Garden Update. 11 Aug 2020.

 Lots of food and collecting seeds.  Shirley poppy seed heads are becoming light brown, so I cut them off and place them, pod down, into glass jars.  The dry seeds fall into the jar for collection.  It works out almost the same for garlic chives.

Harvest:  beans, potatoes, cucumbers, a few peppers, blackberries, a few figs, Asian pears.

Here is a cucumber salad I made, all but onions from the victory garden.

Here are some Roma beans.   I love these.  They are great, stir fried or air fried with a little seasoned salt, garlic, oil.

Here are some Chinese beans, from many (20?) years of home-saved seeds.  Tasty and "meaty", similar in a way to Romas but a more distinctive flavor.

Lots of big cucumbers.  Next year, try one or two plants instead of three.  These might be hybrid so 

I'm not sure if I want to save seeds.

Triple Crown Blackberries.  Of the ones I've grown, more productive, better flavor, juicier than almost any other.  This year I will cull out the inferior Arapaho, Babycakes, and maybe Prime Ark Freedom.

I big Brunswick fig.  This tree's production is miserly, but requires almost no maintenance and I have room, so I leave it there.  The figs are huge and sweet, when they ripen.

Still lots of summer squash.

Garden Update 7 Aug 2020

 I haven't been posting everything.  We have had some good stuff for the kitchen, out of the garden.  I guess since this is the "Coronavirus war", this is my "Victory Garden".  In addition to the photos, we are getting a lot of bush beans, especially Dragon's Tongue, a spotted thicker Roma type bean.

Breba figs are ripening.  The big brown fig is a Brunswick, which rarely gives anything.  The others are all Desert King, very flavorful and sweet.  Both trees are cutting-grown. Neither gets any supplemental water any more.

Kennebec Potatoes.  This row us providing about 3 pounds per plant.  These are very good.  Eight plants in a row gives about 24 pounds per row.  These are great air fried or baked.

Triple Crown blackberries.  For productivity, flavor, size, juiciness, Triple crown beat, by far, all of my other varieties- Arapaho, Prime Ark Freedom, Ebony King, Babycakes.

The first tomatoes of the year.  Sungold and Bush Early Girl.  OK, Early Girl did beat the other slicing tomatoes, with no other ripening ones on the vine yet.  Haven't tasted it yet. 

Gardening Update. 5 Aug 2020.

I haven't taken photos of the harvests.  The garlic is all harvested, and we have been digging lots of potatoes.  Beans are doing well.

Here are some flowers.  This flower bowl with dianthus, petunias, and others, is doing well.

Many of the honeybee flowers are done.  The most activity now is on a few remaining poppies, oregano, and a few onions.  That's not enough to sustain the bees.  I planted the garlic bed, about 4 by 8 feet, with phacelia seeds, and a former iris bed, about 5 by 6 feet, with buckwheat.  I don't know if these well be helpful, or just serve as a cover crop.  I usually plant disturbances, such as molehills, with clover seeds.

I'm not adapting well to the change in the Blogger platform.  I will continue trying.  I may have to stop labeling, and just allow the search function.  The new label function is too difficult for me.

Sedum Planter.  No watering this summer, doing well.  Honeybees love the sedum flowers.  8.5.2020

I think the poppies start with a lot of pollen.  The honeybees mob the pollen - laden flowers, then when it's gone, that's that.  I'm starting to save seeds from these Shirley poppies for next year.

The oregano is one of the last flowers of the summer, that honeybees really love.  It's difficult to take a photo - these flowers are full of motion.  My plan is to divide them again this fall, for more plants next year.

These onions didn't do well at all, so I let them bloom.  Honeybees love all allium flowers.

These are garlic chives that finished blooming and are starting to set seeds.  Honeybees love these too, so the plan is to collect the seeds and plant more next year. 

Another Shirley poppy with lots of pollen for honeybees.

Sempervivum and Sedum. 7.28.2020

This Spring I stuck a lot of cuttings from Sedums I had around the yard, into this planter by the mailbox. I also planted a start from the Sempervivum from my parents (grandparents before them). I think this is one of my favorite garden details now. The sedum cuttings take almost no effort - just cut pieces from the old plants, use a stick to make holes and stick the cuttings into the holes. I barely even watered them.

This spring I stuck cuttings of sedums, and a start of sempervivum, into this planter by the mailbox.  7.28.2020

Chestnut Graft. 7.28.2020

Late last winter I grafted chestnut varieties onto branches of the Marissard seedling chestnut tree. The reason is that tree is about 15 feet tall and still not blooming. They all appeared to take, but when I unwrapped one of the Marigoule grafts, it fell off. So that one appeared noncompatible. This Marivale graft looked OK and continues to look good. These were all whip and tongue grafts.

This tree is upwind of the others.  I want it to at least produce some pollen for those trees.  Marissard is not considered a pollen producer, although it's hard to know what a seedling would do.  If I had it to do over again, I would not have used that variety or a seedling, but I don't have it to do over again.  So attempting grafts is the next best thing to try.

Maravale Graft on Marissard Seedling Chestnut Tree. 7.28.2020

Maravale Graft on Marissard Seedling Chestnut Tree. 7.28.2020