Brief update

No pics today. Today we had 3 figs from the Sal's fig tree that I moved this summer to Battleground. The figs were slightly different from Hardy Chicago. A little "richer" however that is defined. More juicy. Skin was not as dark, but flesh had more red coloration. It's not a fair comparison - different location. I'm glad it survived the move even in the Summer and provided some figs. I planted some plum seeds, Hollywood plum, among the shallot rows. They are labeled. This way they can stratify over the winter. Just for fun. I planted some chinese chive seeds among the plants. That should help fill in the gaps, if they grow. Fall planting has the risk of not growing at all, or growing but the tiny plants not surviving the winter. If so, not much loss. I saved lots of seeds this year. I stuck daffodil bulbs in molehills. I read that moles don't like daffodils. I did that only where the mole(s) dug too close to my little fruit trees. Rain is postponed another week. Maybe it's going to become a desert here? Watered all of the new tree and shrub transplants, and the raised beds.

Figs

Now it's time for more Main Crop figs. Lots of variety now.

The biggest ones are the NoID Vancouver fig. Likely Brunswick. The brown figs are Hardy Chicago. The black figs are Petite negri. They are all wonderful.

The green ones are Lattarula.

Bulbs, Deer ResistantT

These were labeled as deer resistant. A wild tulip. I read that deer like tulips, but maybe not the wild one? More allium. Two varieties of grape hyacinth. If the deer don't get them, will the moles? I planted some around each of the new shade trees.

Transplanted Trees. One Week Later.

THey are not as droopy as I expected. In fact, they seem just fine.

The Stanley Plum. Not a single leaf has fallen. I watered this, and the other trees, today.

Indian Peach. I was sure I killed it. Not droopy, no wilting. So far, so good. I think once it's past the first week, it's less to worry about.

Not a home grown transplant, but it needed to go somewhere. Blake Kiwi. The start of a Kiwi vinyard. More, later.

The ginkgo. No more droopy than it was before. I think it will do OK.

Raised Bed #2. More fall planting

Finished the second raised bed. Similar to the first. Moving soil and mixing in compost, is hard work. Like the first raised bed, much of the topsoil is finely ground mole hills. There are a lot of them. They are easily dug, and need to be shaved off for mowing purposes.

Filled, mixed, smoothed over, ready to plant. Like the first raised bed, I added about 1/4 to 1/3 compost, made at a local recycling center from yard waste. It's black and crumbly. This is the "experimental garden". It contains: 3 rows of German Porcelain Garlic. This is a new variety to me. The sign stated, German Porcelain Garlic has fewer, larger cloves - good, I don't like peeling the tiny middle cloves, and this variety doesn't have them; strong punguent flavor - good. So it's worth a try. 1 row of Safeway Red Shallots. Because that's where I bought them. 2 rows of "rescue Garlic" - NoID from my back yard, small cloves, some are bulbs that did not clove. I want to see if they produce well, once in good soil and treated well. They could be almost any variety - over the years, I've grown grocery store garlic, Inchelium Red, German Red, and NoID garlics. 1 row of Holland Red Shallots. I found them at a local nursery. I read grocery shallots might be treated with a growth inhibitor and not grow. So I'm trying both. 2 rows of Yellow Potato Onions - mainly the small bulbs, a few larger ones. I found them while sorting through garden tools. 1 row of Inchelium Red garlic. Wanted to add a few more. My favorite. 1 row of Ixia for fun and as a test. They may not make it through the winter here. 1 row with one Allium gigantium bulb, multiple Egyptian Walking Onion bulbs - these will split into several scallions, faster than the small sets grow, and divisions from an old clump of garlic chives, to see if they are regenerated in the new setting.

Laid out in rows, ready to plant.

Planted, labeled, covered with a light layer of compost, watered, and ready for fall. Note: Egyptian Walking Onion starts in the first raised bed are about 1 inch tall now. Growing fast. The rescued garlic chives are also generating firm, green, new growth, about 1 inch long. Garlic and Yellow Potato Onions are not yet visible. It's very early. It's been in the 70s anbd 80s, without rain. So I watered them today.

More on the Raised Beds

Built second raised bed. Same size as first. Here is the bottom.

Chicken wire stapled to the box.

Flipped over, so the screen is at the soil level. This will frustrate moles, no end. I like that I'm filling the box largely with soil from mole-hill tops. But I don't want to make a new luxury condo for them. This box is now about half full. It takes a lot of soil to fill a 4 X 6 box, a foot deep.

Transplanting a Plum and a Peach tree

Two more small trees.  The Stanley Plum was about 6 feet tall.  The Peach is about 4 feet tall.

I've been growing this Stanley plum for about 3 years. I had cut the top at 3 feet, then the branches at another foot, for scaffold branches. It had one plum this year. So I got a taste. I used the same method as with the ginkgo. I sliced vertically, then cut under the tree. I lifted it out, not pried it out. Interesting. This had been a balled and burlapped tree, in its original hard soil. That ball of soil remains, but the roots have extended from the ball. After wrapping in a large plastic sheet, I transported the tree to Battleground.

Here is the hole. The spot must be "perfect" for a tree. In exactly the spot I dug, there was a stump. No way to tell what kind of tree, fruit or evergreen or...? I don't think there's harm in planting in the same spot. The stump was very well rotted, and easy to remove. Even if the original tree had an infestation or disease, it should be gone now. Forgot to photograph the planted tree. Next time.

I did not dig as carefully for this peach. Too bad. Cut roots way, way too close. So I pruned branches back, removing about 2/3 of the top. Maybe I've killed it. The morning after planting, the leaves on the remaining branches were not wilted. How tough are these trees?

Transplanting a Seed-Grown Ginkgo Tree

Now I'm moving some of the smaller trees from home to the place in Battleground. With fall approaching, I think they'll do OK. I would not move these trees in the heat of summer. I watered them the night before moving them. I wanted them well hydrated. These trees should be accustomed to "dry". They were given only minimal water throughout the summer.

First slices.  I made vertical slices in the soil, straight down.  I did not try to pry the tree loose at this point.

Then dig around the slices, outside of the first circle.  I removed soil from the section between the first and second dig.  Then, as deeply as possible, sliced under the tree.  Despite watering last night, it was fairly dry.

No prying or pulling.  I sliced "surgically" around, then under.  Despite that, I saw that I cut a deep root.  Not a tap root per se, but a longer root.  I pruned injured roots with pruning shears, for a more surgical treatment.  I  wrapped the tree with a large sheet of plastic, along with a plum tree and a little peach tree.  Then transported in the truck bed to Battleground.

Now at Battleground.  Dig a hole.  First I slice off the sod.  It's quite dry.  No rain all summer.  This top soil isn't bad.  I can dig, even with it bone dry.  At home, when planting 10 years ago, the unimproved soil could not be dug without first soaking.

Keep the roots shaded and protected while preparing the hole.  At that, the tree was in the shade until the last minute.

A good friend is needed to keep guard.  Charlie does a good job.  The hole is filled with water, and allowed to soak in.  The tree is then placed in the hole, adjusted, soil added back, firmed, watered, more soil etc until filled in.

Planted.  Circle of sod around the tree, for protection and to hold water in the hole.  It looks a bit droopy to me.  Did I kill it?  Hope not. I grew this tree from a seed.  I think it was a bit droopy before moving it.  I expect the leaves will yellow and fall quickly.  I will know if it's alive, next Spring.  Long wait.  I will water frequently until the rains begin.

This tree just over my height, which is just under 6 foot.

More Tree Planting

I had some anxiety about transporting such tall trees. Bundled and tied. Cushioned over the tailgate with cardboard. No super fast highway speeds. They don't look like they've lost a leaf. The prior trees that I transported the same way, have settled in and none the worse. So I think these will too.

Aspen. I saw it at the nursery and that was that. Raymond will like that. Aspens have an amazing ability. Clones with tens of thousands of trees, all originate with one seedling. Some aspens in the US have not propagated from seed since the last ice age. They just continue sending up new shoots. The shoots remain connected together, resulting in what is considered the world's largest organism. I love the description, "the leaves dance in the slightest breeze". That was true even for this little specimen. It's a bit crooked, but perfection is not an option. Each crook, each bend, each asymmetry, makes beauty. None of these are lollypop trees. It will fill out and reach upward with time. Especially important, a stake made from aspen wood is one of the few weapons that can be used to kill vampires. With all of the garlic I grow, however, I shouldn't need an aspen stake. Aspens are also known to drive off evil spirits. There are some disease problems for aspens in the Pacific Northwest, but if it grows, awesome!

This maple was super cheap. Looking at the wounded trunk, I'm not surprised. The buyer is aware.

The trunk has a slash about 1/3 the circumference of the trunk, with some evidence of healing. The healing tells me it's not new, and the tree has survived so far. I did not trim the wound, or paint it. Painting is discouraged by tree experts. It did not appear to need trimming. We planted with the damaged side to the South, so it would dry faster after rain. At $18.00 this is a big tree, and it's not much of an investment, so if it doesn't survive, not a lot lost. I've seen worse damage that was overcome with minor care.

I kept thinking, can such a tall tree have such a small root ball and survive? It must have - this is the end of summer, and this tree was surely in the container all summer long. There were only a couple of potentially girdling roots. I pruned them.

Maple planted. This variety is called "Summer Red". With that wound, it might be "Summer Brown" but I enjoy a challenge and I have pretty good success with nurturing wounded and sick plant life.

Mountain ash. This was also a $18.00 tree, tall tree with small root mass. Again, not much by way of encircling roots. I thought that was odd. Pruned the ones that looked like potential problems. I tasted one of the berries. Bitter! Awful!

Bowl of fruit. Hardy Chicago

Multiple stages of ripening. I didn't mind not getting breba figs from this tree, this summer, because I thought this would happen. It's the first ripening main crop (fall crop) for me. Different flavor, more like the dried figs.

Not as big as King or Lattarula but quite a different, very sweet, almost date-like flavor.