Zinnias and Dahlia. 11.2.18

 Dahlias haven't done well for me.  I think there are a couple of reasons.  First, I've bought big box store tubers.  I think they are mishandled and the growing points are not firmly attached to the tubers, so they just die.  Second, deer like eating the plants.  Third, slugs eat them.

Today while cleaning up, I saw this flower in a spot that doesn't get much attention.  I didn't know it was alive.  This dahlia was planted two years ago.  Where there's life, there's hope.

Meanwhile, zinnias continue to bloom.  This plant was among those that I thinned from the original row, and stuck in the vegetable garden because I hate to waste them.  Still looking nice, in November.

Persimmons Are Ripening. Fall Color. 11.2.18

Nikita's Gift Persimmons.  11.2.18

Nikita's Gift Persimmons.  11.2.18

October and November is persimmon season.  We already harvested and ate, all of the Yates American Persimmons, in October, but the rest are just beginning to ripen.

The Nikita's Gift hybrid persimmon tree has lost its leaves, and the orange/red globes are quite beautiful  hanging on the branches.  Most are still hard.  We will start ripening some, soon, indoors.

The Saijo Asian persimmon tree does not have as many this year.  However, the ones that it does have, should be very sweet.  I suspect the smaller crop will be typical for this tree in my yard.


Prairie Star got off to a difficult start in its first two years.  However now it's becoming a handsome young tree.  It's big enough to have flowers either next year or the year after, if climate and the gods of orchards are with us.

Persimmon trees have such beautiful fall color.

Nikita's Gift Hybrid Persimmon Tree.  11.2.18

 I was so enthusiastic about these fruits, I decided to order two additional persimmon trees for future years.  The varieties are Coffee Cake (Nishimura Wase) and Chocolate (Maru)  Both benefit from pollination by the other.  Persimmon benefits from pollination is complicated, but in the case of these varieties, each makes both female and male flowers.

Saijo Asian Persimmon tree.  11.2.18

Yates American Persimmon Tree.  11.2.18

Prairie Star American Persimmon Tree.  11.2.18

Late Maintenance of New Bearded Iris Beds. 11.1.19

Here is an update on the bearded iris garden. For the most part, bearded irises are left unattended, no maintenance, to fend for themselves.  I've seen many clumps like that around town, and they seem to grow and bloom just fine. In fact, in years gone by, I had many clumps that had about that treatment.

However, they were difficult to grow at first in the Battle Ground  garden.  So last year, I dug up my remaining clumps, and planted them haphazardly along the edge of the woods.  They were in poor soil, full sun, and had essentially no maintenance.  This year, those irises did very well, grew sturdy and strong.  A few bloomed this Spring, but most did not.

So this summer, I developed a renewed interest.  I converted two vegetable garden beds to bearded iris.  This bed has grown sweet corn (last year), and garlic and onions (this year).  It's not the best spot, and deer hang out here.  Deer do not eat bearded iris plant's but they do walk among them, sometimes smashing them or their soil.

I went around the woods edge, digging up many of the clumps that I had deposited there in past years, and replanted them into this new bed.  I also bought a number of iris rhizomes, mainly by mail order.

Here is how the beds look now.  I don't intend to over-nourish them, but I did add crushed eggshells to the soil.  That's the granular-looking white specks.   I have been hoeing weeds, using a shallow stirrup hoe.  So far, of the new plants, one developed crown rot.  I promptly removed that plant, threw it out, and replaced the soil with fresh soil from an annual flower bed.

Over the past week, I cut off all of the leaves from the "rescued" irises.  Those leaves were droopy and had brown streaks or brown spots.  For the newly purchased rhizomes, I have not cut off the leaves yet.  Those leaves look sturdy and green.  I want to give them all the chance I can to photosynthesize.  When they start to discolor, those leaves will also go.

After hoeing, there are seeds in the center of some clumps or adjacent to rhizomes.  Those will need hand pulling.

Not surprising, the last purchased rhizomes don't look like much.  There is minimal top growth.  They may still survive the winter and grow nice plants next year, but for those, flowers next spring seem unlikely.

So far, so good. 

Newly  Purchased Iris Rhizomes, Planted in July and Early August.  11.1.18

"Rescued" Clumps of Bearded Irises, Planted In August And September.  11.1.18

Newly Purchased Bearded Iris Rhizomes, Planted in September.  11.1.18

Another Carnivorous Pitcher Plant. Sarracenia purpurea. Progress Report. 11.1.18

Sarracenia purpurea.  11.1.18

This plant turned out very nice.  I kept it in a dish of water on the deck all summer long, and continue to do so.  It might have dried out once or twice, but never bone dry.  It was in full sun.  On a couple of occasions, I poured miracle gro, 1/4 strength, into the pitchers, but that was all of the feeding it got.  The water used, was rain water from the roof.

Multiple new pitchers grew.  I left the old ones in place, even though they are becoming a bit unsightly, because they still seem functional.  By functional, I mean holding water, catching insects, and photosynthesizing. 

I'm interested to see if this plant will bloom next Spring.  I'm very happy with this plant, and this method of growing it.

Is this Ginkgo Tree Doomed, or Will it Flourish? 11.1.18

Ginkgo Tree Before Clean Up.  11.1.18

Ginkgo Tree After Clean Up.  11.1.18

 This was a very nice ginkgo tree that i grew from seed, one of the three that came from my Dad 20 years ago. It was the last to be moved from container to ground, and the ground was hard poor quality clay.  When we bought the Battleground place, I moved this tree.  I didn't know if it would survive, but it thrived for several years.  Then, for unclear reasons, the entire top died.

I delayed cutting it down entirely, and was surprised by new growth emerging from buds low on the trunk - ground level, to about 18 inches. 

I left it alone last year.  This Spring, I cut back some of the dead branches, and stuck them into the fencing that I encircled the tree with to reduce deer damage.  The most vigorous of the new growth reached about waist level last year - maybe 18 inches of growth, then this year shot up to over 8 feet tall.

Today I removed the protective fence, cut the new growth back to the one, most vigorous, new lead, leaving some tiny shoots at ground level as back-up plan.  The I cut the original trunk to a little above where the new leader emerged from the trunk, sloping the cut away from the branch point for water drainage.

Then I cut off the lowest branches from the new leader, leaving the lowest scaffold branches at about 6 feet high.

I don't know what caused the original die back.  If the white spots on the trunk are indicative of a fungal infection, that does not bode well for this tree.   On the other hand, we are not at two years after the die back, and the new growth was very vigorous and sturdy, so maybe whatever caused the problem is done.  All we can do now is wait and see.

I provided some deer protection for the tender leader.  I know, they say deer don't eat ginkgo branches.  My deer have not read those books and websites, and they do sometimes eat tender ginkgo growth, or might rub antlers on the tempting straight stalk, stripping off the bark, as they do on cypress trees.

Close Up of Original Trunk and New Leader.  11.1.18

Final Appearance of Ginkgo Tree.  11.1.18

Late Fall Apple Tree Care. Pruning and Protection from Voles. 11.1.18

I've started providing some care for the apple tree area.  This is for the dwarf and columnar trees.  One of the transplanted trees was without vole protection.  Voles are the biggest reason these trees don't survive a winter.   These are hardware cloth, helt in a cylinder using zip ties.  I push them slightly into the ground, but no longer try to push them deep.  When I have them under ground level, roots grow between the mesh and it's difficult to clean up.

I pruned the trees to remove branches the almsot touch the ground, and maintain the columnar shape of columnar cultivars.

They have a nice maple leaf mulch now.  About 6 inches thick, which will pack down to a few inches.  That provides excellent moisture retention during the summer, weed prevention all year, and nourished the soil.

Cymbidium Orchids. Easy Care and Beautiful Flowers for Fall. 11.1.18

NOID Cymbidium.  11.1.18

NOID Cymbidium.  11.1.18

These Cymbidiums are tough and beautiful.  This year, I finally decided to treat them right.  That didn't take much.  I repotted in fresh orchid bark, the standard stuff at the big box store.  I watered them once or twice a week, kept them in full sun, and about every other watering, gave  them diluted miracle grow - 1/4 the strength on the label.  I kept them in the vegetable garden on a stand so slugs wouldn't attack.  I was a hot, dry summer.  The leaves didn't look great, but the "Chocolate leopard" (my name) Cymbidium must have a doen flower stalks, with up to 10 flower buds each.  The "Lemon leopard" (my name) Cymbidium has about 3 stalks, bigger flowers.   I have two others.  Each is sending up one flower stalk.  They are much smaller plants.

I've had these for possibly 10 years.  Many years, I left them sitting under a tree all summer with no water.  This year I gave them just a little better care, and they are beautiful.

They are still outside.  The nights drop into the 40s.  I will bring them inside soon.

Carnivorous Plant. Sarracenia "Judith Hindle" Pitcher Plant. 11.1.18

This is one of the carnivorous plants I started growing late winter this year.  Growth has been excellent.  Beautiful form and color.  The cultivar is Sarracenia "Judith Hindle"

I'm happy with it as is but I'm interested to see if it will bloom next year.

This was much easier to grow than I anticipated.  I kept it in a dish of water, about an inch of water, all summer.  There might have been 2 or 3 occasions when it dried out, which did not appear to set it back too much. 

I used rain water, which we collect in a rain barrel from roof runoff.  I did give a small amout of miracle gro, 1/4 strength, in the pitchers.  I don't know if that did anything.

Dawn Redwood after Two Growing Seasons. 10.29.18

Dawn Redwood after 2 Growing Seasons.  10.29.18

I planted this tree on 11.17.16.  Based on recommendations by Linda Chalker-Scott, of Washington State Horticulture (I think), I washed off the nursery soil, bare-rooting the tree.  I cut off crossing or binding roots before planting.  During the first year, I watered it about once weekly.  This year, I watered about every other week.  It was a hot, dry summer.  The tree has grown nicely, and now it is starting to show fall color change.  I keep the fence around it to reduce deer damage to the trunks, which happened to nearby cypress trees of similar size.

The tree is mulched, but I did not fertilize.  I've buried some dead chickens nearby, and my beloved dog Charlie, whose atoms will nourish my spirit in the leaves and growth of this tree.

Tree at planting: 11.17.16.  It's hard to believe that a tree with so roots, compared to the top, survived.  But it did, and flourished.  I did not prune the top.  Planting in fall may have allowed significant root growth before Spring.   Im certain that mulch and keeping it watered for the first year is also key.

Odds and Ends. The Last Pawpaws. Planting Egyptian Walking Onions, Garlic Daffodils. More.Saijo 10.28.18

Saijo Persimmon Tree.  10.28.15

This post has odds and ends from a few garden tasks, and walking around.

The Asian type persimmons are closer to ripe.  One of the Nikita's Gift persimmons was ripe.  The Saijo has about a dozen, not as large as last year, but then I didn't water it at all.

Columnar Apple Tree, Golden Sentinel, about 3 weeks after transplanting.  1-.28.18

The columnar apple trees that I dug up, pruned, and transplanted a few weeks ago (10.6.18), are showing the stress.  The larger one (Golden Sentinel) has mosly brown leaves. However, a few remain green.  Since it's fall and the other apple trees are starting to drop leaves, this is not necessarily a death sentence.   There was more browning on The Golden Sentinel, than on the North Pole, which was smaller and younger, so lost less root mass relative to the top.  Next Spring will tell.

Today I planted one last row of garlic, from saved garlic heads.  I don't know which variety, suspect German Red.  I had to quit planting due to a back strain, and today was the soonest that I could.  It's been raining.  I hated to impact the wet soil, but it was either that or don't plant it.  Meanwhile, the previous plantings are growing, some quite vigorously.  The fastest seem to be Spanish Roja.  I planted those Oct 5th, so this frowth is 23 days post planting.  There are some others, not shown, almost as large at 14 days, from saved cloves.

Garlic about 3 weeks after planting.

Sets from Egyptian Walking Onions.  10.28.15

The Last of the Sunflower Pawpaws.  10.28.18

A gardener should listen to his body, and I did not.  While moving minor stuff around 2 weeks ago, my back tweaked.  Before fully better, I mowed and planted some daffodils and more garlic, in heavy soil, and hauled some leaves.  It worsened again.  Now I"m being careful.  No more heavy work until fully better, and I really do need to pay due diligence to back and other orthopedic health.  Today, I planted the last of those garlic - intended and additional row, but wont.  Planted the rest of those daffodils.  And cleared part of raised bed, which was pepper plants, and planted 6 rows of 10 sets each of Egyptian Walking Onions.  These were topsets that fell over during the summer, and are rooting in the rainy weather.  The basal bulbs have about 6 inches of growth already, soon usable as scallions.  Egyptian Walking Onions never fail to perform, even in bad weather and neglected.

The last of the "Sunflower" Pawpaws fell off the tree.  Nice sized fruits.  So that's almost a month of Pawpaws.  Very nice!  The final fruits of the year, will be persimmons.

My conclusion about pawpaws:   They really can be grown, and fruit, in the Pacific Northwest.

Home Fermented Pepper Sauces. 10.24.18

Fermented Hot Pepper Sauces.  10.24.18

These fermented for several days, en I poured off the brine and chopped them to almost-puree in the small food processor. I added back enough of the brine to have the consistency that I liked.   A little finer than a typical relish.  There is still some slight crunch in the green Korean pepper sauce.  The Korean is much milder, just slight heat.  The The red/gree Thai is very, very hot.  Both are delicious, but very different from each other.  Now store in fridge until eaten.  Good on eggs, hash browns, and vegetables.

The glass weights for small mouth jars were not good.  They don't have a handle, and are very difficult to remove.  I had to turn the jars upside down to remove the glass weight.  A better system is needed.  The weight for large mouth jars have build in handle that makes it easier to remove the weight. 

Ripe Tomatoes. 10.24.18

Ripe tomatoes in October!  Wow!

PawPaws. 10.24.18

"Sunflower" Pawpaws.  10.24.18

Wow.  These are so good!  Now I'm down to 4 remaining fruits.  This variety is "Sunflower".  I'm saving seeds.  They are washed off, in wet paper towel, in ziplock bag, in the fridge, for the winter.

Deer Resistant Petunias. 10.24.18

Petunias.  10.24.18

Add petunias to the list of deer resistant annuals.  These did great.  Deer didn't touch them.  They are in a major deer super-highway.  They are starting to wear out, due to the season.  They were covered with flowers, all summer long.

Brussels Sprouts. 10.24.18

I didn't know how these would do in my garden.  I love Brussels Sprouts.  It's a challenge growing cabbage, Chinese cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, because of Cabbage moths / worms, and because of slugs.  I can manage the slugs, but the Cabbage moths are very destructive.  Still, Collard Greens seem unaffected or mostly unaffected.

So this Spring I planted Brussels Sprouts.  They did great!  Minimal problems with Cabbage moths.  Aphids covered them in late summer / early fall, and I was not diligent.  Hosed them off once or twice.  Next year, use neem.

But I'm happy with the result.  These will be great once I clean them up and roast them.

Alice Wachenheim in her Rose Garden. Early 1960s.

I've returned to the dusty, musty boxes and albums that were left to me in my parents' estates, and left to them by their parents and my grandparents' sisters. Gardening has always been part of the lives of my family. Here is my grandfather's sister, Alice, who started hybrid tea roses by sticking flowers from bouquets into the ground, and covering with a jar to prevent dehydration. Her tea roses were important and meaningful to her, and she was proud of them. It's a faded Kodachrome.

I used the free photo editing program, Picasa, to sharpen the contrast and refurbish the color.

My Dad's Ginkgo biloba tree at 20 years of age. 10.21.18

Male Ginkgo biloba, grown from seed,, at 20 years old.  10.21.18

 This tree has grown into a magnificent specimen.  There is more risk planting a seedling ginkgo tree in town, because people don't like the stinky seed coats and cut them down.  That's a shame.  fortunately, this tree has proven itself to be a male, based on my observation of the flower catkins over the past few years.

Some day, we expect to sell the old place.  Anticipating that, a few years ago I cut grafting scion from lower twigs of this tree, and grafted them to rootstocks grown from locally collected seeds.  Of those, 2 took but only one survived planting.  I'll sho that later.  That tree has taken hold and is now about 5 feet tall.   Along way to go before it is this magestic, but a hopeful development.

I'll intend to post photos of the other ginkgo trees later.  This is the best of the lot.  My dad collected the seeds in his neighborhood in Quincy, Illinois, and gave me the seeds.  I sprouted those in flowerpots and when I moved to Vancouver, WA, three of those seedlings moved with me.  One of the others is at our country place in Battle Ground, WA, and the other did not survive transplanting there.

Same tree at about 8 years old. 

Persimmon Fall Color and Fruits. 10.1.18

Yates Persimmon.  10..21.18

Nikita's Gift Persimmon.  10.21.18

 Here are some of the persimmon trees, showing fall color.  The Yates American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) fruits have already ripened, and have been eaten.  Despite small size, their flavor is the best I have ever eaten.  The crop was small this year, about a dozen fruits.  The tree is still young.  For size, those are 5 foot tall fence posts. 

The second is Nikita's Gift Persimmon, a Ukranian hybrid of D. virginiana and D. kaki.  The fruits are beginning to ripen, but not quite ready yet.  There is a fairly  large crop this year.  I did not water this tree at all this summer, a long, hot, dry summer.  Therefore, the fruits are smaller but I imagine the flavors will be more concentrated.

Saijo Japanese (Asian) Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) always looks droopy in my yard.  The fruits are good, and should ripen in the next month.  It also did not receive any water this summer.

Not pictured yet, the other American Persimmon Tree,  Prairie Star.  That tree got off to a difficult start in previous years, due to rabbits and/or deer eating it off multiple times.  However, the tree finally recovered, and is now a tall, about 9 foot, whip.  If all goes well, expect the first fruits in 2 more years.

Nikita's Gift Persimmon, with fruits.  10.21.18

Saijo Persimmon Tree.  1021.18

Home Fermented Hot Sauces. 10.18.18

Materials for Korean Hot Pepper Fermented Hot Sauce.  10.18.18

 A few weeks ago, I made a bath of hot sauce from Thai red peppers.  The stuff is awesome!  I've been looking for more red Thai peppers, but can't find them.  At the local Asian market, I did find some green Korean peppers.

I used the recipe found at this website, with a few changes.

First, it was more like 2 cups of the sliced Korean peppers.  When I made the Thai pepper sauce, separately, I didn't slice them before chopping.  Those were also about 2 cups.

 Second, when the brine was cooled back to room temperature, I added 1 tablespoon of fresh whey from last night's batch of yogurt, as an inoculum.

Briefly-

This was
2 cups of either Korean peppers cut into rings, or 2 cups of cleaned, destemmed, Thai peppers.
1/2 tablespoon of fine sea salt (I used Himalayan)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 cup of nonchlorniated water (mine was from our well, which is purified)
1 tablespoon of fresh whey (fresh fermented sauerkraut juice would work just as well).

First, Added the salt to the water, and heated in microwave for 1 minute, until very hot.  Then I let that cool
Then, I chopped the garlic cloves.

 Then I chopped the peppers, using a small food processor.  I packed those into a pint jar, after mixing with the minced garlic.

Finally, I added the whey to the cooled brine (salt water), poured to cover the peppers, and capped with a cartouche (a circle cut from wax paper, to hold chopped peppers below the brine level), then a glass weight (to hold down the cartouche), then covered with brine to 1/4 inch from the top, then the silicone airlock / nipple and the lid ring.

I did the same, separately, with the thai peppers.

After these ferment a few days, I'll run them through the food processor a little more, not to puree but to make sure they are chopped somewhat finer than they are.

I covered these with Aluminum foil to keep out the light and preserve color, and placed them in a casserole dish, for overflow, in the basement for a cool fermentation.

Thai Pepper Fermented Hot Sauce.  10.18.18

Thai Pepper Fermented Hot Sauce.  10.18.18

Pawpaw Fruits and Fall Color. 10.17.18

"Allegheny" Pawpaw.  10.17.18

 The pawpaw trees are slow growers, but they have nice yellow fall color.  The "Sunflower" pawpaws are ripening now.  Very tasty.

"NC-1" Pawpaw.  10.17.18

"Sunflower" Pawpaws.  10.17.18

Bearded Iris rhizome "Blatant" 10.16.18

Today I was at Portland Nursery.  I didn't see much that interested me, but did not want to leave empty handed.  This bearded iris caught my eye.  It's a rebloomer, described as very fragrant.  This will be a test.  It's very late to plant bearded iris rhizomes, these looked very dried out, and they are not all that large.  I think it's unlikely there will be bloom in Spring, but as a reblooming variety, maybe it will bloom later next year.  Rebloomers are considered more vigorous and faster growing than traditional bearded iris, so it's possible.

Pawpaw Ripening Experiment. 10.16.18

"Sunflower" Pawpaws.  10.16.18

This is my pawpaw ripening experiment.  I cut the smaller one from the tree last week.  I placed it into a sealed container with a banana.  The banana gives off ethylene gas, which ripens some fruits.  I don't know if that is known for pawpaws.  I had it containerized

The larger one was tree ripened.  It fell off the tree one day earlier.

The result:
The banana-ripened one was a little firmer.  The seeds and flesh separated more easily.  The tree ripened one was more mushy.  As for flavor, the banana ripened one was a little less sweet, compared to the tree ripened one, and maybe the flavor was a little less tropical.  They were both delicious.

These were the variety "Sunflower".

Conclusion:  Artificial ripening of pawpaws may be an option.  Much better experiments related to timing of picking fruit, variety, and timing of artificial ripening, would be more revealing.  For me, if there is a surplus next year (a big "if"), I might try this again.