Bearded Irises - Fall Cleanup

Bearded Iris Bed #1.  Heritage Varieties.

Bearded Iris Bed #2.  Heritage Varieties.

This weekend I cleaned up the bearded iris beds. 

I've done much of the cleanup over the past few weeks.  So it wasn't that bad this weekend.

The beds are not purely Heritage vs. Modern.  There are a few modern varieties in teh Heritage beds, and a few Heritage varieties in the modern variety bed. I might sort them out.  One day.

Cleanup involved pulling out some companion plants that overgrew.  Pulling out weeds.  Careful cultivation.  With a dinner fork.  Easy with raised bed.

More crushed eggshells scattered on the surface.

Bearded Irist Bed #3.  Modern Varieties.

I did plant one additional variety.  Dried out rhizome.  "Before the Storm".  Near-black, midnight blue.  I didn't need one more.  I get too much enjoyment from growing dried out looking rhizomes.

I trimmed dead and dying leaves from the iris plants.  Inspected about 4 times.  They look a lot more healthy.

Added Sempervivum and some small growing sedum plants, salvaged from previous gardening efforts.  Idea is for growing companion plants among the irises.  Not as rank growing as culinary herbs.  A few might be on top of bulbs I planted earlier, but that's OK.

I need to make space for heritage varieties I ordered from Old House Gardens.  Those arrive in March or April.  Mrs. George Darwin, Frank Adams, Crimson King, Dauntless, Plumeri, Rosy Wings, Wabash.  Plus additional Flavescens and Honorabile / Sans Souci to flesh out the small starts of those I planted this year.  There is room.  I might have to move a few less desirable selections out, which is OK.

Kitchen garden harvest

 Kitchen garden is winding down.

I appreciate each and every pepper, tomato, and fig.

I picked the watermelon.  It turned out to be underripe.   Very bland, not very sweet.  Chickens got most of it.

Blacktail mountain watermelon

Birds got a lot of the figs this year.  I didn't net the trees.  Next year, I should.  I have the net.  I did not have the energy.

Today I picked and ate, 2 more figs from the Sal's Fig tree.  Those continue to be very good.  It's nice to have fresh figs at the Battleground place.

Not ripe enough for full flavor and color

My Dad's Ginkgo biloba

Ginkgo trunk

 This is the largest of ginkgo trees, grown from seeds my Dad collected about 15 years ago.  They spent their first couple of years in flower pots. 

My Dad collected the seeds from a large ginkgo tree, grown from seed by Herman Deege in a small Illinois town.   He taught me about the origins of gingko trees.  I imagine he's been dead since the 1970s.

This tree is many-fold larger than the other two from the same source.   Other than genetic diversity, different seeds from the same source, this was planted in the ground about one year before the other two.  It is in the yard area where the dogs leave their contributions to nature, over the past 12 years.  I think the dog fertilizer is the main difference.

Ginkgo tree

The smallest of the 3 is now in the Battleground yard.  It's about 7 feet tall.  The largest of my Dad's trees must ba about 35 feet tall now.

It should turn yellow soon.  Beautiful in green or yellow.

Ning's Chickens

This was a week ago.  I pulled out the marigolds and sweet alyssum.  They were too rank and taking over the bearded iris bed.  The hens ate them but not with enthusiasm.  They liked the sweet alyssum plants much more than the marigolds.

Grafting fruit trees. Progress Report.

Pear Graft #1

 All of the pear grafts and apple grafts took and grew this year.

I did not keep track of varieties.  The pear grafts were on the 2 Asian pear trees.  The intent is to have pollinating varieties, on the same tree.  And novelty.

The pollinating varieties were, two from a multigraft Asian pear in the Vancouver yard, plus 2 prunings from newly planted pear trees.  Those were European pears, Rescue and Orca.

Pear Graft #2

Pear Graft #3

 Some of the grafts grew very fast.  Others barely grew.

I grafted the apples on Feb 23rd at the Home Orchard Society grafting class.  Spitzenberg and Suttons Beauty.  Each has 2 strong growths.  Late winter, I want to graft each with an additional variety.  Or with 2 additional varieties, allowing a bud to form a branch below the graft for the originals.  These would be very low branching trees, which is what I want.  I want to get them planted in-ground this fall, so the roots have a chance to grow.  That means I will need deer protection, too, which is more of a chore.  Not too difficult.

The regenerated Honeycrisp broke off near the ground, but above the graft, last year.  I debated re-grafting it.  Instead, I pruned short, and allowed the tree to grow from below the cut.  It has 2 strong growths.  Again, I would like to graft an additional variety onto one or both of the growths.

In the Vancouver yard, I have the Honeycrisp start, Jonagold, Liberty, and Karmijn de Sonneville.  At Battleground, there are the columnar varieties Golden Sentinel and Red Sentinel.  GS had one apple this year.  It's only about 2 feet tall.  That's enough varieties for my test garden.

There is also Prairie Fire crabapple, now, which I hope serves as a pollinator.

Pear Graft #4

Regenerated Honeycrisp Apple

New Dwarf Apple Grafts

Broken Honeycrisp tree Sept 2012