Winter Garden Cleanup in Minitree "Orchard". 20 Dec 2023.

 I've been cleaning up the sides, under the espalier trees, and the middle, under the mini-fruit trees.  There has been some encroachment by aggressive weed grasses and this is the time to fix that.

Mostly I've been laying flat cardboard from boxes in top and covering that with a thick layer of tree leaves.  The cardboard will self-compost in a year, and the leaves will last about that long too.  Then tney enrich the soil.

The black containers will be roses.  The one on the right is the David Austin rose, Vanessa Bell, with  ground cover of trailing sedum and muscari.   The other isn't planted yet.  I'm mulching the main pathways with arborist chips, which will take my traffic better than the leaves.

About 2/3 of the winter work is completed now.

Jonagold Apple MiniTree on Bud-9 Rootstock, Delayed Graft Failure. 20 Dec 2023.

 While doing some garden work, I noted this tree was leaning.  Not a lot, maybe 30 degrees from vertical.  I bent it to straighten, and the rootstock snapped completely off!  Pop!

Bummer!  It was a nice size and shape now, blooming size and probably would have borne fruit next year.

Photo is after I cut nice scion for grafting.

I don't know why it snapped off.  Sometimes there can be graft incompatibility.  That happened a few years ago with a purchased Pristine graft on a multigraft tree.  Jonagold is triploid and quite vigorous.  Maybe too much vigor for Bud-9?

I guess I will just use the Jonagold for the Espaliers.  I have a couple of Bud-9 rootstocks that need grafting, but would I be setting them up for the same issue a few years on?  It's a good question.

It's interesting to look at the red color of the broken wood.  That's typical for Bud-9, which also has red cambium and red leaves.  I wonder if it would stay red as dried wood for finishing.

I think that trees on Bud-9 always beed to be tied to a post for support. 

Gingko Scion For Grafting. 20 Dec 2023.

 I collected these scion for grafting in late winter.

The original tree is a male, thirty years old, that I grew from seed that my late dad had collected.  It's a beautiful tree.   I wanted to preserve it at the Battle Ground house, and grafted scion onto seedlings that I grew from locally collected seeds.

But it grows weird.  I straighten it up, but it always grows almost horizontally.

I don't know why it grows so weird.  Maybe I grafted it upside down?  Would it grow that way?  I don't know.

The tree has some offshoots.  I decided to graft a couple of those with scion from the top, and see what happens.  I'll store the same as I do apple scion.

Collecting Apple Scion. 20 Dec 2023.

 I'm not happy with the red flesh apples.  They are too small, too sour, even astringent, too hard, and just not very good.  That's the bottom two tiers of each of theree espaliers.  Too much garden space to waste of something I don't like.

I read some where that lower tiers on espaliers are not as vigorous as uppers.  I don't know if that is true.  I decided to remove most of those lower tiers, and graft vigorous varieties that I know I like, in their place.  So it's an experiment.

I collected scion from the varieties Akane and Jonagold, so far.  

This is way more than I will use.  It's good to have choices for grafting, and they needed pruning anyway.  These are in plastic zipper bags until later winter.  I don't like using plastic, but these are washed, re-used bags.

There are three espaliers to re-graft.  Not sure about the third choice.  Porter is vigorous, and good so maybe that one. 

Schlumbergera Seedlings. 20 Dec 2023.

 Here are the Sclumbergera seedlings, from seed I planted two weeks ago.

I don't have a macro lens, so they are difficult to see.  There are about ten seedlings.

I had them on a seed starting warming mat.  The pot was covered with plastic wrap to maintain warmth, uncovering daily to air out.  I read they need light, so they are under an LED desk lamp.

So far, so good.  Today I watered from below and turned up the light intensity.  I have not done this before, so it is an interesting experiment.

Peach Leaf Curl Prevention. Mid Nov, 2023.

 Delayed posting.  This is the genetic dwarf peaches - more peach bush than peach tree.  The crops are very rewarding, and the peaches are delicious.  They get peach leaf curl very badly, unless protected from rain.

I left the protective cage in place all year, just removing the plastic cover in late Spring.  This time, instead of tying the plastic down at the corners, I used duct tape to reinforce the sides of the sheet, with a loop of string every foot or so.

Without rain on the nodes, there is no leaf curl disease.  I'll prune off the exposed branches in Spring, and shorten the branches once I can observe the flower buds.

Shelling Green Bean Pods For Seeds. 6 Dec 2023.

 Last month  I salvaged the last of the green bean pods to save seeds.  The pods were mildewed.  I let them dry out in a paper bag.  The timing doesn't seem important as long as they are crispy dry.   Now I shelled them, got a couple hundred seeds.

I think they'll grow just fine.  

It doesn't take a lot of plants, to get a lot of bean seeds.  Just let a few go to full ripening.  With around 5 beans per pod, it only takes 20 pods to get 100 seeds.  Maybe four or five plants.  My experience is, they germinate faster than purchased seeds.  That may relate to age and storage conditions, or maturity of the seeds when collected.

I stored these in a paper envelope in the pantry.

Based on my labeling, the variety is contender.

The plan will be to plant these earlier than I usually do, both for an earlier crop and for earlier seed saving that won't result in mildewed pods due to fall rains.

Overwintering Geraniums. 6 Dec 2023.

 It's so easy to overwinter geraniums, I'm surprised more people don't do that.  Especially if grown in containers, all that's needed is to let them dry out and move into a cool, lighted place.  

I meant to let these dry out in the sunroom, but they continued blooming.  They give some needed cheer, and not much care is needed, so I let them continue.

I can just move them outside again in Spring.  They'll be much bigger than buying a new plant, and with a lot more flowers.

I do have a couple of geraniums in the garage, that I let dry out.

The sunroom now.

Schlumbergera Update. Seeds. 6 Dec 2023.

 The Schlumberas have been winding down, but still nice.

The first to bloom has a developing fruit.  I've been pollinating a few flowers for fun.  The fruits take a long time to ripen.  I'll just leave them alone as the plants over-Summer.

I also collected seeds from one that fruited TWO years ago.  The fruit was a bit wrinkly but still moist and soft.  I washed the seeds into a teacup.

Most of the seeds sank in the water, which I guess is a good sign.  I rinsed a second time, carefully pouring off the water, then planted the minuscule seeds on the surface of moist seed starting medium, gently pressing them onto the medium.

From what I read, they might germinate in a few weeks. I'm keeping them covered but in the light.

I saw this one at Winco and bought it.  The color was more purple under the store lights.

Reblooming a Poinsettia. 6 Dec 2023.

 In a reversal of overwintering flowers, I over-summered this poinsettia.  Basically, I treated it like any other container plant during the summer, watering and some fertilizer.  In the fall, I moved it into the sunroom.  I avoided letting it get any artificial light, just what the sun provided.  It rebloomed nicely, nice and red.

This is my first try at reblooming a Poinsettia.  Here are my observations.

1.  The original soil might be fine for greenhouse growth and transport, but has really lousy water retention and once dry, can't be re-wetted easily.  Once I repotted the plant into a "normal" potting soil, removing most of the old peat.   It did much better and was much easier to keep watered after repotting.

2.  The stems are quite brittle and break easily.  They need support or protection.

3.  The flower was smaller than for the purchased plant.  I still like it anyway, very pretty.

We'll see if I can keep it another year.  I'd like to prune it back a bit to make it bushier.

Meanwhile, I bought a new one at Winco.

We'll see how that over-summers too.  It's kind of fun doing that.

Blackberry Pruning. Late Nov, 2023.

 I finished pruning the thornless horticultural blackberry bushes.  The main one is the variety "Triple Crown", which is the best producing, best tasting and least trouble of the several varieties that I have tried (Until Ponca).  Triple Crown is quite vigorous.   

Each winter, I remove the old stem that produced this year.  It's done and won't bear again.  During the summer,  I tip the new growth at about four feet tall.  That produces new branches, that I prune back to about 18 inches long, in winter .  The exact length doesn't seem to be too important.

Finally, I covered the old tree leaf mulch with a fresh layer of tree leaves, about 6 inches thick.  I've done that for ten years.  The old gummy clay (winter) and brick hard clay (summer) is now a soft loam, like forest floor.  These never get fertilizer or summer water, and bear generous crops of  big, delicious blackberries each summer.

I have a second bed on the south side of an old shed.  They are not as old, maybe three to four years (Triple Crown from cuttings) and two years (Ponca, mail order).  The shed is ancient, snd sinking into the ground.  The siding is in bad shape.  I dug a trench by the shed, to allow the siding to dry.  I pruned the Triple Crown as noted above.  Ponca is a brachytic dwarf - the internodes are quite short.  So it doesn't grow nearly as tall as the others.  Ponca's berries are bigger than Triple Crown's and I think the flavor is the best of all I have tried.

The one caution I have about Ponca, so far, is the berries are so heavy that the branches break off.  I added a fencepost to tie supports for next year.

The brachytic dwarf character shows in this photo, with Ponca in front and Triple Crown in back.

Fig Tree Pruning. Late Nov, 2023

 I've been under the weather a bit, so haven't posted.  A couple of weeks ago I pruned the fig trees by the access road.  I think their last major pruning was two years ago, so they needed some shortening.  These don't bear a lot, so far.  I think that's the location which doesn't get a lot of sun, but they do bear some.  They are good for privacy in that location.

This is Brunswick.  I grew it from a cutting about 20 years ago in Vancouver, and moved it to Battle Ground about 10 years ago.   It did bear a pretty good crop this year, the biggest figs of any variety I grow, possibly the sweetest, and very nice flavor.  It is usually shy bearing.

This is Smith Fig.  It is roughly 8 years old.  The origin is Louisiana.  Many have considered Smith to be one of the best tasting of all fig varieties.  I agree, although this is not a prime climate for this  more heat adapted, variety.  So far it has been pretty shy bearing but had a great crop this year.  

This is Adriatic.  The figs are nice and big, but production minimal for me so far.  It's only about 7 years old.

Here is the row of fig trees.  It also shows a two year old Hardy Chicago and a 7 year old Champagne Fig.    Hardy Chicago has always been a great bearing fig variety for me, and good tasting figs with lots of "figgy" flavor.  Champagne is very mild, and so far doesn't bear well.

This pruning was fairly drastic, taking about 1/2 of the the height.  They are all about 6 feet tall now, a good height to manage growth, pinch stem tips to encourage fig production, and pick figs.  Deer haven't been bothering them.    By trimming back, they should also have more low growth, to help with the privacy aspect.  One drawback, pruning too much growth might delay production for a year.  We will see.

The last photo shows tree leaf mulch too.  I did not remove the dropped fig leaves.  By themselves, they don't make a good mulch, because they are so fleshy they break down too fast.  By adding tree leaves on top, they should stay almost weed-free for another year.  The leaves also build soil humus and soil life, and manage soil water.  I never water these during the hot, dry summer.

Nice Holiday Cacti (Schlumbergera) In Bloom. 15 Nov 23.

 The Schlumbergera bus are opening.  It's a nice show so far.

They don't get much special treatment.  I keep them on the North side of the house for the summer, bring them in during fall.  Give a little flower fertilizer.  Several are cuttings from older plants that became too big, a couple of years ago.

Edit - here's one more.

A couple of others are not blooming yet.  That will extend the show.

Fall Color. 14 Nov 23.

 Lots of fall color this year.

Below are some red maples, down the road.  Ours has already dropped its leaves.

This is a Japanese Maple that I dug up as a volunteer from my old yard, on the left.  On the right, the lower yellow leaves are a ginkgo I grew from a seed, and the higher yellow leaves are an aspen tree that I planted ten years ago.

Collecting Fallen Tree Leaves For Garden. 14 Nov 23

 Here my truckload of leaves from my generous neighbor.

Some of these went onto the refurbished, topped off, raised bed, after I mixed chicken bone meal, crushed eggs, and coffee grounds into the top layer of soil.  Now that will sit until Spring to mellow and settle.

More will go around the miniature fruit trees and onto containers, as a mulch, then the rest onto the fig tree and forsythia and wildflower border.  

Tree leaves are the best soil protector, enricher, weed prevention, soil conditioner on this green earth.  

A Tasty Hot Sauce. 14 Nov 23

 I harvested the last of the ripe chili peppers.  They were a mixture of about 1/2 Serranos, and the rest about half Cayenne and half Thai with some Tabasco peppers too.

This is the recipe I used, mostly.  It's from the this website.

1 pound washed and sliced chili peppers (as above)

1/2 cup peeled garlic cloves, sliced into 1/8 inch thick slices.

1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp fine sea salt.

I sliced the chili peppers to about 1/4 inch slices.  Then mixed in the salt, sugar, and garlic in a pyrex bowl.  Then I added the vinegars, stirred, and covered with plastic wrap.  The recipe called for letting the mixture sit in the fridge for one day.  I let it sit for two days, because I needed some rest the next day.

Then I transferred the mixture to a stainless steel pot, used the outdoor stove to bring to a boil, and simmered for 40 minutes with occasional stirring.

Then I carefully transferred to the big blender, put on the top, put a towel over that, and blended to make a smooth puree.

Here's how it looks.

 This hot sauce is great!  It's not blindingly hot, and the flavors are really complex.  Making it a puree of the entire peppers, really gave a great flavor.

Pruning and Mulching Triple Crown Blackberry. Winterizing. 14 Nov 23.

 I pruned and cleaned up the main clump of Triple Crown blackberry.  I removed all of the spent canes from this year.  I had already tipped the new canes at about 5 feet high.  I left those in place.

The main weed problem is a wild clematis.  It vines around everything and sends long underground runners.  I pulled out and cut off all I could.  Then I applied a tree leaf carpet, about six inches or so thick.  I left last year's in place, they have mostly rotted away.  

That's most of the maintenance I do each year.  Maybe two hours today, maybe an hour of little things in the summer.  

I also cleaned up the newer clumps, the same way.  That area has two younger Triple Crown clumps and a dwarf variety, Ponca.  I didn't add the leaves yet, because some grass clumps need to be removed.

 

Persimmons. 3 Nov 2023.

 Here is the Nikita's Gift persimmon tree at ten years old.  It doesn't really get any maintenance now, other than minor pruning.

Here is the Saijo persimmon tree, same age.

Now I just need so e good persimmon recipes.

The Garlic Is Mulched With Leaves. 3 Nov 2023.

 I was able to collect some tree leaves from the yard.   Most are yet to fall.   It was enough to cover the garlic beds.

Now the work is completed.  They are ready for winter.  The leaves will even out the soil temperature and prevent weeds.  This year's garlic needed almost no weeding at all for the entire growin season, a big benefit.

Raised Bed Renovation Is Completed. 3 Nov 23.

 This raised bed is completed now.  I finished stapling in the plastic chicken-feed bag liners.  In total, I've added ten 5-gallon bucket loads of good garden soil, to raise the level.  I mixed in some chopped marigold "green manure".   The soil surface is now smoothed.

I'll add more eggshell, then cover with a nice layer of tree leaves.  Then it's ready for winter.

When dry season begins in Spring, I'll stain the "new" treated (reused) 2x4 braces.  I think this is the strongest, most likely to last, method to keep the sides vertical and square for the long term.

Bone Meal And EggShell Meal. 3 Nov 2023.

 About every ten days, I make a big batch of dog food with chicken thighs as the main meat ingredient (for the taurine). I portion it out into 7 oz portions, refrigerate a three day supply,  and freeze the portions to because later.  As a vegetarian, I don't have bones from my own meals.

The chicken thighs are slow cooked overnight, and the bones just fall off.  I dry the bones.  In the past, I threw them into the woodstove, to supply minerals in the ash, which I scattered onto the garden beds.  We decommissioned the woodstove (breathing is a good thing), so now what to do with the chicken thigh  (femur) bones?

After drying thoroughly, I pounded and ground them using a granite mortar and pestle.  The came out like this.

They are a bit crunchy and a bit fluffy.  Not that different from purchased bone meal, except less dense.

I also grind eggshells the same way.

Bonemeal is mainly a phosphorous source, especially good for bulbs, roots, flowers.    From wikipedia, the NPK is about 3:15:0 and calcium content is about 12%.  (a sobering, sad, macabre comment in Wikipedia, "In desperation, farmers collected the bones from major battlefields like the Battle of Waterloo and the Battle of Austerlitz to crush them and refertilize the soil.")

From The Spruce, bone meal promotes flowering, fruit, and seed production, and is slow release over about four months.  I imagine that is slower in winter months, and is retained in the soil for later.  There is also some magnesium and zinc.  Acidic soil (which mine is) is needed to break down the bone meal.

Eggshells are mainly a calcium source.  They are 95% to 97% Calcium Carbonate (Wikipedia).   My soil tests low for calcium, due to Pacific NW rains and other factors.  Eggshell is also a soil conditioner.

Here I added both additives to the recently planted German garlic bed.

It would be better to add before planting the garlic, but I didn't think of it.  I used about a cup of each.  Then used a small stirrup hoe to work it into the top inch of soil, well above the planted garlic cloves.

Nemagon Mustard Groundcover Update. 26 Oct 2023.

 Here's the first raised bed with growing Nemagone mustard.

So far, so good.  I don't know if they will grow through a hard freeze.  Time will tell.  They are reported to die with a 26°F  freeze.  If they don't survive, I'll just cover with leaves for weed prevention.

I'm growing the Nemagone as a sort of biofumigant.  Also here.  It's meant to reduce potential pest and disease load in the soil, as well as being a ground cover to reduce weed seed load, and a green manure crop to return nutrients and humus to the soil.  That's a lot to hope for. It also may not be necessary, since I don't bring in plants or soil from elsewhere (except tree leaves) and I rotate my crops.  But I don't think it hurts, and it might help.

I had these through the winter, two years ago.  They survived, and then grew very well in late winter / early Spring.