about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. I thinned about 1/4 of the remaining peaches, to avoid over bearing, and inprove chances of earlier and better fruit.

3. Tomatoes. Most are blooming. All have been tied to their posts, and side branches removed for cordon training.

4. Peppers. Lots of holes in the leaves. What's eating them? But they are blooming.

5. Rhubarb. Over the hill. I made a wonderful strawberry-rhubarb sauce, similar to the video below but with 1/2 strawberries. Used frozen rhubarb and frozen strawberries still left over from last year. Great on pancakes! Yum!

6. Roses. First bloom is over the hill. They've been beautiful and prolific.

7. Asparagus starts. All are about 6 inches tall. Will I EVER get them established? Still trying.

8. Lawn. Still mowing using the mechanical mower. More clover this year. Not a problem.

9. Hazelnut trees. Still alive! Also all of the new fruit trees, including sour cherry, 2 Japanese plums, and multigraft Asian Pear.

10. Fallgold raspberry, now bearing too. These are SO good!

Lots of weeds going to the chickens. No eggs in a month from the 2 older hens. The 2 younger ones are not laying yet either. Come on girls.... earn your keep!

Rhubarb Sauce. Since my rhubarb was limited, I replaced about 1/2 with strawberries. I used tapioca instead of starch. Otherwise about the same. SO GOOD!

What's blooming?

There are flowers everywhere. The dogwood finished, daffodils and tulips are long gone. The next wave is either "late Spring" or "Early summer".

More of "Edith Wolford" Iris.

The "Rustled Rose", grape-scent.

"Tamara" rose. 1st flower.

Clematis


Alstroemeria.

Red Poppies. The digital camera doesn't do justice with how red these really are. Seed grown, now in their 7th year.

Spring Garden Chores

Today (Saturday), I...

Weeded the rose bed. This bed now has almost as many fruit trees, brambles, and plants, as roses, but still contains about 10 rose bushes. I had moved one rose bush to accomodate the new Surefire cherry, and today moved a second one a little further from that new tree. I also moved a David Austin rose from the front yard, and a peony as well. It looks like I butchered the thick peony roots, even though I thought I was digging a wide distance from the stems. We'll see if it grows. It's interesting how few roots the roses seem to have - surprising that they survive moving. I pruned the tops further back to balance the reduced root mass.

Mulched the rose bed with bark mulch. It's now basically ready for Spring and Summer. I did not add compust to most of it this year, because the roses were too rampant last year and I don't want to overstimulate the fruits and roses. I did give some chicken manure to the roses that I moved.

Sprayed most of the fruit trees and roses with Neem oil. Not the peaches - the flowers are opening.

Moved one Orchard Mason Bee house to the front yard, since there are many fruit trees there as well.

Turned over the soil in the tomato patch.

Pruned the remaining rose bushes.

Stood around and stared at the results of my labors.

Grafted 3 fig scions onto the petite negri tree. Just to see if I can. According to most references, it can't be done. I hope they are wrong.

This time I used rubber bands to tie, and used plastic tape to cover and protect. The plastic tape was made by slicing a ziplock sandwich bag. Also used petroleum jelly as an antidessicant, as I did with the apple grafts. It's not just stubbornness - I really would like to see if they grow.

Added some petroleum jelly to the apple grafts - forgot to do that earlier, purpose is to serve as antidessicant.

Also mulched around this red-bark Japanese maple, that I moved to this location a few days ago. It was a seedling in the rose bed, among many others. I had never got around to pulling it up, and now will see how it does as a specimen tree.

Early March Garden Log

What's growing and blooming?

Daffodils are about 4 inches tall. Many closed flower buds are present. Hyacinths, similar size.
Rhubarb is the first food plant to start growing. I love the crinkled red leaves and knobby buds.

Helleborus is blooming. Since the plant is short and the flowers droop, they are difficult to appreciate.

Garlic is alive and about 5 inches tall. We'll have garlic this year! I was concerned that the extreme cold this winter might have done it in.

Pussy willow is blooming, but not much. It may be too young, or not in enough sun.
Forsythia has green buds. I don't know if it will bloom - no yellow shows - again, it's on the North side of the house, so possibly not enough sun. Last year the flowers were sparse.

I planted cuttings from my Dad's forsythia from Illinois. That shrub is at least 50 years old and maybe 80 years old. Not really special, but if the cuttings grow, I'll have a bit of a keepsake from my past.

Pear blossoms are swelling. Lilac blossoms are swelling. Aprium blossoms starting to show a little pink.

The plum trees that I recently planted are starting to show life, with swelling buds. Can I hope for, maybe, one plum each, so that I know what they taste like? I did spray both with the last bit of lime-sulfur.

Finches are fighting in the feeder now.

Today was a day off. Overcast, not too cold. I did the following in the back yard:

Pruned roses. Most have about 1 inch of growth. Local authorities precaution against pruning too early, since pruning supposedly stinulates growth which can be killed by frost. Since they are growing now anyway, I don't see the difference. I have pruned as early as January, and many neighborhood roses were pruned then as well, but this year I thought I would try to follow the 'experts' advice.

Most were cut back to about 2 feet tall. Tallest was about 7 feet tall before pruning. Removed dead wood. Sprayed these roses with the left-over lime sulfur from the peaches, but to prevent leaf spot.

Still a lot of roses to prune in the front yard. Maybe this weekend.


Uncovered peaches. These are miniature peach trees. Big problem last year was leaf curl, which destroyed the crop and almost killed the trees. Last fall, I sprayed with Micro-cop and covered the trees with plastic (see links). I meant to uncover them last week but was not able. They are actually starting to grow. The tiniest is blooming. Uh-oh. So, I uncovered. I read that micro-cop doesnt work, so I sprayed with Lily Miller PolySul Summer and dormant spray at dilution C, which is for growing season. I used the more dilute spray due to concern for toxicity to new buds. This may not be strong enough for leaf curl (4 teaspoons per gallon instead of 1 cup per gallon) but compromise is necessary. Maybe the unscientific combination will be better than no spray? This is considered organic since it is just lime and sulfur, not petrochemicals. Depends on who you talk to.

White

Sweet alyssum. Nicely fragrant. Has been re-seeding itself in containers and on the ground.

Chilian jasmine. Nicely fragrant. It hasn't been getting the TLC that it needs, but manages to survive.

A white-flowered sedum. Very hardy, extremely easy to grow, prevents weeds, stays compact, can be spread over a large area wtih no-effort cuttings. In the winter, I just cut off pieecs and stick them into the ground. That's all.

Pascali. One of the all-time winners. It still hasn't settled in here. I'm not giving it a lot of care, either. So far not much fragrance.

I think that this rose is called Jennifer. It's a bit like the variety 'popcorn'. Very hardy. The catalog claimed so fragrant you can smell it at a distance. Not.

Trumpet lily. Not perfectly white, but the only white lily that I have blooming right now. I can't tell if it's fragrant.

Yellow

The yarden does not have a 'theme'. Maybe organic, or diverse, or multifunctional, or love of nature. But no 'landscape' or 'design' theme (sorry HGTV. actually, not sorry). Still, sometimes there is a 'momentary theme'. Currently it could be 'berries'. I noticed that there was a lot of yellow in these pictures, so today it's 'yellow'. That's realizing that there are lots of colors all over the place. Especially green. But today, we'll stick with yellow.

Unknown yellow rose.

Yarrow

Yellow Sahin's Clivia, out of season but blooming nicely.

Petunia.

David Austin rose, Happy Child.


Tomato "Sweet 100"

Sedum with yellow flowers.

Yellow leaf sedum.

What's Blooming. Roses

Ning bought a new camera. Here are some of the results. Who says that you need chemicals to grow beautiful roses?

Tamara. This has long been my favorite. See below for Tranquility, which is giving Tamara a run for it's money. A David Austin "English Rose". Very, very fragrant.

Scepter'd Isle. Also a David Austin "English Rose:. Nice and fragrant.

Red Masterpiece. Sold as a hybrid tea, and has a hybrid tea scent. Very vigorous. More of a 'grandiflora' habit - big, many blossoms per bunch. A few years ago, I threw some prunings behing a new retaining wall. They were buried in fill soil. The prunings grew up through the soil, and became big bushes that are also blooming nicely.

Rustled Rose. This is a very fragrant purple rose that was 'rustled' by taking a cutting. It looked abandoned, growing by a telephone pole on a Portland street. The original bush is gone now. Not too vigorous, and susceptible to blac spot, but VERY fragrant. Fruity, berry fragrance.

Scentimental. Prolific.

Yellow "rustled rose". This was grown as a cutting from a bouquet of flowers that was brought into work by a coworker. It took about 4 years to reach good blooming size, and still isn't large. Looks like a hybrid tea type, and has mild hybrid tea fragrance. Looking in rose books, it might be "Graceland" but there are so many similar roses, it's hard to say.

Tranquility. From cutting-grown plant bough from Heritage Roses in St. Paul Oregon. I have not seen another rose exactly this color. Very fragrant and prolific. It was slow to reach blooming size, but is not very vigorous and prolific. No black spot so far.

Compost Mulch

Here is the rose and fruit raised bed after adding a layer of yard waste compost. this is about 1/2 of a truck load, but since it's heavy, there is less than a truck load of bark mulch. Cost about $5.oo for what is in this bed. Since it's black, it should help the garden bed warm up.

I've also sprayed twice with a double strength neem spray. The reasoning is that since I missed covering the peaches this winter, I'm hoping for some benefit from neem in controlling leaf curl. The peach buds are starting to swell, so it seems like now is the time. I have not seen that this will work, but I already sprayed once with copper spray, and after reading that copper can build up in the soil, I dont want to over do it.

This garden bed started out with just roses, but now it also has 2 miniature peaches, 1 cordon apple (North Pole), a strawberry border, Fallgold raspberry, a currant, and various Spring bulbs. With all of the food plants present, non-organic is not the way that i want to go.

Pre-Spring Garden Log: Buds are swelling

 Tranquility Rose. All of the roses are at a simlar stage, buds about 1 inch on most stems.
 Chinese Chives. This 1/2 barrel received a layer of chicken house compost, then a layer of bark mulch to prevent weed growth, 2 weeks ago.
 Aprium buds. The Puget Gold Apricot also has a few small pink buds.