With apricots, it is a big deal to me, too, since we have had late freeze here.
Congrats.
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Spring Break for me! Yesterday and today have been gloriously sunny. My children helped me cut and paint pickets for the fence we are putting in our front yard. I planted five bare roots about a month ago and was pleased to see all of them starting to leaf.
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Planted some miniature peach/nectarine trees yesterday. This is a necta zee nectarine:
Current pic of my mericrest nectarine, usually one of the first to blossom
Red Baron almost ready!
Tomcot apricot, now my only apricot since i removed Blenheim
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I am happy with the progress of figs from Jesse. Also the first time I’ve been able to get aronia to start growing from a cutting. Lastly black currant for someone I know.
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Grafted for the first time today! I put some scion wood from my Bartlett Pear tree on one of many wild growing seedling pear trees growing on property adjacent to mine that used to be a pear orchard. It was super fun and will be even more so if I get any takes. I was practicing as I ordered some Goldrush and Wickson Scion that I plan to graft when my apple trees break bud.
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Got my three apple bench grafts potted up Saturday, brought them in last night because it dropped into the 20s, but they will be going back outside today. All were grafted to M7.
Enterprise
Mollie’s Delicious
Honeycrisp
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Winter gardening is finishing up. Fall/winter/early spring gardening is so much more laid back - yet still productive. I refer folks to Elliot Coleman’s books on the subject - He gardens through the winter in Maine!
I grow under poly and sometimes add extra row cover if temps go below 20 deg. I so enjoy the beauty of it all.
Kohlrabi
Celery
Peas
Spinach and Cilantro(bolting)
The above were in the unheated hoophouse. The cabbages below were not. In fact, that red cabbage took the brunt of our winter mostly uncovered (as an experiment). Tuff little thing.
Alas, now things go into hyperdrive.
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A bit of spring arrived in my greenhouse today. Maybe they aren’t too welcome outside (except by the birds) but they sure are cheery when things outside are still buried in snow (but becoming unburied, slowly but steadily!). Since I dig up kale and other things from the garden in the fall to transplant into a bed in the greenhouse I almost always have some cabbage butterflies come with. But this year has been a bumper crop - this one’s probably the tenth one this year. I’m sorry for their early awakening with no where to go (still freezing out) but I enjoy their company. Sue
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We went and rented a 32 foot 4 wheel drive scissor lift to get the last unreachable branches of our Sycamore tree. Once we get it done we are putting in grape trellises and some raised beds. The weather was beautiful, sunshine and low 50s.
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Played golf in Phoenix today. Lots of date palms laying under the trees. I tried a few. Seedless very sweet
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As a boy, growing up in Phoenix, I frequntly traveled sidewalks littered with dates rotting in the heat. They were slippery and foul smelling. I think it ruined me for life for eating them.
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Today I learned another lesson because I have very little patience. I transplanted a small callery rootstock last year. It’s still not leafing out so I did the scratch test and worked my way down the tree and it was all brown all the way to the soil line. So I figured it’s dead and pulled it up and threw it away. Then I noticed little buds right below on it right below the soil line. It was still alive and trying to push growth. I put it back in, watered and apologized. We’ll see how that works out now. If I had waited another week it would’ve pushed out growth and I’d still have a pear tree.
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I bet you’ll still be fine. It should throw up several shoots that you can mound up. That’s if your trying to grow more rootstocks. I would have soaked in water before replanting. Just keep your ground wet.
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Nice. You’ll have some good eating in a few years. I wish my yard is that green at this time of the year. Spring has only just arrived here recently.
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Beautiful blossoms!
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Whoa!!!
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