Kitchen Garden. Potato and strawberry progress report.

Now we are in the season of rapid growth. Today I noticed the potatoes had grown more than a foot, so I covered the lower parts of the stems with about 6 to 9 inches of growth medium, to the upper edges of the barrels.

Potato barrel, they are growing fast. I may add some edging to raise the soil level a few more inches.

These are the older June bearing strawberries. They are blooming like crazy. That promises lots of good strawberries in a few weeks. Meanwhile, I removed the first sets of flowers from the ever bearing strawberry plants that I started in barrels this winter. Flower removal gives them a chance to produce a few more leaves before making strawberries, which should result in more and bigger strawberries later on.

Backyard Orchard Progress Report

Here is a bit of a backyard orchard progress report. Backyard orchard also includes front yard. It also includes strawberries, grapes, and raspberries. They are all sweet fruits, so why not. Not sure about tomatoes, which are annual, but they make fruit and some are sweet. Peppers, too. Separate issue I think.

Desert King = King Fig. This vigorous, fast growing tree benefited from the pruning I did last year, to keep it compact. It is on the south side of the house. The # of brebas is amazing. King is reputed to be great in the northwest and to keep its brebas. I will hold it to its reputation. I have about a dozen cuttings in the wine barrel container beds among the peppers and tomatoes. If they grow that will be fun. Lattarula = White Marseilles = Lemon Fig. Thomas Jefferson grew it at Monticello. Also good Northwest reputation. Seems to have more brebas against the house, than a couple of feet further away. Interesting.

Not so many on Hardy Chicago Fig. Chicago is the first to make main crop for me. So I'm not too worried about it. Not pictured, Petite Negri Fig and Vancouver = Brunswick? Fig. Both of those have a few brebas as well, larger but fewer in number, compared to the other fig trees.

Grapes are almost to the blooming stage. I was worried that they froze. Also that I over-pruned them in Jan. Now they are looking good. So I think they will do well.

Flower clusters starting to show on grape vines.

Strawberries are blooming. These are the June bearing plants that have been there for several years, and I got behind on weeding last year. They are looking pretty good despite that. Lots of flowers. I've been snipping off the flowers from the ever bearing plants, as per the instructions, to give them a chance to establish. I will let them bloom in June or July.
Illinois Everbearing Mulberry. The top branch had some orange fungus so I cut it off last month. That left 2 branches for my backyard-orchard-culture low-pruned tree, which I think is less stable than 3 branches. Still that is perfectionism. Mulberries are reputed to be late to leaf out. Looks like one little spur or early branch has potential mulberries. I would like that.

Container gardens, early spring

The potato project was described yesterday. Here are a few others.

The mixed winter greens an vegetables are behind last year. Radishes, mesclun, spinach, lettuce, and some scallions from seed. They are starting to grow faster now. The chicken wire protect from kitty cat and squirrel doing their gardening. It works. I planted seeds more thinly this year. Less need to think them out now. The green onions have all been eaten. I recommend that everyone who likes early vegetables and loves green onions to grow Egyptian Walking onions. One of the stars of the early vegetable garden. I have many more in the ground. Some of those are too big to eat now, which is good. That means more for later.

Another of the barrel planters. "Inch by inch, row by row. Gonna watch my garden grow." Or in this case, "patch by patch." If I get ambitious I'll add tops to the barrels. That will let in light and warm them up more. That's if I get ambitious.

The potato project was described yesterday. Here are some of the other containers.

The strawberries are growing nicely. Each plant has several leaves. These were the bare root plants that I started 2 months ago. They looked near-death. Every plant survived and grew. I see that some have a few roots above the growth medium. I'll add another inch. Enough to cover the roots. Not enough to cover the crowns. The white spots are crush eggshells. I use them to add calcium.

New Composter. New Strawberries. Tree Peony Buds.

Tree peony buds promise of spring.

Got some more bare root strawberry starts. These are TriStar. Popular day-neutral. Cheap, $9.99 for 25 plants. Now several of the planters contain strawberry plants. They looked brown and depressing in the bundles but once planted and watered some had green leaves. Not sure if I ever bough bare root strawberries before. Seems pretty easy.

Ning and I put together his new composting barrel. It took about an hour. We should have done a YouTube, it was rather simple yet complicated at the same time. Turns nicely. Kitchen scraps will go into this one. We also added some starter compost as inoculum. Now a turn a day keeps the compost cooking.

Monday off, with chores

I forgot that I had today off, and went to work. After insisting that I was scheduled, I looked at the schedule and... oops.

So I came home, cleared some more grass-invaded border, hauled a truckload of prunings and brush to the recycling & composting center, and returned home with a half cubic yard of composted yard trimmings. Moved two roses into a better spot. Neither had great roots, but they should be OK. This will be a "Darwin year": where survival of the fittest means they either make it with the care that I can give, or they don't. No pampering for fruits and roses and shrubs that don't thrive. Even so, I surrounded the moved roses with compost, then did the same with the night-planted Indian Free peach and Almaden Duke cherry. Placed circular concrete aggregate border around 2 miniature apple trees (Liberty and Jonagold), clearing / weeding the center and adding a couple inches of compost. So no more grass invasion, or at least minimal. I'm gradually installing edging to prevent grass invasion along the entire front border, but it's a lot of work pulling out the old grass, so it takes time.

What else.... moved a yellow shrub peony to a raised location, above a retaining wall. It only grows to about a foot tall, and the flowers, while very beautiful, huge, and fragrant, droop and can't be seen unless the viewer is on their knees. This is a weird peony, not big enough to be a "tree peony" but with woody stems that add an inch or two per year, not dying down like other peonies. It's nice as a cut flower. I'm convinced it's an intersectional, a cross between tree peony and herbaceous peony, much like this one - Garden Treasure. (Wow, these cost a fortune! It came with the house, I'm too cheap to pay that much or a plant!) Peonies don't like being moved, but it's been moved before and did OK after a year of sulking. This peony sends out underground stolons with new stems, so it spreads laterally instead of vertically. I cut off a couple as a gift, maybe they will survive too. The main plant was also given a liberal ground covering couple of shovel fulls of compost.

Oh, planted 2 half-barrels with the new Seascape day-neutral strawberries. That's about a dozen plants, so I need to figure out what to do with the other dozen.

Planting in the dark

Wow, the Almaden Duke Cherry and the Indian Free (Blood) Peach came yesterday via UPS. I knew they would be coming because UPS sent an email

No chance this weekend to plant them. I dug the holes before work, and when I got home there was the package. So I planted them in the dark, via flashlight.

Nice looking trees, as usual for Raintree.

The strawberry plants are in the fridge until I can plant them.

New Fruits for 2011

I've been cleaning up the front border, basically a renovation after a couple of years of neglect. In the process I'm moving towards less ornamental and lower maintenance. I'm putting in edging to keep grass invasion limited (a challenge and the biggest weed problem), and mulching with a medium bark nugget for decreased cat digging - seems to be working so far.

I cut down a Golden Delicious apple tree that has been in place for 8 years without bearing a single edible apple. Each year it blooms then disease strikes. It's not good for my garden/climate and time to get over it. Plus, I cut down a volunteer Japanese maple, nothing special, and taking "forever" to make a nice size. A fruit tree would be perfect in that spot, would look better, bloom nicely, be the perfect size, and provide sustainance. I've calculated that there is space for 3 eventually well-pruned fruit trees as a result of this cleanup.

Among the challenges here in my Portland Oregon - area yard, mild winter combined with late frost leads to some of the biggest fruit-growing disappointments. Sweet cherries bloom early, and last year the frost took a lot of them. Even so, we had several big bowls-full. Sour cherries have great flavor, and bloom later. I have added a "Sure-fire" sour cherry that looks like it will have a good year this year (3rd season) and now will add another variety.

This is Almaden Duke from Raintree Nursery. I'm hoping for a sort of wild-cherry flavor. It's on Gisela-5 dwarfing rootstock. After placing the order, I've been looking online for this variety and it isn't discussed much. I'm suspicious it's more in the sweet than tart cherry category, but I don't know what that will mean about bloom time.

This is Beauty Plum. The pic is from Dave Wilson Nurseries. I hope that my Shiro and Hollywood both bear this year. Last year (2nd or 3rd year, I forget) the HOllywood had one and the Shiro had none. It's probably their youth, but reading about pollination I get very conflicting data. Shiro is either self pollinating, or partial, or not at all, depending on the website. Same for Hollywood. Plus they don't pollinate each other. So, I'm adding Beauty, which Raintree Nursery states pollinates both Shiro and Hollywood, and is very precicious, bearing in the nursery row. So probably at least blooming in the first year and more likely second year, to provide pollen for the other varieties. Plus of course they claim wonderful flavor.

Raintree lists Beauty as one of its earliest ripening plums, Shiro in mid-season, and Hollywood as late. That should provide a spread of harvest as well as color and flavor. (Arggh, just now, looking at Raintree, Beauty won't pollinate Shiro. I can't win!) Here is a site (Wolcott Garden Treasures) claiming that Shiro can be pollinated by Hollywood and Beauty, and vice versa. WSU Extension lists Shiro, Hollywood, and Beauty as good for Western Washington.

The Peach-leaf-curl has also been a source of disappointment. This Indian Free peach is reported as resistant. I think I don't really need a genetic dwarf variety if I prune carefully. Also from Raintree. Needs a pollinizer; other peaches are nearby. Here's a website with a gorgeous pic of this peach; amazing. This peach is very well-regarded on the Dave Wilson nursery website as well, although being a commercial site, I doubt that they wouyld describe any peach negatively. " For some tasters, the unique white (and red!) peach ‘Indian Free’ (or Indian Blood Free - origin obscure) is still unsurpassed among the white fruits. The intense aroma and tart-sweet flavor of a fully tree-ripe Indian Free has to be experienced to be believed. " Apparently the "Indian Free" and "Indian Cling" are different varieties, and my be referred to as "Indian blood" as well. Not self fertile, but apparently many have been grown from seed, which would mean they are genetically diverse.

Interesting article about the history of Peaches in the American colonies of the SouthEast here: "Historians believe that peach trees were first introduced into the colonial settlements of the United States by the French explorers in 1562 at territories along the Gulf coastal region near Mobile, Alabama, then by the Spaniards who established Saint Augustine, Florida in 1565 on the Atlantic seaboard. The peach trees were planted from peach seed imported from Europe in an effort to establish a self sustaining, agricultural. fruit tree product to feed the colonists. American Indians spread the planting of the peach trees throughout vast territories by transporting the peach seed to other tribes that lived in the interior regions. This new crop of fruit was fast growing, producing a delicious peach two or three years from planting. The trees were so productive and vigorous that sometimes, widespread impenetrable thickets became established from the peach seeds that fell to the ground from fruit unharvested. The illusion was formed by settlers after 1600 that the peach trees were native to the United States, since they were so widely spread and grew so vigorously everywhere. " also "In December of 1795, Jefferson planted 1151, peach trees after he had experimented with planting in 1807, the "black plumb peach of Georgia," (Indian Blood Cling Peach). This naturalized peach wonder had been planted throughout the State of Georgia by the Indians and was a dark-red velvety color with tiger-like striping. This fragrant peach was extremely desirable because of its rich coloring and taste... Jefferson believed that this Indian cling blood peach was a cross between naturalized peach trees and a French cultivar peach, "Sanguinole."

Finally, the strawberry borders are invaded by grasses. I've learned that I like having a harvest spread out, not all at once. So I am adding Seascape Strawberry, also from Raintree. These will be in containers. As it happens, I left containerized cannas outside this winter and they froze, so will have a convenient place to plant the new strawberries. It's hard to find a reasonably unbiased review of strawberry varieties - here's a comparison on growingstrawberriesguide.com; they seem to like Seascape. Of course it's all person- and locality-dependent, but most of the other "reviews" that I could find were really just ads. I may also try a local source of another variety, to compare and increase my odds of getting some good berries.

New Test Fruits for 2011

I have some spots for new fruits. Golden Delicious has to go - no apples for 7 years; 2010 was the most promising but succumbed to disease. There is no room for consistent non performers. In addition, Chinese Mormon Apricot died last year. And finally, the Hazel nuts produced, and the squirrels got every nut. I don't think I can protect them from squirrels, and if I do it will be too much effort. So I think the hazel nut trees, will go, even though they look like they'll have a lot of nuts this year.

I need to re-think the peaches, too. The genetic dwarfs actually look beautiful, bloom like crazy, but require a lot of effort to cover from the rain to prevent leaf curl. I didn't have time this year. I may spray with copper this week, if I get a chance. Not sure how that will work if it is freezing.

Here are the selections I am thinking about from Raintree.

I did research on late-blooming (to avoid frost), leaf-curl-resistant peaches. There isn't enough information to choose one over the others - if I could, I would pick the latest-blooming, most leaf-curl-resistant. However, it looks like the old variety, Indian Free, has a good record in the Northwest (taking that with a grain of salt). The down side is it needs a pollinator, but I currently have 3 genetic dwarf peaches and one peach-plum hybrid, so I hope that at least one of those will suffice. Raintree states: "Said to be one of the all-time highest rated fruits at taste tests, this heirloom variety was grown at Monticello by Thomas Jefferson, who prized it for its rich color, flavor and size. Naturally resistant to peach leaf curl, the tree produces heavy crops of large, aromatic cling stone peaches that have red skin and white flesh marbled with crimson stripes. When fully ripe in mid to late season, the rich, sweet, distinctive flavor is excellent both eaten fresh." and David Wilson nurseries states this peach wins their taste test. I feel frustrated about the genetic dwarfs, they are really beautiful small trees and I invested a lot of time and effort, and space, to them, but to (potentially) lose a year's crop because I didn't have time to do leaf curl prevention in November/December is frustrating. And it takes several years to bring a new tree into production.

Cherries have been doing well, but the challenges are early bloom, resulting in loss of a lot of cherries to frost, and splitting when there is a late rain. Two years ago I added a tart cherry, Sure-Fire. It had its first few cherries last year, and I hope for a larger crop this year, although it is still young. Tart cherries do not nead a pollinator. Many, but not all, sweet cherries do, and it's complicated because some will not pollinate others. Raintree Nursery (source of these pictures) has pollinator information. I chose this variety, Almaden Duke, as a self-fertile variety, hoping they are sweet enough to eat out of hand and will bloom later. We'll see.

Finally, I want to re-think strawberries. I usually get too many in June, and they become a mess of runners. I would like to try an ever bearing variety in barrels or raised beds, for easier maintenance. I have a couple of barrels to use, so plan on trying that. I chose Seascape Ever bearing to test due to good reviews on the internet.

The change for strawberries will mean much less maintenance. The barrels are very easy to maintain. And I hope an extended season with fewer berries at any given time. This is in keeping with my goals of 2011. The cherry is easy to maintain at small size by backyard orchard culture methods (see label link), and the peach should be easy as well - so genetic dwarf may not even be necessary.

Backyard Orchard

This time of year I feel very excited. We are almost to the statistical last frost date, probably far past it. Small fruits have formed on most of the trees. It's now time to prepare the fruit to optimize the crop.

Strawberries are not tree fruit, so may not count as "orchard". However, they are fruit, and have been very productive in past years. Currently neglected, but blooming like crazy, so I expect a good crop in a few weeks.

Ponderosa peach. This tiny tree is about 1 1/2 feet tall. It blood way to early - while the covering was still in place. It will have a few peaches, so I will get a taste.

I've learned my lesson. Don't be greedy. If a branch has 20 peaches, it won't support them, they'll be late, small, and not as sweet. I can't eat that many, anyway. I've been thinning them to about 4 inches apart. In general, the little branches are about 6 inches long, so I'm leaving one to 2 peaches per branch. That will still mean about 100 peaches per tree, if they all develop. I see in this photo that I missed some, so will need to go out and thin them. Initially I used scizzors to cut off the little peaches, but I found that it's easier to twist them off with my fingers.

You can see that peach leaf curl is present. The late rains, after I removed the covers, resulted in some leaf curl, but not too bad. I lost a few small branchlets on the peach trees, but overall they look great!

Sweet cherries don't need thinning. Each year, they set more fruit. Backyard Orchard Culture definitely works for sweet cherries.

Surefire tart cherry. This is its second year. The fruit set was much better than the sweet cherries, probably due to the later bloom, avoiding frost. There won't be enough for a pie, but we'll get several handfuls to taste.

Hollywood plum. Also in its 2nd season. It's a lot to ask, to get a crop at this point. The prolific flowers gave me a false sense of hope. But none set. Today I pruned, to open the center, and keep it small, the central tenant of backyard orchard culture.

Oh wait - a plum! One isn't much for most people to get excited about, but for me it will be a treat getting to taste it! Cool! The leaf:fruit ration is probably several hundred to one, so there is plenty of photosynthetic surplus to make it juicy and sweet. We'll see.

I wonder if the red leaves will fool the birds, keeping them away from the fruit? I'll cover it soon.

Grapes are getting ready to bloom. Still one of the most reliable and prolific fruits in my yard.

The new apple, Karmijn (see prior entries). Despite having few roots, here it is. I've noted that new fruit trees often have deformed leaves at first. It doesn't bother me, later leaves usually grow nicely. It's mulched with some lawn trimmings.

These small trees may take 3 or 4 years to bear. Gives me something to look forward to. I'm already thinking about what I'll add next Spring - there is room for a couple of columnar trees, such as Golden Sentinel or Scarlet Sentinel. There is still a long time to cogitate over it.

Honeycrisp apple. It had even fewer roots. It's growing. It will need water during the summer, sue to the small root mass. I'm happy to see it grow.

I've been thinning the apples to one per flower cluster. The clusters generally have 4 to 6 blossoms, most of which set fruit, so this means removing 4 or 5 fruitlets per cluster. I might be too early. It will take a while to thin apples on all of the trees. Again, I feel a little concerned I'm starting too early. I've bagged the apples with bags, bought from Raintree. These are like lady's nylons, maybe that's what they used to be! The idea is, the bags keep moths from laying eggs on the forming apples, so the apples won't have worms. It's another "we'll see" situation.

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?

Tall lilac (blue) in full bloom, bushy Korean lilac (maroon) not quite blooming. Wisteria about 1/4 open, the fragrance already filling the air.

Rhodies are in bloom everywhere.

Lilac, close up.

Not blooming, but very pretty. This is "bloodgood".

Strawberries in bloom. The gardens have strawberries as borders. Quite pretty at this time.

Spring Kitchen Garden Log: Starting a new season

Lots of activity this week and weekend. Yesterday temp in the 60s, today in the 70s. I spent most of the day cleaning up the main tomato patch, pulling weeds, turning soil, reining in renegade strawberries, replanted a few Chinese chives.

Rhubarb, ready for a pie if I get the ambition.

Here's the end result of the tomato patch work. Afterwards, I was too tired and sore to move. It felt very good. The best of puttering meditation.

Cherries almost ready to bloom

Very impressed this year, with this peach tree. I don't know if it will bear, but this is the most that it's bloomed. Covering with plastic for the winter, to prevent leaf curl, doesn't appear to have hurt anything. It will be a few weeks before we see if leaf curl sets in anyway.

Ready for the first batch of dumplings. Yum. This is backyard. The front yard, which is on the north side of the house, has a chive barrel that is barely getting started. Makes for a longer season. The in-ground chives are a mess - bermuda grass grew into the chives, and it's difficult to separate. I had to dig them up and pull out each grass section by hand. The barrels have a big advantage in keeping out most weeds, especially grasses.

Planted tomato seeds. This is about 2 weeks later than I planted in the past. I suspect that the ground temperature is more important than the 2 weeks wait to start seeds, so I don't anticipate any problem from the wait. I usually start too early. No time to buy new seeds, so most are from last year. Varieties: Old seeds, Supersweet100, Lemon Boy, Black from Tula, Better Boy. New seeds from the grocery store: Cherokee Purple, Gold Nugget. At least it's not like we came here in a covered wagon and if they don't grow, I don't get any. If they don't grow, I'll settle for buying some plants.


One of the apple grafts from my Dad's tree, probably red delicious. Too early to know if it 'took', but at least it hasn't dried out and turned black.

Some breba embryos on Lattarula. Keeping my fingers crossed that at last, this year, I'll get to taste some. last year I may have pruned too much, and only late crop developed; with the late Spring, I didn't get much of that. This year. I barely pruned, hoping for early (breba) crop.

Berry time

Strawberry peak season.

Raspberries too.

Here is are my biased opinions regarding raspberries: These highly expensive, delicate, very delicious fruits are very easy to grow and worth having in the organic yard. These came from what were originally 2 plants that were basically sticks about 1 foot long; and one more that invaded under the fence from a neighbor. They are fairly trouble free so far, in the 4th year that I have grown them. They produce about 1 bowl, as pictured, daily, and have done so for 2 weeks. They'll probably continue for about 2 more weeks, and the current canes will be worn out. New canes have already grown in their midst, and they'll start bearing late summer for about another month. So, every day I get to eat hand-fulls of a fruit that I would not have bought due to the high cost at the grocery store.

If I was smarter, I would have planted them with an underground barrier, like the bamboo, since they have their own idea about where they want to grow. Maybe I'll work on that this winter.