My Half Acre of Paradise

Little McKay finally decided to try raspberries (we’d been trying for a few days), and he LOVES them! Now, he says “I want some of that candy!” While we were out in the garden picking them, he said to my wife, “Will we have them with some ‘licious ‘nilla?” That’s delicious vanilla ice cream, if you didn’t get it. :) He’s so funny with what he remembers sometimes. We had talked about how good they are with ice cream on Sunday with some friends. So, yes, we did have them with some ‘licious ‘nilla, and they were awesome! I still think these raspberries on top of Breyer’s Extra Creamy Vanilla is the world’s most perfect food combination.

And here’s something I really laughed about yesterday — our twins actually found a good use for bindweed! I told them they could pick bindweed wreaths every day if they want to.

First, meet my little garden buddy, McKay. He’s our cute, smart, hilarious two-year old. He’s fun to have along in the garden, although I often need to clean up the messes he makes, like today, when I swept the sidewalk off after he shoveled dirt all over it from a nearby flowerbed. But no problem, really. I mean, who could get mad at a face like this???

All right, on to the cherries. I don’t know why, but one of my cherry trees is ripe before the other this year, and it’s about 10 days early. We usually see these ripen around the beginning of July, sometimes right at the Fourth of July, which is nice and festive. These are ‘Lapins’ cherries, which is French for rabbit. It signifies how fruitful they are, and believe me, they’ve clearly been fruitful this year! Many of the branches are bending over sharply under the weight of all the fruit. Probably another reason for the ‘Lapins’ name is that these cherries are fairly unique in being self-fruitful — you don’t have to plant a different variety nearby for pollenization like with most cherries (finicky things!).

Every year, when I pick the cherries, I spot check for worms (western fruit fly larvae) by cutting a bunch open. This is the best year yet — I cut open six or seven and saw no signs of worms at all, so as far as I’m concerned, they’re all good, and I’m just going to eat them! I did spray them with Malathion, but I only had to do it twice, since it’s been such a cool, wet June and I think the fruit flies haven’t been very active.

I just had to share that wonderful ‘Yellow Simplicity’ rose. I like how this one came out with a more golden color than they usually do.

My ‘Lapins’ cherries are ripening early this year. Not really sure why, because it’s been cool and wet lately. But it was very warm about three weeks ago, and maybe the heat back then boosted their maturing process. The birds are starting to eat them, but they’re not quite ready to pick yet. I suspect we’ll be picking later this week. I have sprayed them with malathion this weekend and two weeks before. Hope I got them enough to control the fruit fly larva! Sometimes I just eat them without checking for worms, because they’re so good and I don’t want to know if there’s a worm in there!

OK, from left to right, by row: 1) Iceland poppies are still going strong, probably because it’s been such a mild, cool June. I love the warm yellows that have opened up recently. 2) A little bit of Campanula poking out through the Lamium groundcover. 3) I have two kinds of California poppies somewhat naturalized in the front flowerbed - the pink, sort of frilly ones, and the typical orange-gold. It’s looking pretty nice out there. A lot of flowers are getting ready to bloom, including lilies, Delphiniums, coneflowers, and lots of other stuff. 4) Check out those new lavender blooms with some California poppies blurred out behind them. I love that shot. 5) I planted my two Himrod grape vines yesterday. 6) Just another shot of the front yard, with a peek into the back.

I also planted about 2.3 million bean seeds yesterday, along with a couple of rows of sunflowers (Lemon Chiffon variety). They are ‘Baby Gourmet’ green bean - thin pods.

I went out this morning and harvested this nice little batch of strawberries. There are plenty more ripening for harvest in a few days and next week. Mmmmmm…..

Yesterday, I got a little garden work done, in between a bunch of other things. I finished spading and tilling up a former flowerbed on the south side of my house that is now a vegetable garden. It’s the spot where I planted the tomatoes and corn a few weeks ago. I planted the rest of my white Mirai corn seeds as well as some zucchini and pumpkins. I made mounds in the soil for the squashes — I’m not exactly sure why, but that’s how the seed packets recommend planting them, and it worked last year for the zucchini. Oh, and I planted a few more sunflower seeds, too. Henri Wilde variety. Same as the ones I planted a few weeks ago. By the way, I’m disappointed with the germination rate of the corn seeds. Of the 25-30 sown a few weeks ago, only about 12-15 are growing. I’ll have to look back at which mail order company I bought them from and consider a different supplier next time.

I meant to get some green beans planted, along with some so-called “winter squash” but I didn’t get to it. I still also need to plant the remaining flowers that are sitting in little pots. I have some new red Rudbeckias, Angelonias (never tried before), Belamcamda (blackberry lily), Verbenas, lavenders, a few Zinnias, and some lab-lab vines.  Ran out of time.

Here are some shots I took yesterday of flowers and things. The clematis vine is really getting close to peak bloom now. My two-year old son calls them the “big purple guys.” He’s a crack-up!

Starting from the top, going left-to-right in each row, these are: Clematis ‘Ville de Lyon’; ‘Nearly Wild’ Rose; a nice area of naturalized Shirley poppies by a Japanese Maple; ‘Stella d’Oro’ Daylily; Lamium or Spotted Deadnettle groundcover; ‘Yellow Simplicity’ Rose getting intertwined with a wild rose; pink California Poppies, descended from the ‘Summer Sorbet’ cultivar, but I don’t know how true their DNA is anymore; and one of my large wild rose shrubs — they’re in their brief spring bloom period right now.

Lots of things to share, and I think I’ll just use the photos as my guide:

My Clematis ‘Ville de Lyon’ is beginning its bloom season now. It will hit its peak probably a week from now, and I’ll post another photo later. I’m having a little trouble with the clematis, because after this time of year, the trees by it are leafed out and start to give it too much shade. I don’t know if it can handle transplanting, but I don’t have another great place to put it anyway.

First roses of the season. This is some unknown variety of floribunda rose — it was supposed to be ‘Pink Simplicity,’ and it’s in the middle of a long hedge of ‘Pink Simplicity’ roses. But it turns out to be a case of mistaken identity by the nursery, and it flowers earlier than the rest of the hedge. One day, I need to move it and replace it with the right rose, but I keep debating whether to replace all the simplicities with something else. Oh well, not this year.

These are ‘Lapins’ cherries. I have two trees, and this one is acting a little funny this year. A lot of fruit has fallen off of it in the past two weeks, but I read online that this is common with many cherries, because they set much more fruit than they can really bear. But now, on this tree, many of the cherries are turning red too soon. They usually ripen around the Fourth of July. I’m not sure what to make of it. I’ll try eating them when they ripen and see if they taste normal. The other tree’s cherries are still all green, with just a few getting a hint of blush. I’ll keep you posted on what happens. I sprayed the cherry trees last Saturday with malathion, and I also hit the apple trees and the trunk of the nectarine (to kill/repel any borers that might be lurking).

This is my favorite place in the garden for rest and meditation, although I certainly don’t do enough of that. I like how the shrubs are growing through the benches and it’s getting that wild, natural look. But still, I might have to trim back those shrubs (they’re Alpine Currants), because my wife likes things neater. And the branches may get damaged when we sit there, anyway.

My Jonathan (left) and Granny Smith (right) apples are developing well, I think. I was supposed to pick off at least half the blossoms this year to try to force it back to annual blooming and bearing. But I was busy and late, so I just went out on Saturday and snipped off a bunch of the little fruit, hoping that saves some of the trees’ energy to promote next year’s blossoms. I hope I wasn’t too late. There were a lot of little apples that fell off just when I touched them, so they wereready to abort much of the fruit anyway. I hope they bloom and bear next year! I LIVE for apple pie from my own apples in the fall!

I got my 10 tomatoes all caged on the weekend. Those wild things!

Going clockwise: The salvias are beginning their bloom now. This is the ‘East Friesland’ variety. My ‘Nearly Wild’ rose is also just starting its bloom. These shrubs are kinda cool together, with the fine texture of the ‘Antony Waterer’ Spirea in the foreground and the lighter-colored, bigger-leaved Golden Vicary Privets behind them. My plain green Japanese Maple is getting quite graceful. I hope it doesn’t get verticilium wilt like my red one in the front of my house is getting. I should post a photo of the red one. I had to prune out a lot of dead wood last week, but it’s still acceptable. Next, the bees are all over the raspberries these days. You can just sit there, close your eyes, and marvel at all the buzzing you hear. I’m looking forward to those berries on vanilla ice cream in about three weeks! Finally, just a shot of the lower part of my backyard. I’m still loving that arbor. Going to plant two grapes (Himrod — I have them in pots on the deck) to grow on it this year, but I worry a little that the one of the north side may not get enough sun. When it grows tall enough to be on top of the arbor it’ll be fine, so I hope it grows fast.

That’s enough for now. Happy gardening to you!

It can be so hard to find gardening time when you have young kids! For several days, it’s been my intention each day to get my tomatoes in the ground and plant some corn seeds. Tonight, my wife was gone to her regular Tuesday night youth activities with the girls at church, and I had the younger kids at home. I thought maybe I could get the twins to watch our two-year old son, but he’s such a bundle of energy lately, and they didn’t seem quite up to it tonight. So, I played with him outside and listened to his funny conversations (”Boys like dirt, right Dad?” “Yes, McKay, boys do like dirt…”). Anyway, by the time I got to planting stuff, it was getting dark, so I finished up about 10 p.m. (OK, not exactly midnight, but “the midnight gardener” just sounds cool, doesn’t it?).

Here’s what I planted tonight:

• 3 ‘Sweet 100′ cherry tomatoes
• 3 ‘Sungold’ cherry tomatoes
• 2 ‘Bloody Butcher’ tomatoes
• 2 ‘Brandywine’ tomatoes
• 3 rows of ‘Mirai White’ super-sweet corn seeds
• A small stand of ‘Henri Wilde’ sunflower seeds
• 2 cantaloupes from pots that my twins started indoors

I still have maybe six tomato plants left over (some from each of those varieties except the Brandywine), and I’ll give those away this week. I hope someone I know can use them. I’ll plan to plant the rest of the corn in two or three weeks so we’ll get a longer harvest season out of it. I also need to plant some pumpkin seeds and some zucchini seeds very soon.

Oh, I also wanted to mention that this is the first year I had some dud pea seeds. Usually peas are extremely reliable for me, but this time, only four plants came up from the 30 or so seeds we planted. The twins always help when I plant peas — the seeds are easy for kids to handle, and they also know they’ll love eating the peas when they ripen. So, not many peas this year — bummer! The spinach I planted earlier is doing pretty well, although our warm temps this week (90 yesterday) might make it go to seed very soon. I’ll have to keep an eye on them.

I also still have a lot of flowers that I started in the greenhouse, and they’re currently outside the greenhouse, hardening off in a mixture of sun and shade under a tree. I’ll write more about the flowers later.

OK, well I’ve been a bit slow to get into the groove this spring, mostly because I’ve been working hard to finish my basement construction, and now I’m almost done. Carpet goes in this week, and I should now have much more time for gardening. What a relief! I’ve been working on that basement project for about 14 months, trying to do most of it myself.

I’m going to catch up on several weeks of photos in this post. I’ll start with our big April 15 snow storm — I took these shots the next morning. It was huge! Some areas near us got 13 inches, while we got around four on the ground. In some of those communities, a lot of tree branches broke from the weight of all the snow. You can see in the one photo below how my birch tree was arching heavily from the snow.

One bummer in my backyard: one of my last two alpine firs (sometimes called subalpine fir) is dying. There’s really nothing I can do to save it now, I think. Larry Sagers (who was my master gardener teacher) says it’s showing the stress of something done wrong last year. He said it’s likely that I didn’t give it enough water last year, since these trees live at high altitudes in moist conditions. It probably got too dry last fall, and that doomed it. I do recall reading the advice that evergreens should be well-watered in the fall before it freezes, and I really should have taken that advice. You can also see that it was misshapen, because deer ate all the lower branches when it was younger.

So, here’s something amazing — one week after that big snow storm, the tulip festival started at Thanksgiving Point. I’m a volunteer there now and then, working to get my 40 hours of service done to earn my master gardener title. On that first day, only 30% of the tulips were in bloom, but then our master gardener class went for a tour on Thursday the 24th, and it was more than 60% in bloom. Here are some photos from that day.

A few of those shots are from the “Secret Garden” at Thanksgiving Point, which is really cool. I like the brick walls with Boston ivy growing on them, the wooden gates/doors, the arches with honeysuckle and climbing roses growing over them, and the cool, old-fashioned flowering quince shrub (with the salmon-red blooms above). That shot with all the people is our master gardener class (or most of us), with Karen Ashton, the founder of Thanksgiving Point Gardens, providing the guided tour. Karen was part of our class last fall, and it was fun to hear her personal insights on the gardens and stories about how they were developed.

The tulip festival is over, but I’d bet if you go to the gardens this week, you’ll still see incredible flowerbeds, about 80% in bloom (it was 90% last Thursday). It’s worth it to go see!

Now, onto my garden and what’s blooming this week. My Granny Smith apple (below) is blooming very well this year. I also have a Jonathan apple and it’s a little slower but starting to bloom, too. You may recall that I had no blossoms on these last year. The advice from Larry Sagers was to pluck off about half of the blossoms now, so the tree doesn’t spend too much energy producing fruit and has enough energy to start producing the microscopic beginnings of next year’s flower buds. I’m supposed to do this blossom thinning for two years and then it should be back to normal. I need to get out and do that this week.

Here are a few more things in bloom right now.

Starting from the top left, those are:
1st row: close shot of Kwanzan Cherry tree blossoms (ornamental tree), Vinca minor groundcover, and blossoms forming on leatherleaf Viburnum.
2nd row: Candytuft (Iberis) groundcover, a close-ish shot of flowering cherry (or sand cherry) shrubs, and Rockcress or Arabis.
3rd row: close shot of Prairiefire Crabapple blossoms (just starting to open this week), some Iceland poppies, and some hyacinths (man, they smell great!) with tulips. I planted the hyacinths by my front walkway to give that pleasant aroma as you approach the house.

And now, one final photo. This is Brunera, or Siberian Bugloss (don’t ask about the name - I have no idea what “bugloss” is supposed to mean!). It’s also called false forget-me-not or perennial forget-me-not:

My crocuses are such tiny things, and the clumps are few and far between, but I like how they are the first heralds of spring. I have them next to the walkway to my front door so they’ll get our attention as we walk to or from the house. At this time of year, I always think of planting more of them, and then I forget later, when they are dormant. I should remember next fall to get a bunch more bulbs.

While I was shooting these photos, I was happy to also see the first bees of spring! I like how you can see the pollen on their legs in these closeups.

On another note, yesterday I hosted about 30 people for a fruit tree pruning demonstration by Tom Hill with the Utah County USU Extension. He was great - very informative. We watched some videos in the house, had a few cookies (thanks to my wife!), and then went outside for some discussion and a few live examples on my nectarine and apple trees. Thanks to Tom and to all who came. I meant to take some photos to post here, but I got caught up in the learning and forgot to do it. Now, I have to get out there in the coming week and finish the pruning…

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen snowflakes as big as the ones that fell today. My son and I were sick and at home while the rest of the family was at church. I looked out the back window, and noticed that the flakes were almost two inches across! I got out the camera and snapped these photos.

This evening, I did a little online search for big snowflakes and found this interesting article in the New York Times. Wow! Snowflakes as big as frisbees? It’s evidently possible, though no one has photographed one.

Here’s another followup to my posting on GardenWeb about caring for Japanese maple seedlings. I think I’ll try this. I already had the same idea with two other young trees last summer — I took a seedling from my Autumn Blaze maple and a Golden Rain Tree seedling and put them in a shaded corner of my veggie garden area. They like it better than the pots. I also put two Clematis seedlings in the bed, but kept them in the small pots, buried up to the rim. I hope those little guys are surviving the winter OK, because I didn’t pile any mulch on them. Anyway, here’s the reply from GW:

I transplant my JM seedlings outside in early to mid-summer in a nursery bed, placing the seedlings about 6″ apart. In late fall, I mulch the bed heavily with oak leaves (several inches) which I hold down with plastic netting, and uncover them in early April the following spring. Depending on their parentage, I get anywhere from 50-90% survival. I live in zone 4 Minnesota so am pretty happy even with a 50% rate. I transplant the survivors later on that year if they are 1′ or more in height, those that are shorter get mulched for a second winter and then are transplanted to their permanent location the following spring/summer.

I asked a few followup questions and got this reply:

I water them in with a low dose of water-soluble fertilizer or fish emulsion when I plant them. I don’t feed them after that as I don’t want to encourage too much growth later in the season that won’t have any chance of hardening off.

Rainfall is usually pretty regular here so I water them only if there is extreme drought. As long as there is no leaf scorch or drop, I leave them alone. I think it results in less but stronger growth.

I don’t root prune my JMs. I try to move them during a cloudy day—just before a rain if possible. If I can’t wait for that, I water them a couple of hours before I move them–it seems to help the soil stay on the root ball better.

I am a big fan of nursery beds–it makes tending young plants easier (they are all together, can be mulched, watered, fed, protected from critters), and it is easy to compare the characteristics and growth rate of the seedlings.