Chronicles of a city plot, Spokane


the mascot of the property. my grandma bought him in the early 60s.


put in the melon patch today.


fought the unending battle (bindweed)


signs of life for the asparagus I gave up on


herb patch and the mug my boss made for me


staghorn sumac, a favorite spice


rain barrels- and logs that didn’t work for mushrooms. gotta find a job for those.


these beds are mostly old horse manure. still not sure if I need to fertilize or feed in addition to that. I mean it’s a bottom layer of pine straw/wood chip, then all manure, then an inch of promix on top. will they need more fert? I don’t know and I don’t know who to ask.


quince getting ready to go near the hazelnuts. I love both of these.

long view of the melon zone/mess/outbuildings. that space gets full sun, just blazing merciless heat all day. the raised bed thing in front of it gets a little afternoon shade from the house.
up front is a tumble compost thing my friend gave me, it’s mostly for kitchen scrap so my partner knows exactly where to put them. I need to move it, it’s in my way.

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:heart::heart::heart: (one like wasn’t enough)

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aww!! but do I need to fertilize more than just inches of aged horse manure? I’m afraid to add anything to it. never used it before.

@resonanteye
I’ve no experience with it. My impulse is to plow it into the ground with a serious rototiller. But this could be the wrong idea for your location.

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I built mounds with it- pine straw under, then a literal ton of it, then an inch of promix on top- then I just planted straight into it. I’ve got all that crap around the edges keeping the mounds from drifting until things get settled in. kind of like an unenclosed raised bed a foot tall.

I might throw osmocote and calmag if I don’t hear different. or try one section with the fish fert. experiments.

Try Sul-Po-Mag, especially in a tomato / pepper bed.

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will do next time I’m buying I’ll pick it up and give it a whirl.

You’ll probably also need Ca in your environment so a bit of gypsum or other elemental source would be a good complement.

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I’ve got calmag on hand, and gypsum. might throw some of both in and around the things.

Ok good – gypsum with the Sul-Po-Mag, CalMag without the gypsum.

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I did calmag on the tomatoes and fruit, gypsum elsewhere. and a teaspoon of the fish fert in my two gallon, just for extras

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osmocote in the beds, sheer superstition at this point. plus I have a lot left from last year. veggie in the beds, fruit in the edges


the nursery for plants that don’t grow good and other things

is there a secret to mouse melons? they all fail.

dieter tulips right on time.

avocado with a duke scion that took up top. it’s mexicola. 3 years old or so now? the graft came from @swincher

melons went out a little early with protection. this one is doing the best. they’re very hard to grow here.




updates on figs sent to me by @jsteph00921 thank you again, all but one are doing fine. toya was chewed on by the neighbor’s cat and is in recovery with a few new leaves forming. it’s now in a more protected area. it was the smallest one. the rest are flourishing!

pawpaw that @Osteen sent me is happy! new leaves. it likes being at the corner where the roof runs off, among the winecap straw. my other pawpaws, from seeds sent by @Bradybb are still alive, a little smaller. Susquehanna is putting on a leaf or two. the other is still a sleepy stick, but green. there’s three still elbowing their way out in pots.



morus alba, morus nigra, morus rubra, rubra is a childhood nostalgia thing for me. I love them. nigra/Illinois came bigger, and is bigger. it has early freeze damage on every branch, they’re all dead 6 inches down from the tips.

sumac will have spice for me this year


lamb abbey graft from @NuttingBumpus is taking! two of them are taking on different trees. I’m happy to see them breaking through. thank you!

more of that early frost damage on an apple tree. nearly every tree has a few inches at the tips that froze- it got freezing here so very early and suddenly, no trees dropped leaves at all.

a friend at work on the plums.

harrow sweet, replacement Arkansas black, and a comice are not awake yet.

garlic and a garden friend. an elderly lady gave a bunch of these away at my garden swap table. I snagged this owl looking one

I’ll post photos of the progress on the side and front, later today. Monday I’m laying cardboard and mulching out there, then planting pumpkins and flowers and things to fill the space a little.

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As much as I’d love to take credit, I don’t think I sent you any figs? Though it’s possible I guess, but I only remembered sending the avocado scions. Glad to see Duke looks good, though!

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edited it was @jsteph00921 !!!

maintenance, Monday I’m sheet mulching the front left

gotta wait for another chip drop to do the side.

front left, peaches etc

front right. jujubes that are complaining. pumpkins.

side cleaned out.

this devil strip, I’m hosing it down with grass out, then digging in ditch lilies. it’s killed mint, etc everything unkillable so far. it’s a concrete coffin. hoping the ditch lilies don’t die too.

prairie sage spreading nicely again.

angry jujubes. hoping they bounce back

I’ve not been able to figure out what this bush is, but I keep trying to train it to shade the porch.

chestnut crab sure is happy.

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Have you figured out what‘s happening to the jujube? I was having some issues with one this spring until I reading an article about pruning techniques specific to jujube. Evidently, the jujube has some responses to pruning that are much different than most fruit trees. You have to make two strategic cuts to stimulate new growth. The saying is ‘One cut stops, two cuts sprout.’

I did exactly that and it has flourished since. Within a couple of weeks it had sent out much sturdier new growth and looks like it’s fixing to bloom quite a lot.

I don’t know if that’s what’s going on with your tree, but I’ll link the article anyway.

Jujube Training and Pruning Basics | New Mexico State University - BE BOLD. Shape the Future..

they were only just put in last month, after the last freeze. I ordered them this year and they were bare root but started to leaf while heeled up by the house- and had leaves for a few frosts. I’m thinking frost damage to the new leaves.

I couldn’t let them sit any longer, I had to put them in when I did. it hasn’t been below 35F since but we had one or two nights at 38. I’m hoping that’s all it is

they haven’t been pruned yet, all I’ve done so far is plant, water, a bit of feed.

I wasn’t expecting how different the pruning requirements are compared to most common fruit trees. I’m glad I read the guide before I started hacking away because I would have been very confused.

I love how forgiving they are of climate. It’s nice to grow something that I don’t have to worry about heat, cold, too much rain, ice, snow. Just give them a good start in a good spot and they do the rest.

I got about a dozen fruit last year and I was blown away by how good they are. I’d never had one before buying the trees. I preferred them once they turned red and wrinkly. To me this tasted like brown sugar candy. I’m hoping to get at least a few more this year.

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I got honey jar and sugarcane- I’ve got a lot of trees in that require patience and babying so I wanted something that would fruit relatively soon and be lower maintenance. I love the flavor of jujubes I’ve had, so I’m really looking forward to these. I’m going to follow the pruning advice you posted when it comes time to cut.

Someone asked me if I would grow mulberry. Didn’t think it likely in our region. If you succeed with it, I’d like to hear about that.
BTW I live 10 blocks west of Northtown.

Two weeks ago I grafted Colorado Orange apple to Gen30 after taking down the Rosemary russet. Got two & three buds opening on both sticks of the cleft graft. This was considered extinct until Schuenemeyers found a single dying tree several years ago. If it keeps to June or July it may beat GoldRush which is holding at 16 Brix, still juicy, spicy and hard. Had one today from my young tree.

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