Moving an established, dehydrated Sedum clump.

Sedum, unknown variety

More for the apiary garden.

I recovered this sedum clump from a grass-filled area under an old cherry tree.  It has not been watered this year.

Sedum is dry tolerant but given the very dry location, that was extreme.

The advantage of the dry soil, is it was very light.  It required a couple of slices with the shovel, and came out easily.  Part of the clump broke off.  So now I have a small clump and a larger clump.

After getting them to the Battleground place, I soaked them for a while, then planted.  THe wilted leaves firmed up a little, not much.   I think they will do fine.  This year is too late to make the leaves nice looking and plump, but there will be a few flowers for the bees.  Next year I expect they will be impressive.  It was an old, well established clump.

Rose of Sharon

Rose of Sharon with bee

Rose of Sharon December 2012

 This is the Rose of Sharon - Hibiscus siriacus - that I moved from the Vancouver house to the Battleground place Dec 2012.  It was very late leafing out.  I thought I killed it.  Now it is covered with buds.

Growth this year was about 6 inches to 1 foot.  I imagine next year it will grow faster, having established new roots and adapted to the new location.  It is sunnier and more dry here, so it growth may be more compact.

The prior location was adjacent to the North side if the house.  Now it's in full sun.

Rose of Sharon seedling

I'm impressed with the resilience of some of the shrubs and trees that I moved last year.  It was difficult to get a good root mass from this shrub.  I've pruned it back each year to make it more bushy.  So the trunk was thick.  Even so, I cut about half of the growth.

The white flower, red center, is a seedling grown from the original shrub.  It is about 4 years old.  I planted it at the Battleground place as well.  Not many flowers this year.  Deer ate most of the buds.

The flower is larger than last year.  Might take a while to establish.  I think i like this one more than the original.

The only care these are getting now is some occasional watering.  I may add a deer cage for the winter.

Planting a WIld Pulm Tree, grown from seed.

This wild plum tree was started from seed last summer.  It's now about 4 feet tall.  I'm impressed by the rapid growth.  I waited until I had a chance to build a deer cage, before planting it. 

This may need a pollinator.  I have 3 smaller specimens, started at the same time.  The plan is to plant at least one nearby.

I read that the leaves are a deer favorite.  So it is caged.

I don't know if these will serve as pollinators for my domesticated plums.  It's worth a try.

At this size, maybe it will bear in another season or two or three.  I would like that.


I like growing from seeds, for the genetic diversity and wondering what I will get.  I know they may or may not be good.  Since these are selections of wild plums, not hybrids, they may be more predictable compared to domesticated varieties.

 This photo is from last year, July 2012.  These are the plums.  The tree is down the street from me.  They are the size of a sweet cherry, but are sweeter, juicier, and have a plum flavor.

 After cleaning the seeds, I let them dry for a day.  Then cracked the hulls using a vice-grip.

 There isn't a lot of info about growing wild plums.  I based the hull-cracking method on some web info about other stone fruits.   I placed the naked seeds in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel, and refrigerated.  After about a month, they started to sprout and I planted them in potting soil.

Others were planted directly outside in potting soil.  Those grew more slowly, but they did grow.  They grew late summer 2012.  Not all of the seeds grew.  Maybe half.

This is the seedling late last summer.   I left them outside to overwinter.  No problem.

This Spring the trees grew rapidly.  I potted up as needed, in general purpose organic potting soil.  They've been at the Battleground place for about one month.

Honeybees. Update.

New honeycomb under construction.

Inside the top bar hive.

Today I did some hive maintenance.  Separated each bar.  There was some formation of comb across bars.  The main issue is to get them back to one comb on each bar.

I bought a large knife at a yard sale.  That worked nicely for cutting comb from inappropriate bars.

This time I remembered to smoke the bees.  I think that did help a lot to keep them calm. 

There wasn't as much honey as I expected.  Much of the comb looks empty.  Much of the rest contains pollen.

Irises. Peppers.

Bearded Iris raised beds.

Not much to see with the irises.  Sweet alyssum, marigolds are taking more space than I expected.  Swiss chard is vigorous.  At this size it's a bit bitter.

The bed behind the front bed is gradually being filled with established clumps of bearded irises from the house in Vancouver.   Those are modern varieties.  It will look nice in the Spring.  There is still a row of chili peppers.  Those will stay until frost. 

Pepper "Hungarian hot wax"

I didn't expect the peppers to grow.  Was not able to keep them weeded.  Some are doing quite well.  This is "Hungarian Hot Wax".