Kitchen Garden. 5.8.17

It's been sunny and warm for three days. This was a good time to cultivate the kitchen garden. The potatoes and onions that I planted earlier this year are doing well. I hilled up the potatoes. With rain and winter, it was difficult to cultivate the garlic, which I planted in the fall. I weeded a couple of weeks ago, and today it just needed light cultivation. I planted out some collard greens seedlings, surrounding each with a dusting of blood meal that I found in the garage. The idea is to repel rabbits, which are prevalent in my garden. Then some organic slug bait. Slugs love cabbage family plants. Last year's collards are blooming. I intend to save seeds from those.

Collard Greens in Bloom.  5.7.18

I have mustard green seedlings to plant. 

The tomatoes are growing nicely in containers in sunroom.  Ditto for peppers.  Yesterday the soil temperature was 80 F, so I planted sweet corn, Trinity hybrid which is reported to tolerate chill, and which did well in 2015 and 2016.

More Lilac Blossoms. 5.8.17

 I  love this time of year.  Every day it seems something else blooms and demands attention.  Most of the lilacs are along the property's edge, intent is to have a blooming hedge when they fill in.

The  bottom photo is a lilac that was on the property when we bought it.  The bush was gigantic, with fallen over trunks several inches in diameter and around 15 feet tall.  I cut out the injured and dead  branches, and the shrub responded with vigorous, strong growth.  It's once again a massive lilac bush.  Deer don't touch it, unlike some of the newer types.

Lilac Blossoms. 5.6.17

 These are the lilac bushes that I moved about 35 miles in Jan 2015, to the Battleground yard.  I think these bushes were about 10 years old, and very tall and heavy.  I took as much soil and root as I could.  I watered during the dry parts of summer.  All 10 of the bushes survived.  I think that's about all you can expect during the first year.  They are a bit scraggly but should fill in over the next couple of years.

 Meanwhile, we get to enjoy some flowers this year.  Deer usually don't go much for lilacs, but they ate some of the new succulent, lower growth, from these. 

The red/pink lilac is a modern Korean lilac, "Bloomerang™", promoted as reblooming and compact.  Nice flowers.   This is newer, about one year old.

Ginkgo Tree at the Hulda Klager Lilac Garden, Woodland Washington. 4.27.17

Apple Blossom Time. 4.25.17

Gravenstein.  4.25.17

 Apples have a wide range of blooming times, and there are a lot of triploid apples that not only require a pollinating variety, but do not pollinate others in return.   Only the diploid ones can provide pollen.  So if there is a triploid, you need two pollinating (diploid) varieties that overlap bloom time with the triploid.

Here is how my varieties look so far this year.  The numbers are my guess, and the designations are (triploid) for triploid and (d) for diploid, based on my memory.  I might be assuming some as diploid for lack of better information.  I spell out "triploid" to make it stand out better.  I might be missing some.

Full bloom.
Gravenstein (triploid).
North Pole (d)
Golden Sentinel (d)

Many open flowers, 25% to 50%.
Pristine (d)
Queen Cox (d)
Liberty (triploid)
Priscilla (d)

Golden Sentinel.  4.27.17

Some open flowers, less than 10%
Ornamental Crab Prairie Fire (d?)
Rubinette (d)
Airlie Red Flesh (d)
Sutton's Beauty (d)
Jonagold (triploid)

Buds present but none open yet.
Baldwin (triploid)
Chehalis (d)
Summerred (d)
Akane (d)

North Pole.  4.27.17

Prairie Fire Ornamental Crab.  4.27.17

Airlie Red Flesh.  4.27.17

Priscilla.  4.27.17

Jonared.  4.27.17

Pristine.  4.27.17

Queen Cox.  4.27.17

Rubinette.  4.27.17

Liberty.  4.27.17

Liberty on M27.  4.27.17

I don't know if Prairie Fire can serve as a pollinator.  The tiny crab apples are worthless, but it's a beautiful tree when in full bloom.

Some of these are 1-year old growth from grafts, such as Airlie Red Flesh - covered with flower clusters (also sold under trademark name "Hidden Rose"), Baldwin with lots of flowers, and one flower cluster at end of stem on Newtown Pippin (not open yet).

With daily rain and chill, I feel some concern that none of them will pollinate.  Considering how early Gravenstein was, I cut off a stem of flowers from North Pole and left it in the Gravenstein tree.  I don't know if that will help.