Mulberries

Just returned from 5 days in Chicago. Happy to be home. On inspection, many of the fruit trees are showing baby fruits now. The Illinois Everbearing Mulberry has now begun to leaf out, and there are embryonic mulberries on the branches. Or, those might be male flowers. Im not sure. It's still small, so I don't expect a lot. Since there is not much to photograph here are some public domain botanical illustrations of mulberries.

According to wikipedia mulberries grow easily from large cuttings, so I stuck some prunings into the same large container that now has some tomato plants. That worked well last year for King figs. Since I'm growing this tree by the backyard orchard culture method, pruning to small size, open center, summer pruning, I'm in uncharted territory for this fruit. It will be nice to see how it does this year.

Today, more Spring

Now where is that Cat?  Where is she?

The annual blooming of the pink cherry.

I've been nurturing this yellow violet for several years.  It grew wild.  I've never seen another yellow violet.

The annual dogs and pink cherry photo.

The ginkgo - quite impressive now!  I grew that from a seed?

Quince.

Impulse purchase.  Not sure where to plant.

Apple Blossoms at Hood River Oregon

Today we took a drive to Hood River and viewed the apple orchards.  Miles and miles of apple trees in bloom.

Sping is completely here now.

Pics from today.  I did manage to do a few things around the yard.  The Spring flowers are in the second wave - daffodils are done, and now tulips blooming.  Japanese plums and peaches are done and cherries are in full bloom, with early apples in bloom - North Pole and Liberty.  Euro plum (Stanley) is in bloom.  Grape hyacinths have started blooming, as are violets.  Fig embryos are swelling, but no leaves yet.  Mulberry buds are swelling.  The last tart cherry's buds are starting to swell.The garlic tub is flourishing.  So are the onion tubs.  These were planted last fall.

Grape hyacinths.  They come up all over like weeds.

Hollywood plum.  I don't know yet if it will bear fruit this year. Shiro seems to have some swelling embryonic fruit, but it's way too early to be confident about that.  

North Pole apple.  I did a good pruning job last year, I think.

Stella cherry (white flowers) is amazing this year. It's covered.  I did a good job pruning that one too.  Being self complimentary there.

Violets are spreading, bit by bit.  I need to help them along some more so they fill in and prevent weeds.

Organic weed killer.  Not perfect, but it's implossible to do it all by hand now, and this helps.  Plus, it doesn't disturb the mulch, so prevents more from sprouting.  Plus it smells really good.  It's made from citrus rinds.

Tanglefoot.  I pulled off the old "collars" and put on new ones, mostly made from polyethylene mailers off junk mail, and some zip-lock bags, cut into long strips.  Tie around the tree firmly.  It's stretchy so doesn't interfere with bark growth.  Then apply the tanglefoot.  It helps a lot to keep the ants and aphids off the cherries, and keep the ants out of the figs.  Ants in figs cause spoiling and loss of fruit, as well as giving them a nice crunchy texture.  Ants bring aphids onto cherries, and can damage the crop as well as cause a lot of leaf damage.

Mid April Gardening

This is the result of one of the Onion planters that I started last fall.  This one is Egyptian Walking Onion.  They are growing vigorously.  Somehow there are a few garlic plants with the onions.  These will be my reserve for next year.  There are lots of others around the yard for fresh eating now, including one of the oak barrels.

 Me in front of the earliest sweet cherry to bloom.  All cherry blossoms are within reach.

 Two additional planters.  Again, not sold as planters.  I drilled many holes in the bottoms.  Today I planted bush beans, about 20 seeds per planter.  These are a yellow bean, "Pencil Pod Wax Bush".  Pod, not iPod. The envelope states 59 days to harvest.  I think this is very early to plant them, but the containers will have warmer soil than planting in the ground.  These should be good for several batches of beans, then the chickens can eat the leaves and I can plant a 2nd batch to harvest in the fall.  No weed issues in the containers, or the few weeds that do grow are easily removed.

Ning next to the Victoria rhubarb - it grows very large every year.