Dawn Redwood after Two Growing Seasons. 10.29.18

Dawn Redwood after 2 Growing Seasons.  10.29.18

I planted this tree on 11.17.16.  Based on recommendations by Linda Chalker-Scott, of Washington State Horticulture (I think), I washed off the nursery soil, bare-rooting the tree.  I cut off crossing or binding roots before planting.  During the first year, I watered it about once weekly.  This year, I watered about every other week.  It was a hot, dry summer.  The tree has grown nicely, and now it is starting to show fall color change.  I keep the fence around it to reduce deer damage to the trunks, which happened to nearby cypress trees of similar size.

The tree is mulched, but I did not fertilize.  I've buried some dead chickens nearby, and my beloved dog Charlie, whose atoms will nourish my spirit in the leaves and growth of this tree.

Tree at planting: 11.17.16.  It's hard to believe that a tree with so roots, compared to the top, survived.  But it did, and flourished.  I did not prune the top.  Planting in fall may have allowed significant root growth before Spring.   Im certain that mulch and keeping it watered for the first year is also key.

Odds and Ends. The Last Pawpaws. Planting Egyptian Walking Onions, Garlic Daffodils. More.Saijo 10.28.18

Saijo Persimmon Tree.  10.28.15

This post has odds and ends from a few garden tasks, and walking around.

The Asian type persimmons are closer to ripe.  One of the Nikita's Gift persimmons was ripe.  The Saijo has about a dozen, not as large as last year, but then I didn't water it at all.

Columnar Apple Tree, Golden Sentinel, about 3 weeks after transplanting.  1-.28.18

The columnar apple trees that I dug up, pruned, and transplanted a few weeks ago (10.6.18), are showing the stress.  The larger one (Golden Sentinel) has mosly brown leaves. However, a few remain green.  Since it's fall and the other apple trees are starting to drop leaves, this is not necessarily a death sentence.   There was more browning on The Golden Sentinel, than on the North Pole, which was smaller and younger, so lost less root mass relative to the top.  Next Spring will tell.

Today I planted one last row of garlic, from saved garlic heads.  I don't know which variety, suspect German Red.  I had to quit planting due to a back strain, and today was the soonest that I could.  It's been raining.  I hated to impact the wet soil, but it was either that or don't plant it.  Meanwhile, the previous plantings are growing, some quite vigorously.  The fastest seem to be Spanish Roja.  I planted those Oct 5th, so this frowth is 23 days post planting.  There are some others, not shown, almost as large at 14 days, from saved cloves.

Garlic about 3 weeks after planting.

Sets from Egyptian Walking Onions.  10.28.15

The Last of the Sunflower Pawpaws.  10.28.18

A gardener should listen to his body, and I did not.  While moving minor stuff around 2 weeks ago, my back tweaked.  Before fully better, I mowed and planted some daffodils and more garlic, in heavy soil, and hauled some leaves.  It worsened again.  Now I"m being careful.  No more heavy work until fully better, and I really do need to pay due diligence to back and other orthopedic health.  Today, I planted the last of those garlic - intended and additional row, but wont.  Planted the rest of those daffodils.  And cleared part of raised bed, which was pepper plants, and planted 6 rows of 10 sets each of Egyptian Walking Onions.  These were topsets that fell over during the summer, and are rooting in the rainy weather.  The basal bulbs have about 6 inches of growth already, soon usable as scallions.  Egyptian Walking Onions never fail to perform, even in bad weather and neglected.

The last of the "Sunflower" Pawpaws fell off the tree.  Nice sized fruits.  So that's almost a month of Pawpaws.  Very nice!  The final fruits of the year, will be persimmons.

My conclusion about pawpaws:   They really can be grown, and fruit, in the Pacific Northwest.

Home Fermented Pepper Sauces. 10.24.18

Fermented Hot Pepper Sauces.  10.24.18

These fermented for several days, en I poured off the brine and chopped them to almost-puree in the small food processor. I added back enough of the brine to have the consistency that I liked.   A little finer than a typical relish.  There is still some slight crunch in the green Korean pepper sauce.  The Korean is much milder, just slight heat.  The The red/gree Thai is very, very hot.  Both are delicious, but very different from each other.  Now store in fridge until eaten.  Good on eggs, hash browns, and vegetables.

The glass weights for small mouth jars were not good.  They don't have a handle, and are very difficult to remove.  I had to turn the jars upside down to remove the glass weight.  A better system is needed.  The weight for large mouth jars have build in handle that makes it easier to remove the weight. 

Ripe Tomatoes. 10.24.18

Ripe tomatoes in October!  Wow!

PawPaws. 10.24.18

"Sunflower" Pawpaws.  10.24.18

Wow.  These are so good!  Now I'm down to 4 remaining fruits.  This variety is "Sunflower".  I'm saving seeds.  They are washed off, in wet paper towel, in ziplock bag, in the fridge, for the winter.

Deer Resistant Petunias. 10.24.18

Petunias.  10.24.18

Add petunias to the list of deer resistant annuals.  These did great.  Deer didn't touch them.  They are in a major deer super-highway.  They are starting to wear out, due to the season.  They were covered with flowers, all summer long.

Brussels Sprouts. 10.24.18

I didn't know how these would do in my garden.  I love Brussels Sprouts.  It's a challenge growing cabbage, Chinese cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, because of Cabbage moths / worms, and because of slugs.  I can manage the slugs, but the Cabbage moths are very destructive.  Still, Collard Greens seem unaffected or mostly unaffected.

So this Spring I planted Brussels Sprouts.  They did great!  Minimal problems with Cabbage moths.  Aphids covered them in late summer / early fall, and I was not diligent.  Hosed them off once or twice.  Next year, use neem.

But I'm happy with the result.  These will be great once I clean them up and roast them.

Alice Wachenheim in her Rose Garden. Early 1960s.

I've returned to the dusty, musty boxes and albums that were left to me in my parents' estates, and left to them by their parents and my grandparents' sisters. Gardening has always been part of the lives of my family. Here is my grandfather's sister, Alice, who started hybrid tea roses by sticking flowers from bouquets into the ground, and covering with a jar to prevent dehydration. Her tea roses were important and meaningful to her, and she was proud of them. It's a faded Kodachrome.

I used the free photo editing program, Picasa, to sharpen the contrast and refurbish the color.

My Dad's Ginkgo biloba tree at 20 years of age. 10.21.18

Male Ginkgo biloba, grown from seed,, at 20 years old.  10.21.18

 This tree has grown into a magnificent specimen.  There is more risk planting a seedling ginkgo tree in town, because people don't like the stinky seed coats and cut them down.  That's a shame.  fortunately, this tree has proven itself to be a male, based on my observation of the flower catkins over the past few years.

Some day, we expect to sell the old place.  Anticipating that, a few years ago I cut grafting scion from lower twigs of this tree, and grafted them to rootstocks grown from locally collected seeds.  Of those, 2 took but only one survived planting.  I'll sho that later.  That tree has taken hold and is now about 5 feet tall.   Along way to go before it is this magestic, but a hopeful development.

I'll intend to post photos of the other ginkgo trees later.  This is the best of the lot.  My dad collected the seeds in his neighborhood in Quincy, Illinois, and gave me the seeds.  I sprouted those in flowerpots and when I moved to Vancouver, WA, three of those seedlings moved with me.  One of the others is at our country place in Battle Ground, WA, and the other did not survive transplanting there.

Same tree at about 8 years old. 

Persimmon Fall Color and Fruits. 10.1.18

Yates Persimmon.  10..21.18

Nikita's Gift Persimmon.  10.21.18

 Here are some of the persimmon trees, showing fall color.  The Yates American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) fruits have already ripened, and have been eaten.  Despite small size, their flavor is the best I have ever eaten.  The crop was small this year, about a dozen fruits.  The tree is still young.  For size, those are 5 foot tall fence posts. 

The second is Nikita's Gift Persimmon, a Ukranian hybrid of D. virginiana and D. kaki.  The fruits are beginning to ripen, but not quite ready yet.  There is a fairly  large crop this year.  I did not water this tree at all this summer, a long, hot, dry summer.  Therefore, the fruits are smaller but I imagine the flavors will be more concentrated.

Saijo Japanese (Asian) Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) always looks droopy in my yard.  The fruits are good, and should ripen in the next month.  It also did not receive any water this summer.

Not pictured yet, the other American Persimmon Tree,  Prairie Star.  That tree got off to a difficult start in previous years, due to rabbits and/or deer eating it off multiple times.  However, the tree finally recovered, and is now a tall, about 9 foot, whip.  If all goes well, expect the first fruits in 2 more years.

Nikita's Gift Persimmon, with fruits.  10.21.18

Saijo Persimmon Tree.  1021.18