tomato log

Tomato heights - randomly selected

Lemon Boy 38" and 42"
Ponderosa Red 22 "
Sweet 100 32" adn 34"
Most of the rest appear to be in the high 20s to low 30s.

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.

Fig Progress Notes

Almost all of the fig branches are at the 5-leaf point where I remove the tips. The earlier branches are responding with embryonic figs. There is hope for the future! This one is Hardy Chicago and seems to be the earliest to start main crop this year.

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.

Cherry Trimming

Gradually, this tree is recovering from a "flat top haircut" that it was subjected to before we bought the house. Each summer I remove dead branches, and a few crossing branches, keeping to a "bowl" shape with open center. A couple of larger branches have died - it might be a losing battle.

I like to leave spurs on the sides of big branches, which result in tufts of flowers in the spring without obscuring the aged branch structure. These spurs result from prining suckers back to short stems with a few leaves.