Inchelium Garlic. Coffee grounds. Blog Maintenance.

The Inchelium garlic is at about the same stage as garlic plants last year. This variety is a Northwest native american heirloom. I had also planted German Red, which did very well last year. Most of the garlic that we have eaten for past few months has been from the garden, and we eat several heads of garlic per week.

Last night, I stopped by Starbucks & picked up 2 bags of coffee grounds for the tomato bed. The barrista asked if I wanted the garbage bag full too, so I got even more than hoped for. Somehow I feel embarrased to ask for them, but if not used, they would add to landfill waste, with a rich, organic soil enhancing material that is then lost to the environment, meanwhile soil amendments need to be bought to enhance the soil. I'm less and less enthusiastic about the packaged manures, since those animals are fed antibiotics, worsening the antibiotic-resistant bacteria situation. Coffee grounds are a great plant food. I usually scatter the coffee grounds across the surface of the soil, and dig them in. Some also go into the compost. The earthworms love them. Despite what a number of sites claim, they are not acidic - the acid goes onto the coffee, which we drink - the grounds are neutral. I figure that I've added a few hundred poiunds of coffee grounds to the "growing greener" yard over the past few years.

Labels are now added to the postings. it's fun to click on them & have all of the postings on a subject pop up on one web page. But, for some reason, the process of posting photos is more cumbersome since I updated to the new blogger. Win some, lose some.

Who is eating the Orchard Mason Bees?

Here are the mud-plugs carefully applied by orchard mason bees last summer. I noticed today that about 1/4 of them are poked out. Is it another insect? Birds?

Orchard Mason Bees are non-honey making bees that do not have the highly organized social structure of honey bees. They are efficient pollenizers of fruits (which is why I started playing with them). Honey bees are declining due to mites, and there is some thought that orchard mason bees will be needed in greater numbers to pollenate fruit trees.

There may be local bees anyway - they love the ornamental cherries. However, I bought a kit from Raintree Nursery (mail order), set it up, and even carefully left a bowl of mud near the 'bee house'. It was fun watching the enter and leave the little tunnels in the house. If only 1/5 of the tunnels remain intact, and those bees survive, it will be an increase over the original population.

Still, who is eating them?

These remain green, Midwinter

It's encouraging that there are still green plants in the yard. The opuntia and Rosemary have survived about 5 Winters so far, so must be OK in this climate.
The Eucalyptus cinerea may not be ideal for this climate, given its milder provenance in Australia and New Zealand. This is a 'global warming' tree - I'm trying it given that we've had some 'zone creep' and former rules may not apply any more. The hardiness zones have moved. Of course, when the hard freeze arrives in February, it might not look so good. It might be Eucalptus gunnii instead - I'm not sure about the labeling.

The Euphorbia remains green (or more correctly, red/green) as well. It's in a dry microclimate which receives almost no rain.

The arbor is pruned.

Grape arbor before tackling the pruning. Last year these were pruned primarily as canes, with a few spurs along the 'trunk'. Growth was rampant last year. Canadice and Interlaken bore fruit both from the spurs or canes, so either method should be OK.






This year, they are pruned mainly as spurs, with a few canes at the ends to cover the reaainder of the arbor. I may shorten them some more, since I suspect that I left too many buds. In the future, if these varieties can bear well from spurs, I think that spur pruning will be the way to go.

Each vine has 4 arms, informally arranged on the supports.

It was evening by the time that I finished. I'm happy to have this once-yearly job done.

Detail of spurs.

New Year's Day. Grape pruning.

This gateway arch was built 2 years ago from Home Depot scraps. It seemed like a good way to convert unusable yard space into productive garden space.

The detail above shows the pruned vines, each support holding a string to attach the vines. Last year the vine grew rampantly, and true to most recommendations, I removed the majority of last year's growth. One cane was left for each side of the archway, and a replacement spur is present for each cane.

It's difficult to see the vines given that they are about the same color as the fence. If I had not pruned it today, then I would be thinking about it until it's done. With last year as a guide, by mid summer the vines will be rampant, covering the gateway with a thick mop-top.

The Price grape had only a few grapes last year. Apparently the squirrels decided that this is really a rest stop on their fence-top I-5, with pre-blossom grape buds as the squirrel-equivalent of Chicken McNuggets. Once the vines actually grew, the squirrels left them alone. So, only a few grapes, and none from the top.

Not sure what squirrel-resistent devices to attempt this year. Maybe a sloping board covered with foil? Stretch out a slinky and attach to the fence top? Of course, if a squirrel WANTS it, it will GET it regardles of what I do.

The pruned ginkgo. Lower branches are removed, upper branches shorted to buds pointed in (hopefully) the best directions. A couple of upper branches, that looked like they would result in badly placed branches, were also removed. It's ready for a new year, come Spring.