My Half Acre of Paradise

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!