Today at "The Farm"

Still don't have a name for the 2 Acres in Battleground. I planted the final Paw Paw tree. The others have weathered their transplanting and are essentially unchanged from their planting appearance. The big leaves tend to catch the wind, and are a bit torn from that. Hybridizers take heed: The big leaves are an issue. The Paw Paw might do better with smaller leaves. I saw some much larger Paw Paws at a local nursery - no variety name. I assume they are seedlings. They also had persimmons the same way. Life is too short to waste on no-name varieties unless you have room for multiple trees. So I passed on those. I've been wanting to plant a shade tree. It's in honor of my birthday which is coming up. I figure a shade tree sequesters more CO2 than the fruit trees, so counts for more of a "thank you" to the world for supplying me with oxygen, and climate, and nutrition. I found some sale trees at a big box store. They look fairly decent - not much the worse for sitting in the lot for the summer. I chose a red-leaf maple to serve as my "Birthday Tree".

OK, I also chose a couple of their close-out fruit trees.

An Asian Pear (Hosui, a russeted type) to serve as a pollinator for the Asian Pear already on the property, and which had one - only one - yellow fruit, non-russeted. Not knowing the variety, by choosing one with a different appearing fruit, it should serve as pollinator. I think. Monrovia describes Hosui as drought resistant and heat tolerant - so once established should not need a lot of watering. The tree is a bit misshapen, but that is OK, it will either give it character, or pruning and training will change that.

Toka Plum, from Grandpa's Orchard, identical to the pic from Fedco. The site claims "This fruit was introduced in 1911 by Dr. N.E. Hansen at the South Dakota Experiment Station as a hybrid of the Japanese and European types" but I read elsewhere it is a hybrid of an "apricot plum" with an "American plum".

OK, I bought 2 Asian plums. The first was Satsuma. I saw a couple of other varieties, and wanting a pollinator and something different from the first choice, came home and googled on pollinators for Satsuma. Toka is listed as a pollenizer for Satsuma, on the Burnt Ridge Nursery site. Toka is also listed as self fertile. Seems like a reasonable pair, so now I have then both. Not all sites agree about these as a pollinizing pair, it is confusing.

I might plant at least some of these trees tomorrow and through the weekend. I don't know if I have the energy to plant 4 trees on one day. I've done it before, so maybe.

Currently 58 degrees. This year I'm actually excited about fall. There are lots of fruit trees, trees, shrubs, and perennials to plant. Fall is the perfect time for that. Will also be wanting to make some raised beds for veggies and flowers.

Almost Done With Iris Care

This is a bit of an experiment. These were close-out, and not too special looking. Maybe different enough from my existing irises to add to the variety, a little. For a couple of dollars, hard to lose. Obviously much, much more dried out than the mail order rhizomes. Advantages of the mail order places that I used: better selection, by far, much fresher rhizomes. by far. Disadvantages, more costly. I think some of the mail order houses will send just as dried out selections as these store-bought rhizomes, as I recall from past orders. Those were from budget mail order houses, not the Iris specialists.

"Orange Harvest", listed as a rebloomer. I've had so few re-blooms, I won't count on it. Schreiner's describes Orange Harvest.... "Reblooming Iris Society has identified Orange Harvest as a very dependable rebloomer throughout most of the country". Developed in 1988. Several sales sites describe Orange Harvest as "slightly fragrant".

"Red Hawk". Developed in 1995. The differences in color, for illustrations of this iris, are amazing. It must have colors that don't photograph well. Commanche Acres Iris Gardens states "Pronounced sweet fragrance." Good.

I chose the largest, most plump rhizomes from the store bins. It's interesting that they can be so dried out, and still grow.

Here they are, planted. I took a lesson from orchids, and planted with the old end / cut end next to the container edge, and the growth end / fan toward the center. This gives some room for a little growth, at least one season. Which is all I am interested in here. The growth medium is a fast draining wood-compost-based medium that I used last year for garlic, with great success. After watering-in these rhizomes, and inserting labels, they are set for the fall.

Saving Seeds

Collected more seeds today. Saved them in regular postal envelopes. My seed box is a small wooden file box that I bought at a yard sale, good fit for the envelopes.

Yellow pod bush beans. These are a tasty bean that grew well this year. I "think" they are open pollinated, and they are the only beans that I grew at the time, so they should grow true.

Daylily seeds. These are some of the results from my hybridizing. I'll have to look up how to grow them. My plan is to find a place to grow them out to bloom, and keep anything I like, throw away hybrids I don't like. No way to know until I see them grow and bloom. Just for fun.

These are "Oriental Snow Pea Sweet Taiwan". Similar for the beans I haven't grown any other pea, so unless they are a hybrid, they should grow true.

Sempervivum

For many years, I had a patch of Sempervivum (Hens and Chickens) under a cherry tree. The area against the tree is raised. Grass had taken over the area. Over the past 2 years, I haven't watered it. The area is in direct sun. Yesterday I picked through the grass and found these specimens. The ultimate goal is to remove anything recoverable, then either let it go to grass, or clean the area completely and mulch. The tree is gradually dying, so maybe remove the tree and start over. Meanwhile, here are the Sempervivums. This is a testament to their rugged nature - covered with grass, full sun, and no watering for 2 years. These plants came from my parents' yard in Illinois, years ago. My Dad told me he got them from his parents' yard long before that. I have quite a few others, from the same original two starts that I brought here - but nice to recover these too. They are soft, dried, wrinkly, but I think they are alive. The "tap-root" may just be stem. Blurry. It was evening. These were planted in the Battleground place, in a bed that I recently improved with compost and planted. Planting just involved using a trowel to make a slit in the ground, insert the "root" so that the plant is a ground level, then firm the soil. I did water it in to settle the soil and get them started. As always, "We'll see". I read that Medieval European peasants throw Sempervivum onto their straw roofs to grow and deter lightening strikes. If true, they survived very dry conditions to grow on the roof. So maybe these will recover too.