Prime Ark Freedom Blackberries 9.16.18

 These are some of my first Prime-Ark Freedom blackberries.  I'm very impressed with the size, juiciness, sweetness, and flavor.  I have never seen such large blackberries.

Unfortunately, the deer like eating the plants.  I'm building a better enclosure for them.  I definitely want to see how they do next year.

Sweet Treat Pluerry and Hollywood Plums. 9.3.17Plum

Plums as of 9.3.17

Hollywood is almost overripe, and Sweet Treat are just coming into their prime.  Together, and along with some grapes, they make a great sweet fruit salad desert.

I didn't know what would happen with Sweet Treat.  There isn't much info out there on pollinators.  All I had blooming when Sweet Treat was in bloom, were Hollywood and Crimson Spire plums.  Apparently that was enough.  This is about year #4 for this tree, first substantial crop, a couple dozen plums.

Updates. 8.26.17

Blueberry Pie.  Mid Aug, 2017.

 I haven't been keeping up on the garden blog.  With historic high temperatures, no rain - expected this time of year - and deer issues, I haven't had the time. 

I'll come back and add some text later, but here are photos from the past couple of weeks. 

The blueberry harvest was great.  The difference between this year and previous years, was bird netting.  Made all the difference in the world.

I wondered if there would be sweet corn, due to the slow and irregular germination.  Plus rabbits eating a lot of the plants.  Now, there is a good harvest of sweet corn.

Sweet corn, beans, chilis.  Mid Aug, 2017.

 The beans that I recovered from 15 year old seeds, last year, are doing quite well.

Peppers are doing great in their cement block raised beds.  They do have deer protection fencing.

Two of the chestnut trees that I planted late winter, put on 3 to 4 feet of new growth.  The other one put on about 3 inches.  I'll sort out the varieties later.  They are well protected by deer fencing.

I wondered if I planted the onions too early.  They did amazingly well.  Huge onions.  The biggest were Ailsa Craig.  Growing from seeds, and planting early, definitely worked.

Sweet Corn, various planting times.  Mid Aug, 2017.

Russet Potato Harvest.  Mid Aug, 2017.

Chilis in cement block raised bed.  Mid Aug, 2017.

Chestnut tree, first year, mid Aug 2017.

Chestnut tree, first year, mid Aug 2017.

Ailsa Craig onions.  mid Aug, 2017.

More photos. 7.29.17

 Some nice flowers are blooming now.   Now that the zinnias are larger, they seem less palatable for rabbits.  Maybe the leaves are dryer and more tough in the summer.  Even weedy flowers are nice when cut.

The Rudbeckias are second year now.  I'm glad they survived another season.

I don't know that bigger is always better, but the current batch of onions is the biggest I've ever grown.  The ones in the ground are even larger, but the tops have not fallen over yet, so I'm waiting to harvest them.  The brown-wrapper onions are the hybrid "Patterson".  The white ones, which are the largest and the biggest of those not yet ready, are Ailsa Craig.

Fruit Salad. Plums and mulberries. Yum. 7.24.17