Planting a Redmond American Linden

Rounding out the Lindens a little, bought this Redmond Linden through mail order from Southern Oregon.  Expected bare root, my mistake but not a problem.  Came in 5 gallon container.

It's about 6 foot tall. Not bad. Out of container. Hard tell if there are deep winding roots. On the outside, there are a few. This is the main reason I like bare root trees. Easy to tell if there is a potential girdling root. In containers, it can be disruptive to take out the soil, and a lot of work. So I just cut off the winding roots at bottom edges, and top edge, then sliced down about 6 times in the sides to cut any winding roots, and teased out some of the roots. After trimming the roots. Not much taken off. This should encouraged roots to seek out soil further from the tree. Rather than winding around in circles. Planted, soil. Soil/sod levee surrounding tree. No amendments added. I've learned that lesson. Planted with top of pot soil at soil level. A few inches of compost mulch added. Also learned to put the stake in before planting. Easier. Almost every tree I've bought has had 2 leaders. Pruned off the less effective-looking one. No other pruning. Saved the pruning to see if I can root it. fig style.

Potatoes. Container Gardening.

Pontiac Red potatoes. Bought seed potatoes at Fred Meyer garden section. Cut them apart for separate eyes. Let them dry out for 2 days.  This potting soil contained beans last year. Smaller diameter container. These are "White gourmet" potatoes. I obtained the starts 2 or 3 years ago, also Fred Meyer. They grow well in containers. These starts were in the basement, already grew 3 or 4 inches.  I just cut them apart today.They don't look like much. Covered with a few inches of potting soil.  When the leaves are a foot high, I'll add 6 inches of potting soil, and again when another 6 inches higher, until mid summer.  I could have planted in raised beds but no room.  No ground prepared either.  This method is very easy and productive.  The wider green container is a better choice, more room.

Raised Bed. Progress Report.

I pulled the soil thermometer out of the soil.  The air temp outside was 50F. The temp of the soil was 60F inside the row cover tunnel. This row of radishes has germinated. The snow peas seem to be germinating.  At the front are some cuttings I stuck into the soil.  Buddleia, a rose. And German Camomile plants. This is the first raised bed.  I started itlast fall. Garlic and Multiplier onions have perked up nicely. Chinese Chives starting to grow.  Looking nice for Feb.  On the right, the "Illinois" heritage Chinese Chives have put on 2 incesh of growth, thick and lush. The bigger growing, less delicate Changchun Chinese chives are on the left.  Very hard to see. They are starting to grow.  They will catch up and pass the Illinois Chives, growing much larger by mid Spring.  I also planted more seeds of the Changchun Chives. If they germinate I'll have a big stand of them.

Herbs.

Today I bought starts of a few herbs. These are hardy enough to plant now. They'll have head starts on any I grow later, from seeds. German chamomile. Grows larger than Roman chamomile. I planted 2 of these in the end of the vegetable bed. Annual. Roman Chamomile. More prostrate habit. I planted these in the iris bed. Perennial. Thyme. In this case, a variety called "Lime Thyme", with a lime fragrance. I planted 2 of these in the iris bed. Ning likes using thyme in roasted root vegetable. Also rosemary, which I already have in a different area and will transplant to the iris bed. Lemon balm. I bought these to plant under the beehive. I read that lemon balm is attractive to honey bees, and lemon grass oil is used to attract bees to a hive. I could have dug up plants from home for the Battleground place, and still might. These are already nicely packaged in containers, so will be easy to plant.

Filbert in bloom

Filberts are blooming. The long, pendulous catkins are the male flowers. The tiny female flowers can be seen by their rich red stigma and style. Filbert and Hazelnut are the same thing.  These are trees I moved last fall. Guess I didn't kill them.  They look quite healthy.  With a fall, winter, and early Spring to settle in and grow roots, I imagine they will be fully established this year.  Maybe some nuts.  Probably for the squirrels.