Well, we didn’t get to eat home-grown bananas like I thought we would. The fruit stayed small, and never even got close to ripe. Here’s a pic of the tiny hand of bananas when I cut them off because nights were starting to freeze. That was mid-November. I’m still learning how to do this right,…
Early Saturday morning, before dawn, our Lacebark Elm (Ulmus parvifolia) suffered a major break from some heavy wind. We’ve had wind like this many times, but there was a weak crotch where two major scaffold branches were growing in too deep of a V-shape. When branches grow with narrow crotch angles, they end up with…
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…
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…
My beautiful Japanese maple in front of my house has a disease or something. I’m worried about it. This one main branch and all the smaller branches that shoot off of it are dying. It started with some leaves turning red about a month ago, and now they’ve shriveled up. Some of the smaller twigs…
I’ve tried to raise maybe a dozen Japanese maple seedlings over the past two seasons, and almost all have died. I’m down to only one left now — one just died this week. I don’t know if I’m giving them too much water or not enough. Or if they need more humidity or more shade,…
After seeking input last year on getting my Pink Simplicity roses to bloom better, I decided to do two things this year: Give them a lot more water. I’ve been putting a soaker hose on them for an hour or two once a week, sometimes skipping a week, but trying for once a week. I’ve…
I’ve been waiting to harvest the Granny Smith apples, because they haven’t been ripening well this year. It could be a number of factors, including the spider mites that attacked the leaves this year, probably making it less productive of sugars, and it could be that our fall got really cold in mid-September and stayed…