I got the blisters with my gloves on. they popped under there
Whoa!
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Full sun in a “warm” spot would be good!
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full sun, warm against the fence (faces southwest). nothing around it but tulips. and the plum tree is about 15 feet to the right. there’s a little native plum right there that’s not doing so well, it will have to be moved soon.
today I also broke down the hoophouse. it’s a lot to clean up now but I got everything torn down and stored away, bare frame. it’s going to be a shade cloth in summer and a cold frame in winter after this- I’ll be moving it. got a greenhouse to put up instead.
mulched every garden path and around every tree and plant. mulched the driveway the yards and the devil strip. and that stuff is still deep enough to want to start smoking. will finish with it tomorrow, if I can move. or try to get help to spread it out, if not.
at least things are growing. last year was so awful that anything edible that’s not kale, will make me happy.
my back is screaming. I’m calling in sick tomorrow and going to try to rest most the day. ibuprofen and epsom salt bath here I come.
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today I mostly rested, but I potted up little dangerous monsters for the porch edge where the enemy goes (squirrels)
i fed the melons too. took ibuprofen.
and yeah that’s a big bag of invasive day lilies, I’m going to put them in the concrete coffin of the devil strip. it’s killed mint and Jerusalem artichokes so far, maybe this year it will kill these.
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I’m with you there. I’ve starting wearing a back support belt all the time. I feel like it makes me look ridiculous but if I feel better who cares.
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there was a small success in the house tonight.
I’ve put in a winecap bed, and the broken pieces from this shiitake block are underneath maple mulch in a pile with straw out under the lilac- high hopes. the block itself made a start today. made from pressure-canned alder chips and substrate, the inoculation dowels you’d put in a log, bagged and waited until it was white to put it under the bell jar.
I truly hope they grow outside for me. oak logs and other preferred species for shiitake just can’t be gotten, here.
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working on pulling turf and throwing ditch lilies in, 8 guess the ditch. it’s a concrete coffin. it has killed everything I’ve ever planted in it. mint, j chokes, everything. only skeleton rushweed and quack grass grow in this spot and they die in August, leaving it brown and patchy.
I’m trying every “you can’t kill it” in this spot, I try something different every year
the lilies came from an invasives eradication group, they were disposing of them from a natural areas outside of town.
maybe they’ll die.
my partner is weed whacking to the stop sign to the curvey on the left, I’ve got two dozen more I can load into that strip.
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There is a phlox that grows at elevations of 7,000+ ft in the CA Sierras. It seems to thrive in depressions and fractures of large granite structures containing organic debris. It might not be suitable for your ditch but perhaps there is something from an appropriate niche that will thrive there.
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I’ll look for it- we are at 2k feet elevation but I’m sure it would enjoy the city sidewalk.
the day lilies are starting to stand up in their concrete coffin.
I received a persimmon tree- it’s about 4 feet tall. where do they like to go? sun, wind, water? I knew them wild trees as a child but am not sure where this one would like to be.
I also have a beach plum to put in though I’m running out of room. will these grow in small space? will it need a lot of room, should it be near other plums? I have room near my native plum hedge for it, but it would only have 6 feet from them to grow in.
for some reason I went wild and bought more asparagus crowns at the feed store while searching for straw for the beds, and now my asparagus spans over an onion patch AND into a strawberry patch. I’ll end up giving them away in a few years I’m sure. the first few I put in already produced enough for me this year on year 2 of growing.
what was I thinking.
also I ordered a tea camellia, which I’ve dutifully potted up. it will go in the protected warm zone with the non hardy figs in winter.
the Doom Tree is going to be the Bean Tree soon. they’re coming up.
some other photos from today
I could use plum pruning advice. this guy only flowered at the tips and these branches are much much longer than I would like. anyone know a good thread I can read up in, or ask?
red mulberries are coming along and it looks like I’ll have sumac to grind.
this lilac didn’t bloom this year so it’s getting a major cut in fall, try to revive it some. it may not bloom next year but at least it’ll be under control after that. it’s massive. I do enfleurage when it blooms
trying tromboncino this year. they’re still small
they are in the bed that has the bad bindweed infestation.
peonies waking after I gave up, like every year.
poppies taller than me
view from the rocking chair on the back porch. it’s ok this year. still a mess, but so am I.
almost forgot to add that the grapes are happy with the new trellis apparently so that’s nice. cheap wire fence screwed to the big fence and I’m just threading em through
and the greasy beans. my favorite.
and I can’t remember what I planted there in thist last photo
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doing all the hard work
scapes are out
the pawpaws
melon patch coming along.
not a whole lot going on today, but here’s an update. wish the melons were further along.
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low tech shade cloth. it’s up to 90 today with rain on the forecast, I may have to run out and drag all this back in.
it’s the time of year when I make work for myself. trying out a screen for tomatoes instead of string. I didn’t plant the right climbers at the end to make a trellis, foolish me. I planted along a row. hope this thing holds up if it gets windy. it’s got a bunch of big tomato stakes woven in to hold it up for now.
dogs almost caught the current squirrel. he had no idea they were there.
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the potato “patch” is pretty happy.
I let the last spinach that stands go to seed every year for next year’s seed. every year it stands a little longer, this is smooth leaved spinach, and NZ spinach. by then the new Zealand spinach and malabar are coming up well and I will still have greens for the summer, those hold all season.i planned orach this year for the first time and have seedlings coming up now; I’m trying to see if it’s going to hold up to the dry heat here. if so it’ll go in every year.
lilacs grow like weeds here. we are called the lilac city. I gave our large one a haircut this year. I like to keep it at fence height or just above. the little one has white flowers usually. neither bloomed this year, I cut them back pretty hard last fall.
this mock orange (?) came with the house. it’s beautiful and shades the west side during the summer. the flowers only last a week or two.
the corner of doom has runner beans rising up. I’ve got to weed today.
on now consequential note, I started building out the greenhouse frame yesterday with some help from a pair of friends. planta uses so. many. screws. I was lucky to have help, because I cannot learn well from video content and that’s the only understandable instructions this company provides. the printed booklet is incomprehensible and the labeling system for parts is the most confusing I’ve ever seen. it’s certainly a strong, well made greenhouse though. here are the ends and a center rib, waiting until we can finish the rest tomorrow. I won’t clad it until the fall though.
here’s a connection that took 8 screws
the daylilies out front are about 50/50 alive- visibly. I’m sure next spring plenty will pop up from the rhizomes I threw in there. the concrete in the devil strip is completely contained down about 6 feet all along, part of the reason only a few weeds grow in it at all- and they all die in the summer.
the trees are eating the house again.
my half assed “trellis” is half covered with fuyu squash and red runner.
the plum tree is being accosted by a volunteer or three. that cucurbit is growing up onto a low branch then onto the fence.
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had a great visit with @swincher while I was in Seattle, and they gave me two small avocado to keep in greenhouse! I’m very excited about this. also they gave me a wee black mulberry to put in near my rubra collection.
I was very tired today but managed to get a few photos to do another side by side for a few things
left half is March, right half is today.
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a few things.
the winecap/pawpaw area has winecap! the pawpaws have put on a few inches of growth.
almost every old and new tree has leafed out and put on some growth. only 4 of all the trees have not; both harrow delight that I planted, a mulberry, and a jujube. everything else is doing really well
those are the unhappy trees. oddly both pears scratch green, so??? I’m not sure what’s up there. I’ll give all of these until next spring to pull through, and will order replacements/other things to put in just in case.
happy trees:
and one of the new peaches has two yellow leaves.
the small one was hot by the weed whacker and is growing back.
the pumpkins and squash are covering the mulched yard pretty quickly.
attempting to read up on peach pruning. never had peaches before. planted these in April I think.
ditch lilies being indestructible in the devil strips, and I threw all the bachelor button that had gone to seed on top of them. high hopes.
prairie sage patch
, yarrow, melon patch.
if anyone’s got insight on these pears I would appreciate it I made an entire thread about the other one, I’ve got two that never leafed out. this one came from fedco and the other from burnt ridge.
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Thank you for all those photos! Congratulations on the winecap. As for the pears … I hesitate to comment about them in your climate. A separate thread asking for help with pears in your zone is worth a shot.
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they are meant to be zone 5 and on, I’m zone 6 so well within their range. they went out like any other tree, my comice and seckel are in full leaf. these are just green, but asleep. it’s the oddest thing. jujube I know can run late, and the mulberry may have been dry- but the pears? it’s just weird. we are a good climate for them, I’m told, so I’m not sure why they sleep.
bonus photo:
ampersand sent me pads and they are all growing.
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