Early March Garden Log

What's growing and blooming?

Daffodils are about 4 inches tall. Many closed flower buds are present. Hyacinths, similar size.
Rhubarb is the first food plant to start growing. I love the crinkled red leaves and knobby buds.

Helleborus is blooming. Since the plant is short and the flowers droop, they are difficult to appreciate.

Garlic is alive and about 5 inches tall. We'll have garlic this year! I was concerned that the extreme cold this winter might have done it in.

Pussy willow is blooming, but not much. It may be too young, or not in enough sun.
Forsythia has green buds. I don't know if it will bloom - no yellow shows - again, it's on the North side of the house, so possibly not enough sun. Last year the flowers were sparse.

I planted cuttings from my Dad's forsythia from Illinois. That shrub is at least 50 years old and maybe 80 years old. Not really special, but if the cuttings grow, I'll have a bit of a keepsake from my past.

Pear blossoms are swelling. Lilac blossoms are swelling. Aprium blossoms starting to show a little pink.

The plum trees that I recently planted are starting to show life, with swelling buds. Can I hope for, maybe, one plum each, so that I know what they taste like? I did spray both with the last bit of lime-sulfur.

Finches are fighting in the feeder now.

Today was a day off. Overcast, not too cold. I did the following in the back yard:

Pruned roses. Most have about 1 inch of growth. Local authorities precaution against pruning too early, since pruning supposedly stinulates growth which can be killed by frost. Since they are growing now anyway, I don't see the difference. I have pruned as early as January, and many neighborhood roses were pruned then as well, but this year I thought I would try to follow the 'experts' advice.

Most were cut back to about 2 feet tall. Tallest was about 7 feet tall before pruning. Removed dead wood. Sprayed these roses with the left-over lime sulfur from the peaches, but to prevent leaf spot.

Still a lot of roses to prune in the front yard. Maybe this weekend.


Uncovered peaches. These are miniature peach trees. Big problem last year was leaf curl, which destroyed the crop and almost killed the trees. Last fall, I sprayed with Micro-cop and covered the trees with plastic (see links). I meant to uncover them last week but was not able. They are actually starting to grow. The tiniest is blooming. Uh-oh. So, I uncovered. I read that micro-cop doesnt work, so I sprayed with Lily Miller PolySul Summer and dormant spray at dilution C, which is for growing season. I used the more dilute spray due to concern for toxicity to new buds. This may not be strong enough for leaf curl (4 teaspoons per gallon instead of 1 cup per gallon) but compromise is necessary. Maybe the unscientific combination will be better than no spray? This is considered organic since it is just lime and sulfur, not petrochemicals. Depends on who you talk to.

Late Winter Doldrums

Not much to post about. After the flu, and heavy workload, now a weekend trip to the Midwest. Upon my return it will be time to uncover the peaches, maybe a final spray against leaf curl, and get a truckload of compost. Still too early for starting tomato seeds - good, since I still dont have the energy!

Where's the Spring tonic?

Charliebama

Getting a little carried away here. Today I'm sick as a dog. So here's my faithful "Yes I Can" companion.

More links, compact orchards for the backyard

Thanks to contributers on the Gardenweb fruit forum, here is another link to a backyard orchard:

Tony's compact orchard

Also, below is an informative infomercial on compact backyard orchard trees from the UK. There's a bit of the "But wait, there's more" syndrome, but it's still interesting and instructive.

Backyard Orchard Culture: Dave Wilson Nurseries

Here is a you-tube video from the Dave Wilson Nursery in California. This is the method that I am trying to use in my yard as well - they call it "Backyard Orchard Culture". Backyard Orchard Culture means more trees, smaller size, so that we can have a harvest with more variety in a smaller space, extending over a longer period of time in a normal sized backyard. Trees are planted close together. That method requires more severe pruning, especially summer pruning.

High Density Fruit Tree Planting:



Also see the gardening links to the right for more information.

The trees are kept to about 5 to 8 feet tall, so no ladder is needed for harvest. The branches are kept open enough to allow sunlight into the center. Summer pruning is more effective at limiting size, compared to dormant pruning. I hope that this will be our first really good year for the 3 and 4 year old trees to bear.

Pruning method:



Fig trees may take some different variations - we'll keep working on the technique.

Pruning Ginkgo saplings

Shaping the young tree will avoid removing larger branches, later. This seed-grown Ginkgo is in prior photos on this blog, now about 7 feet tall. I removed the lower branches, and shortened a couple of the longer upper branches so that it would keep to a single lead. It's probably hard to see what was done, but that is the idea: shaping and prevention.

Ultimately, I want the lowest branches to start 5 or 6 feet above the ground. That way they are less likely to be climbed on by kids, and as they arch upward, they are unlikely to be in the way of vehicles on the street. I don't want to remove too much biomass, however, because the more leaves that it has, the faster it grows. SO this method is a compromise.

Before, the lower branches are small but this year are likely to become much thicker.

After. Later this winter the tree will be given a nice compost mulch, and be ready for another year of growth. I think of the 6-foot stage as the threshold to really looking like it will be a tree.

After 3 years of my lobbying, my workplace will be planting a tree on the grounds for Earth-day / Arbor Day (April 22 and 25). As the fervent tree-promoter that I am, I get to choose. How predictable am I? It will be a Ginkgo biloba. Since it is in a public place, of course, my seed grown trees wont do. They have a 50% chance of being female, and females are too likely to be cut down due to their stinky seed coats. A male has a better chance for a long life among pesky humans.

Planting Plum Trees

The new plum trees came 2 days ago. The varieties are Hollywood (a more columnar shape, purple leaf, nice blooming, purple plum, partially self fertile) and Shiro (wider branching, green leaf, juicy yellow plum, partially self fertile). According to everything that I read, both should do well in this zone and region.

Other than the grape pruning, this then is the first major garden activity to inaugurate the year 2009! I am stoked!

I think that they do a great job packaging the trees. Only two tiny branches were damaged, and they were very minor branches.

Nice roots, nice branches. I've been ordering from Raintree for several years, and their products, plant quality, and packaging have not disappointed me yet.


Soak the new trees for a couple of hours. Since it may still be cold and frost, I soaked to get the trees well hydrated.

Generous holes, with the trees planted so that the grafts were 2-3 inches above the soil line. I did add a LITTLE compost, but not enough to create the 'flowerpot' effect in the clay soil. One tree is in a raised bed with retaining wall, replacing a magnolia that I moved out last fall. This soil was amended several years ago, and the soil level is about 2 feet above the original grade. This area is well drained. The other tree went into less ideal ground, but I heeded the warnings not to over-amend the soil, just adding a little compost mixed in for 'luck'.

Watering them in. After tamping the ground firmly with my feet (but not my ENTIRE body weight, please?), I poured on a bucket of water. Once it soaked in, both were given a layer of well aged yard compost as mulch.

Now planted, ready for Spring. How cool is that?

Birds at the feeder: House Finch

Most authorities recommend keeping a healthy population of birds around. During the summer, many of them eat insects.
Based on photos on the internet, these are male "house finches". House finches are vegetarian, so probably not much benefit for the gardener. But I still like them. The birds have eaten about 15 pounds of seeds so far this winter. Except the seeds that the squirrels got first.

Creating Schlumbergera hybrids

Holiday Cactus. Obviously, I don't need more of them, but it's interesting trying to see if I can create hybrids and grow them from seed. I transferred pollen among the 3 colors that I had blooming at the time, red, pink, and white. According to various web sources, most are self-infertile, so hybridization is necessary in order to get fruit - and then seeds.

I wonder, what is the advantage to the species to be self-infertile? Some plants are self-fertile, and others are self-infertile. It seems like it would take a special mechanism to become self infertile. I suppose that 'enforced' genetic exchange might result in hardier plants due to mixing of genes, and also result in faster transfer of beneficial genes throughout a population.

Another possiblity is that since the modern varieties are all hybrids, the pollin-producing mechanism and the pollen-receiving mechanisms might originate from different, incompatible species, so another plant with matching mechanisms is needed from a different hybrid. Again, this is just a wild guess.

I pollinated these 2 or 3 weeks ago. Each was pollinated from another variety of a different color.


Here is a web posting about hybridizing and growing Schlumbergera from seeds.

Here is a posting on the gardenweb, with some individual challenges and successes.

It's interesting that the young fruit of the white-flowered variety is not pigmented, so is green.

And the pink variety is a bit more pigmented than the white one.


And the red-flowered variety has the darkest fruit pigmentation as well.

Now comes the long wait. According to some sources, it can take a year for the seed to mature, then 2-3 years to obtain flowering plants from seed. Faster than Clivias, which take a year for the seed to mature and up to 7 years to bloom. But patience is still needed. And luck.

New Year's Tradition: Pruning the Grape Vines

I don't know how it started. Each year within a few days of New Year's day, I prune the grape vines. This year, new year's day was not possible, but yesterday was close enough. Pruning in Spring, after the sap starts to flow, leads to dripping of sap as it continues to run for a few days or week. That doesn't happen with mid-winter pruning. Plus, it's a nice chore to do for puttering meditation.

Most years I have gone with a combination of spur and cane methods, since I wasn't sure which was best. Last year they were quite productive, and it didn't seem to make much difference whether it was cane or spur pruning. I think that they may have over-grown the arbor, so this year, it's all spur pruning.

It's interesting how soon the trunks developed a gnarled, established look. I like that.

My approach with the spur pruning was to leave about 4-6 inches of growth from 2008, and remove the rest. That means that I removed about 95% of last year's growth. I left 2 to 4 buds in most cases. Most grapes seem to bloom from buds forming on last year's growth, and most from the first few buds on the cane. If I'm wrong about that, then this will not be a productive grape year. But I think that I'm right. We'll see.

This arbor has 3 vines: Interlaken (my favorite), Canadice (the most productive) and Venus (a nice change of pace).

I was more aggressive with Canadice, since it was too productive. That meant that the grapes were smaller, and there were too many. I left more of the Interlaken, since it is my favorite. Two vines would have been plenty on this arbor, but I wanted 3 varieties.

Over the gate, Price grape. Also very tasty, larger grapes in smaller bunches. Price has not been very productive so far. Squirrels eat the flower buds. In 2008 I added some screening, which deterred the squirrels somewhat. I'll have to do that this year as well.

Price was also pruned mainly as 2 to 4 bud spurs. Last year it was too unruly, so I was more aggressive this time.

The prunings were chopped into pieces about 3 to 4 inches long, and applied as a mulch around some shrubs. Last year, I did the same thing, but then applied compost on top of the grape vine mulch. That resulted in numerous small grapevines growing from the chopped pieces. This time, I'll leave the chopped vines on top so that I don't get unintended starts.

Climate Data December 2008

Click on graph for much easier reading.



This month had record cold and snow. My workplace was on 'inclement weather' mode for 3.5 days - the first time in decades. Snow here was about 18 inches deep, at its greatest. The coldest day was a record as well. Total precip (as rain, I gues, since snow would give a much higher #) was 3.4 inches.

The Amazing Sex Life Of Figs

This is a link to the complex and confusing sex life of figs. It's an amazing story.

Sex determination and life cycle.


More About Fig Reproduction.

Who Reads Growing Greener?

Just for fun, here are the general locations of readers, from clustermaps. Current running total is 24,069 visits. Hello there! The map is clickable for more detail.



Click on the clustermap button for more detailed tally of which countries and how many per country.

More Snow! What is this - Buffalo? Snowing again today!

Worst blizzards that we have seen in this area, since 1960s. Well, I arrived here in the 80s so it's the worst that I have ever seen here. Workplace was in emergency mode last friday, and again mon through wed. I took the bus to work mon and tues, more hassle than I let people know, but I was not able to get the car out of the drive.

Front yard - The palm leaves are fully folded from snow. Which is better - leave it on (as insulation) or knock it off (to protect leaves from breakage). Nature decided for me - this happened while I was at work.

I've never seen it this deep in my yard before.

Ning is ambitious today, shoveliong the driveway.

It's snowing now as I type this! Back yard.

Better view of palm with snow covered leaves. We'll see how it looks this Spring!

Bamboo was flat to the ground, now springing back up again.

It's snowing and snowing and snowing! Dark-eyed Junco

The city is near stand-still. Amazing, for this area. We found some bird seed to feed the hungry finches. Feeding the birds now helps the garden later.

I'm going out on a limb here, because they are not too clear. But I'll tentatively identify these as :Dark Eyed Junco". A photo can be found here. Dark-eyed juncos eat seeds in the winter, and insects in the summer, according to this site.

Climate Data Nov 2008

Recent weather left me wondering about weather the fruit trees, especially the figs, have survived the same extremes in the past. It's time to save climate data for future comparisons. Here are the #s for November 2008. Click on the graph for better detail.

Precipitation: 5.36 inches, rain, ranging from 0 inches to 0.84 inches per day.
High for the month: 64 degrees, Nov 7.
Low for the month: 32 degrees, Nov 24.

Winter. Schlumbergera. Homework.

The rest of today will be a homework day. This is made tolerable by the cold & snow outside, and my furry companion and some bright flowers inside.

Back yard. Later I'll publish a summary of the temperatures if I get a chance. Currently 27F on my thermometer in the grape arbor. The "zone denial' banana never made it into the house this year. Looks like it's a bit late, huh? Or was this "denial" of my frustration with the fact that it has never looked good, and since I DID manage to bring in the cannas, maybe I just didn't want to admit that leaving the banana outside was a passive-aggressive way to deal with it. Looks like a nice container for the cannas, or maybe potting up a fig next year?

Maybe the rhodie leaves should have been treated with antidessicant. We'll see this spring whether they perk up again.


Outside for a picture of the "big snow" December 19 2008

Possibly a bit obsessed with the Schlumbergera, but they allow the illusion of tropical lushness indoors. This pink one was added this year.

Also this mix. I'm not crazy about the two together, so used a sharpie to label the stems "W" and "R". The goal will be to pot up the white separately.

Strange, I've been thinking of starting a pot with all of the colors mixed together. Meanwhile not happy with the one combination that I do have.

Since they are no trouble to over-summer, a couple more should not be a burden.

Charlie is keeping me company while doing homework. He makes it all tolerable.

Cold weather, indoor flowers, weatherizing, bulbs

Schlumbergera are blooming profusely. Most are from previous years, but the red/white mix and the pink are new this year. By growing several varieties (all store bought or cuttings, unnamed), bloom span has been almost 2 months (see Oct 25th photo). When they are at peak, I take them to work. Then they fall over in the car, which isn't good for the flower quality. I'll need to come up with a better way. They bring brightness indoors when outdoors is gloomy. Given my huge volume of homework this winter, this is one of the few bright spots.

Predicted temperatures have been is all over the place. This week may there may be a low down to 13 - each time that I looked it is different. Today is 32 and snowed, minimal. Due to concern about predicted lows, I sprayed the fig trees with "Wilt-Stop" which is derived from pine resin - probably the same as Wilt-Pruf. Not sure if it will help - but it helped me feel better. Since it was cloudy and there were occasional drizzles, I don't know if the process will work even if it would have during ideal spray conditions. This stuff is expensive. The concentrates give more for the buck, so it's what I bought. Made me think, maybe I should spray some in the summer too - this is supposed to reduce transpiration and reduce need for watering. May help with certain insects or black spot, not clear to me, and I understand that there are no cure-alls, just good gardening practices. The stuff has a nice 'piney' scent

While at the nursery getting wilt-stop, I saw some half-price narcissus, small varieties. Too late by most gardning standards, but I bought the 3 straggly packages and planted them in flower boxes. If they don't grow, it's OK. If they do, it will be nice to think that I 'saved' them.

Peach Tree Winterizing

After this Spring's leaf curl disaster, I'm trying to be proactive.

I read that fall plus spring sprays with micronized copper will prevent the disease. Also that covering the trees to prevent leaf curl spores from washing into the buds. Both should be done after the leaves fall and before Winter rains start.

Unfortunately, It's already started raining, and the leaves had not yet fallen.

So, I started by pulling off the leaves. These are small trees (bush would be a better word) and it only took a few minutes to pull off the leaves. They went into the compost bin.

Defoliated Peach Tree

Micronized copper spray. I'm not excited about using sprays, although some growers consider copper a mineral so ok for organic methods. Depends on who you talk to. I followed the directions and sprayed all of the peach trees. It was not raining today.


Then I wrapped or covered with plastic. How I did it depended on the size and shape of the tree.

This is a 1-year old tree that is not genetic dwarf; peach/plum hybrid (Trilite). I tied the branches then covered in a plastic bag, and tied again.

This genetic miniature is about 4 feet tall. I don't think that the stems need to be covered, just the buds. Any that remain exposed can be pruned in the spring. I don't want it to bake either, so the under side is left open for ventillation.

The entire exercise took about one hour. We'll see if it works.

Kitchen Garden Log

In addition to green tomatoes, there were 3 cucumbers.
The apples are all eaten now.
There are a few peppers.
4 figs from little Hardy Chicago.

Not much, but not bad for november.

Last weekend I cleaned up one raised bed and planted it with multiplier onions. This is about the 5th year for these. I covered with raked leaves, to keep the dogs from digging.

The cherries, most of the figs, the apples, and the ginkgos have lost most of their leaves.

I moved some oriental lilies to a bed east of the house.
Raked leaves. Used them for mulch around previously-moved magnolia and on the lilies, as well as the winter onion bed.
Chopped up a few tomato plants, and left them in the compost bin.