Bee Forage. 6.29.14

Honeybee on Chinese Chives.  6.29.14

Honeybee on onion flower.  6.29.14

 Honeybees are foraging the yard actively.

They especially like Chinese chives, onion flowers, and Phacelia.   This is my first try at phacelia.  Very pretty and easy.

The bees are actively foraging Ning's wildflowers as well.

Honeybee on Phacela.  6.29.14

Wildflowers.  6.29.14

Ning's wildflower meadow.  6.29.14

Honeybees on Chinese Chives.   6.29.14

Phacela.  6.29.14

Buddleia Progress Report. 6.29.14

Buddleia "Blueberry Cobbler".  6.29.14

Buddleia "Miss Molly".  6.29.14

Buddleia "Miss Ruby".  6.29.14

The sterile buddleias are starting to bloom.

As described in earlier posts, sterile buddleias are complex  hybrids between Buddleia davidii and other species.  They have the advantage of being sterle, so do not produce seeds.  For that reason, the sterile hybrids are legal in  this SPring Oregon and Washington.  I did see some Buddleia davidii at Lowes, and walked past it a few times, beautiful dark purple.  But as an environmentally oriented gardener, I couldn't bring myself to buy it.  The B. davidii are highly invasive.  The sterile hybrids do not set seed, so are not invasive.  Despite being sterile, some varieties are highly vigorous, while others are much more restrained.

In their 2nd year, the varieties "Peach Cobbler" and "Blueberry Cobbler" are 7 feet tall, and equally wide.  Also in their 2nd year, "Miss Ruby" is about 4 feet tall, and "Miss Molly" is about 3 feet tall.  The most compact is "Blue Chip", which is about 18 inches tall.

Bloom order:  "Miss Molly" was first, mid June.  "Miss Ruby" was 2nd, late June.  "Blueberry Cobbler" followed close behind, late June.  "Peach Cobbler" is about to bloom, probably 1st week of July.  "Blue Chip" does not have buds yet.  Not a fair comparison, because I let that bed go wild while I was recuperating from surgery, and only this spring pulled out the competing weeds.  It has made a resurgence of growth, but had a late start.

These buddleias are the fastest of all my shrubs to grow and establish.  They are one of the few that deer and rabbits don't touch.  They don't seem to be affected by any insects.  Bumblebees forage the flowers.  I'm not sure about honeybees - so far, there is minimal if any honeybee activity.   The more compact varieties look ideal for smaller gardens, and the more vigorous varieties look ideal for privacy hedge.

Bud Grafting / Budding. Progress Report. 6.29.14

Shiro bud graft on Satsuma @ 2 weeks.   6.29.14

If anything indicates that a bud took, it's new growth.
The 2 week old grafts all look good.  In another week I'll consider removing the polyethylene wrapping.  It does not look like removal of wrapping on the first set of buds caused harm, and some are growing.

Shiro on the big unknown Asian plum, bud now growing a new shoot.

Prunus cerasifolia / burgundy plum on the same unknown Asian plum, also growing a new shoot.

This tree was too tall for me to safely bud higher branches, and this was just an experiment.  The plan at this point will be let these grow and remove the nearest larger branches, to part of the top growth is replaced by the grafted varieties.  That will give plums sooner than starting new trees, and equally important provide pollinating varieties within the same tree for better production in both the original branches and the grafts.

I love the Shiro plums, and the cerasifolia plums are exotic and flavorful, not available in any store.  So this is a great development.

Burgundy cerasifolia plum on Asian plum @ 4 weeks.  6.29.14

The branches may or may not bloom next Spring.  There is still most of the summer this year to grow.  But the following Spring they should be large enough and mature enough for bearing flowers and fruit.

I thought budding would be difficult.  These were my first attempts, and all of them took.  It was very easy.

Shiro bud grafted onto unknown Asian Plum @ 4 weeks.  6.29.14

Four O'Clocks. 6.26.14

4 O'Clocks "Marbles" 6.26.14

Four O'Clocks "Marbles"  6.26.14

 The first of the 4 O'Clocks have started blooming.  This is the 4th day of flowers.  The flowers last one day, then are shed.  Each flower has unique variagation, no two the same.  This is the variety "Marbles"   at 7:45pm

The first day there was only 1 flower.  The second day, 2 flowers.  Now there are dozens of buds in various stages of formation.

There are other colors.  One other plant is yellow on white, but no flowers today.

I have one of the variety "Marvel of Peru" that had one flower on the deck yesterday, yellow with bright red stamens.  No flowers today.

I think when they take off they have dozens of flowers.  Making a nice start now.

These are container grown, on the deck.  They have sunshine for most of the day.

Four O'Clocks "Marbles".  6.26.14

Four O'Clock "Marvel of Peru" Yellow.  6.27.14

Four O'Clock "Marbles" Yellow/White 4.27.14

Fig Tree Progress Report. 6.22.14

Fig Embryos on Brunswick Fig.  6.22.14

Fig Embryos on Sal's Fig.  6.22.14

A few weeks back, I snapped off the growth tips of the "Vancouver Brunswisk" fig tree, that I moved to Battleground in Dec 2012.  Last year it barely grew - expected after the loss of roots and branches necessary for transplanting.  I did the same with the Sal's a couple of weeks ago.  The Sal's is much taller than when planted, but still a bit puny. 

With the loss of apical dominance - suppressive hormones that are produced by the growth tip, and lost when the tip is snapped, off - growth of figs is stimulated. 
If the current growth is any indication, there could be lots of Brunswick figs this year, and more Sal's than I expected.

The next challenge is mold and spoiling due to late fall rains.  I've learned my lesson.  I will cover the figs, maybe with zip lock bags, this fall.  Or a plastic cover, held on by clothes pins.

I'm optimistic.  It would be great to get a nice fig crop in Battleground.

Phaselia. 6.22.14

Phaselia.  6.22.14

Phaselia.  6.22.14

I planted Phaselia ("Bee Friend") for bee forage.  I didn't know what to expect.

They are blooming now.  About 2 feet tall.  Beautiful, fern-like leaves.  A bit floppy, they fall over.

So far I've seen bumblebees on them, but no honeybees.

Borage is blooming now too.  Bees usually go crazy for borage, but not yet.  So maybe there's just too much other bee forage around.  They love Ning's meadow.

First Buddleia to Bloom. Miss Molly. 6.21.14

Buddleia "Miss Molly".  6.21.14

The first of the buddleias to bloom this year.  Miss Molly is much more compact, compared to the "Cobbler" series.  Nice fragrant flower.

Bud grafting. Progress Report. 6.21.14

Shiro Plum Bud Graft at 3 weeks.  6.21.14

Shiro Plum Bud Graft on Older Wood, at 3 weeks.  6.21.14

Hollywood Plum Bud Graft at 3 weeks.  6.21.14

These are some of the plum bud T-grafts at 3 weeks.  I read they should be unwrapped at 2 to 3 weeks, so I did.

The Shiro graft on new wood looks very good.  Still green, plump.  So I'm confident it took.  The bud portion also looks viable.  I pruned the branch back some more, about 6 inches above the bud graft.

The Shiro graft on older wig - many 3 years old - is less  green looking, but maybe OK.  I think the younger wood is much better, when there is a choice.

The Hollywood graft is burgundy, so harder to see if it is alive or not.  I think is it alive.

The second batch of bud T-grafts look OK.

I think I'll wait for July or August before grafting more.

Grass Clipping Mulch. 6.21.14

Creative Grass Mowing.  6.21.14

 Yesterday I mowed around the raised beds, and other areas of the second acre.  Most people in this area have tightly trimmed, golf course - like yards.  Some are more like pastures.  This area is on a 30 foot wide  easement that we anticipate will be paved soon, by a neighbor with attitude.  We don't know how much of the 30 feet will be paved, or when.  Meanwhile it's grass, organic, no chemicals added.  As a result, used for mulch, the clippings are coarse and dry to a nice straw-like consistency. dont mat down too much or turn sour.  The golf course-like lawns in the neighborhood get fertilizer, water, chemicals, the grass is green and lush, then they collect clippings and burn them.  The smoke is nasty.  Seems insane.

I cut "crop circles" in an attempt to be whimsical.  There is a lot of clover in the grass, now, for nitrogen and bees.

Peppers in raised bed with grass clipping mulch.  6.21.14

I had newspaper and food package cardboard mulch for the squashes, just compost for the peppers.  Now that is covered with an approx 4 inch thick layer of grass clipping mulch.  Will keep them weed free and not as dry for summer.  Like any organic mulch, they will break down to add orgsnic content and life to the soil.

Potato "well" with grass clipping mulch.  6.21.14

The potato planters also got a thick layer of grass clipping.  About 6 inckes thick.  That is on top of a few inches of aged maple leaf mulch.

Mulch also went into some flower borders and around shrubs.  I view cutting the grass more as a harvest of quality organic mulch, than as grooming.

Sunchokes.  6.21.14

 The sunchokes already had a generous mulch of weeds, pulled from raised beds.  I topped that with grass clipping for a cleaner appearance and better weed control.

We recovered these sunchokes from Ning's meadow.  He planted them there last year when I was in surgery.  They didn't do so well there.  I found 3 of the plants.  We ate chokes from one, and I moved the others to this location.  With some added organic nitrogen, and lots of mulch, they are flourishing.  The shorter plant is shorter due to local herbivores.  The taller had a screen.  The herbivores seem to ignore them now.  Although they like to surprise me.

Cherry Pruning & Harvest. Backyard Orchard Culture. 6.20.14

Today I pruned the cherry trees in the Vancouver yard.  I cut back all new growth to about 5 buds, trimmed back a few older branches.  Cut off dead twigs.

These are in backyard orchard culture style.  Trim in summer to maximize the dwarfing effect.  That removes most of the photosynthetic biomass.  They are still quite vigorous.  Much of the new growth was 3 feet long and very leafy.  I dont fertilize them at all.  Not even compost.  

All if those leafy stems were laid on the ground around the trees, to make a nice thick mulch.  They will quickly become brown and crinkly.  From a distance it looks like bark mulch.  I have read not to do that because of potential disease, but Ive been doing so for 10 years without problems.

A backyard cherry did not getruned last year or two.  Must have removed 15 feet of growth this time.  Now back to workable size.  i also trim the center so the branches are like an empty bowl.  That allows good light penetration for buds cherries and health.

The bowls are the last of the sweet cherries.  The blue bowl is Surefure pie cherry.   Nice and tart.  Also some strawberries