Ning's Meadow. 5.10.14

Ning Planting Lavender Meadow

Ning Planting lavender meadow.

Ning has been putting in large areas of wildflowers and herbs.  He covers the grass with a big sheet of black plastic, leaves it for a few months, and removes it.  That kills of the vast majority of weeds and grass.  Then he plants wildflower seeds, using a container like a big saltshaker.  For the Lavender and Sage meadow, he bought starts.

When these bloom they will be awesome.  Honeybees love lavender and I think they will love the sage too.

A little more on the grafts. And the apple trees are taking hold. 5.10.14

Triple  Variety Apple graft.  5.10.14

New Liberty graft on Honeycrisp. 5.10.14

Liberty Graft on Honeycrisp.  5.10.14

 Puttering around the apple trees in my little orchard.  The trees are all caged now.  Deer have been marauding and destroying everything that meets their fancy.  Fortunately I planned for them with the apples.

The tree cages are a hassle and cost money, but have some advantages.  The triple-variety graft is in a tree cage and I use the cage as a training tool to spread out the branches.  They'll need to be tied that way for a year.

The grafts are growing like gangbusters.  The Liberty graft on the little Honeycrisp tree has nice growth despite having had a bloom.  I removed the grafting wrap to avoid girdling the limb.  When the branch takes off and grows, it should be about equal to the Honeycrisp branch, and one can pollinate the other.

I looked and looked and looked to find patent info on Liberty.  I could not find any, so I think this was a legal graft.  Honeycrisp patent has run out.

The Jonared has good growth.  I need to get more fencing so the little branches don't reach past the circle and get eaten by deer.  The posts are in place.

Close up of whip-and-tongue of Jonagold tree start, made using sucker from rootstock and Jonagold from the scion.

Jonared.  5.10.14

Grafting democratizes gardening.  All you need is the rootstock, which can be a sucker from an existing tree; and the scion, which can be from a neighbor or relative.  The stock can also be a young tree that the gardener wants to add other varieties too.  It isn't hard.  I feel so accomplished, grafting these trees, even though millions of trees are made in nurseries, rapidly, by the same method.

Grafting also allows the gardener to build their own multiple variety tree, using proven local varieties, treasured varieties from the old homestead, and making for a self pollinating, and therefore more productive, tree.  It means you don't need 4 trees to get 4 varieties.

Whip and Tongue Apple Tree Start.  5.10.14

Bearded Irises In Bloom. 5.18.14

Bearded Iris Pallida dalmatica.  5.8.14

Bearded Iris Indian Chief.  5.8.14

Bearded Iris "Her Majesty".  5.8.14

Bearded Iris "Red Zinger".  5.8.14

Front flower bed.  Yellow iris is an old no-ID variety.

Puttering. 5.8.14

Hollywood Plum Cuttings

Sungold Tomato Plants 5.8.14

 Puttering around the yard.

The Hollywood Plum cuttings continue to have small leaves.  None of them has dried off.  The Shiro Plum cuttings' leaves all crispified and died.  I weeded around the living cuttings.  It is raining today.  If they stay alive, that's a bunch of little plum trees.  Hollywood is a very tasty, very richly colored plum.

Planted the 2 Sungold tomato plants today.  They doubled in size in a couple of weeks.  I hope the seedlings progress well too.

The Cincinnati Market radishes are interesting.  They are shaped like carrots, but the flavor is all radish, juicy and peppery.

Cincinnati Market Radish.  5.8.14

 The front yard trees all look pretty good.  I planted these Summer 2012.   This is the first bloom for the Mountain ash.   The Laburnum bloomed last year, but it was cut short by frost.  I don't know if the Greenspire Linden will  bloom.

The Laburnum was leaning with the wind, so it got a stake to straighten it.  That will need to stay in place for a year or two.

All of the trees have had some dilute doses of organic nitrogen in late winter and spring, for a boost.

Front Yard Trees.  5.8.14

Beared Iris Order. Traits to seek. Lessons Learned. 5.7.14

Today I added orders for 3 varieties of bearded iris.  Two are heritage varieties.  Heritage varieties are 30 years old, or older.

Beverly Sills.  1979.  Listed as vigorous.  Pink.  There are not a lot of pink heritage varieties.  The vigor would be welcomed as well.  Bloom time early midseason.

Gingersnap.  1969.  Fragrant, listed as root beer scent.  I bought this last year, but it succumbed to bacterial rot.  I am taking a change to try again due to the fragrance.

June Kraus.  2009.  Not a heritage variety.  Nice ruffled pink.  Listed as late season.

Traits to seek.  Lessons learned.

Currently the irises that were not in the raised beds, did not develop bacterial rot.  Some were in beds that had added compost.  I had over-nurtured the raised beds with dilute plant food last summer.   Ultimately, all of the irises in the raised beds had some bacterial rot.  This hear, I will not over nurture them.  Just remove weeds. remove some of the unwanted varieties and replace with new ones or others I already have.

So -

-Don't water in summer or fall.  Or be very careful.
-Don't fertilize.  Or be very careful.
-Take note of the least affected varieties.  In this case, that's Pallida dalmatica, Pallida vareigata, Germanica, and a few others.

In addition, the earliest bloomers are the most affected by rain.  It's drier here after early may.  Try to aim for late season varieties.

The tiny ones can be nice, but are so short, they are difficult to see and almost impossible to smell.  I will remove some of those to make room for later, taller varieties.

That's the plan.

Despite the bacterial rot, there are more flowers this year than next year.  The worst seems to be over.  Some references state remove all of the affected varieties, but in my case, that's everything in all of the raised beds.  So I will depend on plant hygiene and more appropriate growth conditions, and see if they grow better this time around.

Kitchen Garden. Seed starts. 5.6.14

Today I planted seeds for:

Golden Zucchini.  From Seed Savers Exchange.  New seeds.

Squash Patisson panache, verte et blanc.  From Seed Saver's Exchange.  New seeds.

Sweet Corn, "White Sensation Hybrid"  70 day.  Lilly Miller.  Seeds from 2008.

Squash Waltham Butternut.  From Seed Saver's Exchange.  New seeds.

Beans Roma II.   Ed Hume Seeds.  From 2012.

Cucumber "Bush".  From Seed Saver's Exchange.  New Seeds.

Squash "Scallop Bush Mix.".  Ed Hume Seeds.  From 2009 I think.

Zucchini "Dark Green".  From Victory Seeds.  New seeds.

Some of those old seeds might not grow.  If so, it's best to try, and if they don't grow, throw them away.

Rhubarb Crumble. 5.4.14

Rhubarb Harvest for Crumble.  5.4.14

 I kept saying I was going to make either a rhubarb pie or rhubarb crumble.  Sunday I did.  Came out very good.  Easy, I don't know why I couldn't get myself to make it.

The rhubarb mix:

8 cups 1/2 inch slices of fresh rhubarb
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

The topping:
1 cup flour
1 up brown sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats.
1/2 cup soft butter.

Preheat over to 375.
Spray 13 x 8 casserole dish with nonstick spray.

Combine rhubarb mix and spread into casserole dish.

Combine topping mix and sprinkle clumps over the rhubarb.

Bake 35 minutes until bubbling and hot in the center.

That's all.  Easy.

Rhubarb crumble.  5.4.14

Heritage Iris Bed. 5.6.14

Heritage irises in bloom.  5.6.14

 More of the heritage irises are blooming.  Iris florentina and Her Majesty continue to bloom and continue to be fragrant.  Indian Chief is blooming and is lightly fragrant.  Iris pallida dalmatica is the tallest and most fragrant so far.

Maybe with warmer drier weather the bacterial rot problem will resolve.  I hope so.  No additional compost or other stimulants.

I thought the Caen Anemones were all eaten by rabbits or deer.  A few are blooming after all.  They survived the big freeze, but the animals are another matter.  Maybe they will continue to survive.

Honeybees and Bee forage. 5.6.14

Honeybee cluster in new top bar hive.  5.4.14

Allium bee forage.  5.16.14

I opened one of the hives on Sunday, to inspect and see if the queen was released.  It was a bit chilly, so the vast majority - if not all - of the bees were in the hive, in a bee ball.  I didn't want to disturb them further, so did not look further.

Here's a problem to avoid.  One of the effects of my illness was weight loss.  My jeans tend to fall off, if I forget a belt.  Which I did forget.  Problem #2. I was commando.  Problem #3.  I was not careful to pull the bee suit down over the jeans.

Honeybees are really good about finding warm places to tunnel in and sting.  That's all I'm going to say.

Lesson learned.

I've been watching for foraging activity.  They have plenty of sugar water.  Alliums are a bee favorite.   Allium globosum is blooming now.  I'll let the onions and shallots bloom too.  Bees love those.

Next project- on a warm afternoon while they are foraging, I will check again for queen and comb construction.

Apple Grafting. Progress Report. 5/6/14

Apple graft, about 2 months.

 Here is another of the apple grafts.  This one is on a dwarf rootstock, that originated as a sucker off another tree.  It was crooked.  I don't think that will hurt anything in the long run.  A little zig zag just above ground level.

Looking at some of the grafting videos, there is risk of girdling if the wrapping isn't removed on time.  It's hard to identify when that is.  For a novice.  This was growing well above the graft, so I removed the wrapping.

The graft wound is well calloused.  It did not come loose.  It looks OK.

I also removed all new growth occurring on the rootstock, below the graft.

The last photo was via cellphone.  If I get a chance and remember, I'll replace it with a camera pic that is better focused.

Unwrapping the graft.  5.6.14

Apple graft.  Healed whip and tongue.  5.6.14