I'm happy with the grafts so far. All are growing. A couple of the black cherries seem a bit slow, but the third of those is growing faster too.
These are third tiers for espaliers. The most vigorous is Gala grafted onto Honeycrisp, then Rubinette grafted onto Zestar. The red leaf apple is Otterson, grafted onto Calypso. Otterson bloomed at every bud. I cut off the flowers. Now it has a growth shoot, so it looks like it will grow OK too.
This mock orange is about 6 years old. When smaller, deer browsed the tasty young shoots. It's much bigger now and they seem to leave it alone.
Very pretty flowers. Almost like white roses.
Blackberries have a two-step growth cycle. During the first year, the primocanes grow. Those survive the next winter, and in the next spring they become blooming floricanes, which bear the berries. The exceptions are a few modern types that compress the cycle into one season, such as primocane bearing Prime Ark Freedom.
Some varieties are too vigorous. My favorite is Triple Crown, which must grow 10 or 12 feet tall if I let it. Then they fall over. If they are topped when much shorter, they will grow lateral canes and remain much shorter. The berry production is supposed to be much better too, on these laterals.
The pruning is very simple. Books call it "pinching", but if the tip is bent, it snaps off. No knife or pruning shears are needed. There are various recommendations about the height - 2 to 4 feet. I'm aiming for waist high, about 3 feet, but did these a little shorter to catch them while I was there and remembering.
Snapped!
I may give in and buy inexpensive cotton sheet to back the blue brick pattern quilt. Meanwhile, I made the binding, which will complete the quilt edges, once I get to that.
This was a previously owned XL cotton long sleeve shirt. Kind of a medium weight fabric There is no apparent outside/inside, or I can't see the difference. The dark spot is just a water drip from the steam iron.
It was a simple process. Wash / dry the shirt on warm / hot setting to preshrink and thoroughly clean. Thrift store shirts can have a musty scent, so I add color safe bleach to the was water, which seems to fully cleanse the fabric. I remove the pocket first, so the weave can shrink and needle holes vanish. Starch, iron. Cut seams. Cut into the longest 2 1/2 inch wide strips possible. Sew shorts strips together into one long strip, with 45 degree angle seams. The angle reduces bulk when sewing on the binding. Iron, and it's done and ready. I needed about 26 feet of binding. This shirt gave that, using the longest strips, with a bit left over. Not much.
This year, with the COVID pandemic appearing to be waning in the USA, I have been updating this blog more often than before. This blog is really a garden diary combined with home research journal combined with notes for future years. Also, a few things here and there about other projects. It's a challenge to find reliable information on line. Much of on line reporting is driven by profit and marketing. That's understandable, but it makes it a challenge to know what to believe and what is just hype. There is a lot of hype out there.
My garden experiences should be helpful in similar climates, local or far away. Even so, every garden has its own character, its own soil, climate, history, experiences. I hope that the information posted here is helpful.
I don't have promotional links. I don't advertise companies or products. I'm not marketing anything. My goal is to share experiences and knowledge. I do have a philosophy, which is oriented more toward do-it-yourself, reduce/reuse/repurpose, creativity, learning, and enjoying the process.
I do sometimes link to the place where I bought items, or obtained information, to give credit where credit is due. I do not receive anything financial or kick back for those links. They are solely informational.
I sometimes look for illustrations that are helpful. Whenever possible, those are very old - long past copyright expiration, or are public domain. I don't knowingly post any copyrighted material. If informed that something is copyrighted, I will remove it.
That's all I can think of at the moment. I hope you enjoy and learn some useful or interesting things from my little blog.
