Wow. That looks amazing. 
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Drooling
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What are the little yellow ones?
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Looks great!!!
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We went to Styer’s orchard on Saturday morning. Though they were pretty well picked through, we were about to get around 20 apricots. They also had early yellow and white peaches, which were not great, yet. I’m going to let them ripen up for a few days.
My assumption is that all of the small plums are prunus cerasifera. It was probably introduced here over 100 years ago has naturalized into thickets around my neighborhood. The trees are all random seedlings with vastly different fruit, bright yellow to very dark red and everything in between. Fruit is quite variable in flavor and texture. Some are very sour and/or astringent. A few trees have decent fruit. They bloom in February and begin ripening in May.
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The wild chokecherries are ripening in Kansas. I picked some Saturday and today, before the birds got them all!
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we have tons of them here. ripen late july / aug. you make jam with them? locals here use them to make wine also. for such a astringent berry , the wine is fabulous! high bush cranberry also makes great wine. i find the jam to smell like sweaty socks tho.!
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I stopped providing extra water to my snow peas a couple of weeks ago and they predictably dried up. I harvested teh last few pods from the vines and bagged them, hopefully they will be viable this next winter. I have no idea the proper way to lay them up as seed, so I’ll just have to cross my fingers for next year. A bunch of peas did litter the ground, so they may sprout up on their own next year.
In their place I put in three cucumbers, the Persians that I currently have are not really performing.
I gave away a VdB fig and pink dragon fruit to one of my local friends. She’s a big gardner and always willing to try something new. Their new house is in a great spot with a nice bit of hillside for their small orchard.
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I’ve found volunteer peas coming up in the fall
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Paper bags reduce mold where I am, but it is always humid here. I wouldn’t use plastic. The idea is to keep them dry.
Where did you get your seeds? I had trouble finding them and I’m getting low. I have one plant and already have gotten over a dozen cukes and it is a beast, already mounting the top of the hoop house frame.
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There are not very many wild chokecherries left around my immediate area. The county sprays ditches and landowners often spray fence lines. Consequently chokecherry, plum, Elderberry, etc. are killed, along with the noxious weeds. Often times people can’t identify the shrubs so they just assume they are bad and kill them.
I juiced the chokecherries for jelly. Chokecherry jelly is a favorite in my house! I worked the pulp through a sieve to remove the pits and will make chokecherry butter from it. It is fantastic over ice cream!!! My grandparents made wine, but I have not attempted any kind of winemaking yet. I hear it is great though.
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I bought seedlings from two different local nurseries. I planted the first round and used fish emulsion under each seedling. The dog thought it smelled intriguing and dug up each plant to find the ‘fish’. After a couple round of this, pepper flakes, wire fencing, etc I had to buy a couple more. Between the cilantro on one side and a monster tomato on the other, I don’t think that either really received enough sunlight.
New cukes are in a different spot.
The cilantro were volunteers and for some reason I felt reluctant to cut them back (ok I like cilantro!)
I will definitely dig up some plastic bags and transfer the seeds.
For seed, just treat peas as your would dry beans. Let them mature and dry on the vine if possible. If wet weather threatens before they are dry pull the plants and dry under cover. When fully dry, shell and winnow (or with just a few, pick the peas out).
At this point you can treat them as you would any other seed. Let them dry completely and then store in a cool place or in your freezer if you’re sure they are fully dry.
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Had to give extra support to my Gala on M7 that is 5 years old now, the last wind storm even being supported by a '10 piece of conduit wasn’t enough so i drove a 5 foot piece of conduit and strapped it into the bigger stake. Has a very balanced branching all throughout the tree, not sure how to keep it from continuing to tempt fate and lean.
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Varmint raided my peppers, snapped off the only jalapeno
This has been an awful year for plums and pluots, probably due to our lack of chill. Between 5 trees, there are 7 pieces of fruit. However the apple tree just keeps on pumping out apples.
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i have a purple leafed wild chokecherry under my pines. new growth is green then turns to purple by july. i can send you a sprout if you want one. not making berries because is shaded heavily but i can imagine if placed in full sun it would take off like a rocket! only purple leafed one ive ever seen. i offered it to several nurseries but they weren’t interested.
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