Tomatoes. 9.20.14

Better Boy Tomatoes.  9.20.14

This year was the best tomato crop ever for me.  The main difference, the only difference I can think of, is the pee-cycling.   Tons of big tomatoes, tons of cherry tomatoes.

Better Boy is one of my favorites.  Nice Midwest flavor.

Bud Grafting Update. 9.20.14

Tart Cherry.  9.20.14

Apple 1.  9.20.14

Apple 2.  9.20.14

 I've been very ill for 2 weeks, starting to recover.  No fever and back to work.  Still a lot of fatigue.

So gardening has lapsed.  Not much is lost, some wilting due to not watering.

The grafts mostly look pretty good, going into fall.   Now they should be uncovered.

Most of the tart cherry grafts appear to have taken.

Most if not all of the plums took.   The Satsuma tree died, so that doesn't count.

I only budded two apple buds, onto the 3-way grafted tree.  So if they take, it will be a 4-way tree.  These are un-named, from neighbor tree.  Small, McIntosh type, maybe small due to lack of care.  One looks more viable than the other.

A couple of the Sweet Cherry bud grafts did not take.  Most look like they did.

At least one lilac didn't take.  The others, I don't know.  The one that didn't take looked plump, but it fell off.

Asian Plum.  9.20.14

Sweet Cherry.  9.20.14

Grafting was one of the most fun parts of gardening this year.  I learned a lot, it's really easy, and kind of an adventure.

Okra. Ginger. 9.20.14

Okra.  9.20.14

Okra and Ginger.  9.20.14

The okra has been producing a few pods at a time, on the deck.  We get enough for stir fries and soups/stews.  This seems to be the key to growing okra in the Pacific NW - grow in containers indoors until really warm outside, continue in containers in sunniest, warmest place.  One 1 or 2 gallon container holds one okra plant, a 3-5 gallon can hold 3.  Different varieties do differently.  The best of the types I tried, so far, are Burgundy and Baby Bubba hybrid.

I'm very pleased to have fresh okra.  So good.

The ginger plants are also poking along.  It may just be too cool, even in the warmest spot.

Moving a few bearded iris clumps. 9.3.14

Transported Iris Clumps.  9.3.14

Immortality, settled into place  9.3.14

 I moved 3 bearded iris clumps to the Battleground beds.  Two replace clumps that were lost this spring.  Immortality - which wasn't immortal, but is a nice white iris - and Accent.

I moved the clumps as intact as possible.  The soil was very dry.  In their locations, somewhat crumbly, not like a brick.

Into bags, then to the new location.

Again, I used unamended soil to replace soil where the prior clumps had died, or were moved out.

Then cleaned out the weeds, cut off dead leaves, watered them in carefully, and sprayed the leaves with neem.

This is the one watering until nature provides.

I think it helps a lot to write the name on a couple of leaves, via sharpie.   Less chance for mix-up.

Now they have copper labels too.

I also moved "Spiced Custard", which is not a historic iris, but I like.  It did not have enough room.  Now it does.

Accent, trimmed, cleaned up, neemed.

These irises from the Vancouver yard did not have any fungal spot at all.  They had less care than  the ones in the Battleground yard, drier and no TLC.  Which supports my contention that over-nurtured the Battleground irises.

Immortality, replanted, cleaned up, and neemed

Historic Iris Beds. 9.2.14

Historic - mostly - Iris Beds.  9.1.14

Recovering Iris Plants.  9.1.14

Recovering Iris Plants.  9.1.14

 This is the state of the historic iris beds.  Historic irises, not historic beds.  They have nice growth, coming into fall.  I have sprayed with neem oil weekly.  The neem does not damage the leaves.  I don't know if it helps.  Fungus spot remains on the older leaves.  Expected - fungicide does not heal old spots, it prevents new ones.  I don't mind a few, expected in an organic garden.

Established vs. New Iris Plant.  Honorabile.  9.1.14

I thought I would lose Owyhee Desert - not historic - and Gay Geisha - historic.  Both are growing.  I doubt bloom next year.  Gracchus took a big hit too, and is growing again.  All 3 of these got replacement soil earlier this year, not enriched or amended.

Flavescens is poking along.  This may not be a good variety for this area.  I bought a replacement but the  original regrew.  The replacement is smaller than the original.

Alcazar is growing again.   It's almost as big as it was last year.  I thought it might be near-dead.  I suspect it will need at least another year to get viorous growth.  Assuming the plant disease issues are not a problem.  These also got new, unamended, unenriched, replacement soil.  The same for Shannopen, not shown.  That one, formerly big stout fans, reduced to nothing, but a tiny shoot grew so I kept it.

The final photo shows the difference between 1st year and 2nd year growth, for spring planted rhizomes.  This is sold as Honorabile but may be Sans Souci.  I bought a replacement because the growth last year was so minimal.  Despite the fungal issues with other plants, the overwintered cluster has much bigger leaves and better growth, compared to the rhizome I planted this Spring.  I think this indicates the Spring planted rhizomes, even if they might bloom the first year, are more stressed and take longer to establish, compared to summer - dormant -rhizomes.  This seems more true for the ones that are allowed to bloom the first year - makes sense, but the point of the Spring planting is to get same-year flowers.

New tags for all.  These are copper, which is embossed with ball point pen.  The steel markers with laundry marker faded too fast and will be reused elsewhere.