Weekend To Do List

This week, temp in the 70s to low 90s. Warm for this time of year. Most of the yard is growing like crazy. Some important items not to forget this weekend -

Clear an area around each tomato plant. Volunteer cilantro grew like crazy, and is impinging on the 'personal space' of the tomato plants. Time for some salsa.

Start pruning tomato suckers and start the first ties for cordon growing.

Mow lawn. Obvious.

Photos for blog, what's blooming, peaches, cherries, figs.

Net for cherry trees.

This weekend will also be the time to apply cement backerboard to the bathroom subfloor. This project needs to get underway again.

It's too warm now for transplanting - plans to move hostas will be delayed for next fall or spring.

Every day I inspect the epiphytic cacti - one has been SO close to blooming. The first time for that one, so I don't know how big it will be. Get out the camera!

What's blooming?

There are flowers everywhere. The dogwood finished, daffodils and tulips are long gone. The next wave is either "late Spring" or "Early summer".

More of "Edith Wolford" Iris.

The "Rustled Rose", grape-scent.

"Tamara" rose. 1st flower.

Clematis


Alstroemeria.

Red Poppies. The digital camera doesn't do justice with how red these really are. Seed grown, now in their 7th year.

Iris time.

Many of the irises are in full bloom. Here are a few.

"China Moon"

"China Moon"

"Pretty in Pink" (I think)

"Found Variety"

"Bumblebee Delite"

"Bumblebee Delite"

"Sunny Delight"

"Inuendo"

"American Classic"

"Edith Wolford"

Tomato log

On cool nights, I bring the tomatoes inside. Two weeks ago I bought 4 larger plants at Tsugawa nursery. They were so lush and beautiful. I planted them right out in the bed. It's an experiment. We'll see if they start to bear before my own seedlings.

Currently the plants in the tomato bed are sulking. There have been several nights as low as the low 40s, last night was 49 degrees. Tomatoes should not be set out until the minimum night temp is above 50. It WAS warmer when I planted them.

My own seedlings in pots are catching up to the purchased ones. The race has begun!

Thinning peaches. Victory over leaf curl!

Peaches and other stone fruits often over-bear. Too many can mean they all fall off, no bearing the following year, and the peaches are too small and not as flavorful It's psychologically difficult to remove peaches, but they are in clusters as thick as grapes, so about 3/4 have to go. I started thinning using a scissors, but finally twisted them off. I probably need to thin some more, but I'll wait to see how these do.

Before thinning. Peaches are so thick that the stems are obscured. They look like fuzzy grapes.

After thinning. I quit counting after removing 200 tiny peaches. There are probably still over 150 on the tree. Since these are genetic dwarf peaches, the leaves are much closer together than regular peaches. Plus, the final peaches are smaller. So, I don't think that they need to be thinned to the same distances as regular peaches.

If I was superstitous I would not declare victory. But we are getting to the end of when leaf curl is a problem. Click on labels below to see what I did, and what they looked like this time last year. It worked! Not only did I not kill the peaches with the plastic bags and spray, but they look great! I have pulled of about 10 leaves with leaf curl, but that's nothing compared to last year. Today I sprayed with neem - not sure if it helps, but they are in with the roses and roses definitely benefit (decreasing aphids and fungal disease)