Peachy!

Just for fun, I thought I'd play show and tell with the first productive (sort of) season for my peach tree. Yes, I know I'm in Virginia not Georgia, but this particular peach tree does well as a specimen tree for coastal Virginia if you can give it a little TLC during peak cold times.

Peach blossoms blooming ever so prettily

My blurry attempt to show the nascent peaches

Tiny peaches as fuzzy as can be

Super fuzzy but growing quickly

This is just too fuzzy...whoops...that Boscoe not a peach! :)

After thinning off any that looked off, my still small tree has a small load of a few dozen peaches

And here they are now, still growing, still fuzzy and still not eaten!

Now, I don't know if it is because I still have this potted or because it is the first year it is old enough to bear fruit, but the peaches are rather small. They should be pretty much full sized right now. I'm inclined to think it is because it was potted still. It is a semi-dwarf but I wanted it to be mobile over the first winter with me just in case the cold got too much. I'll be planting it this year in a spot that is just perfect for it.

I'll let you know how those tiny peaches taste!

State of the Garden - 27 April 2009

It's been 3 weeks since my last garden update and what a difference a bit of spring makes! So, let's get started with the show and tell. I also have a couple of questions in here that maybe some of you savvy and more experienced gardeners can answer.

Those little sticks that were supposed to be apple trees, remember those? Well! They are covered in leaves and look very happy!

The comfrey plants are well up and the leaves are just huge! Far bigger than my hand. I really love the soft feathery feel of the fuzz on them.

One of my olive trees, arbequina olives, is actually blooming! I wasn't really expecting that until next year. There won't be a harvest, per se, because the first few years they bloom and set fruit they are mostly pit. Arbequina olives are the most flavorful little bursts of deliciousness you can imagine and the finest oil also comes from them. They are great for large containers too and can be shaped very nicely too.

Sorry about the thumb in the picture (when is the last time you actually saw that happen?) but I didn't have another shot quite so good from yesterday. This is one of the new beds and wow, can you believe how much it has grown in the last 3 weeks? I sure can't. In fact, I'll post a time show sometime soon because Spring is just amazing in how fast it works on our gardens, isn't it?

You can see the onions are growing super fast, as are the purple cauliflower, radishes (of course) and beets, but the real surprise is the recovery and fast growth of the tomatoes! I put them out way too early because I had run out of space under the lights, thinking I had so many extra that if they died I could swap them out. For a while it looked bad and then a week ago, we had big hail ripping holes in things but then, suddenly, bonanza!

Here in Bed 2, the peas are twining, lettuce is still producing some beautiful (and yummy) leaves, and other brassicas are growing apace even while being attacked by my greatest spring enemy (I've got another post and close up for you). Tomatoes here are doing fab also. As of this morning one of the early peas also had a few blooms. Hurray!

And for the first official tomato bloom of the year, the prize goes to a surprising contestant. The Black Krim tomato. I'm pot growing many of the extra tomatoes as well as giving some away.

Not too far behind the Black Krim is another surprising one, Cherokee Purple, who is probably going to unfurl its lovely and large bloom today.

The blueberries, which are just on their second year, are loaded with lovely growing berries. I just have 2 bushes right now as I'm experimenting with variety and soil and they are contained in a giant pot...I do mean giant...that is 3 feet high. New branches have come out of the base of it and they are quite tall, but I'm still trying to figure out how to prune for max production so I think I have far less than I probably should.


And one of the biggest surprises in the new "orchard" of experimental fruiting is the cherry tree. It is a dwarf, self pollinating one and was just a stick and hasn't even fully unfurled all the new leaf growth, but yet, it has one small blossom that appears to have taken!

My strawberry bed is producing, but the results are a bit varied. The plants near the base of the brick porch have grown by leaps and bounds more than those out front and center. I'm thinking it is because the porch retained heat while it was so cold while those up front had more chilling wind effects.

Nonetheless, I've harvested a half dozen or so small and perfectly tasty very early strawberries!

Here is on of my most pressing questions. The bush below is one of two planted when my house was built in 2005. Since I wasn't very familiar with what my neighbors would or wouldn't accept in my front yard and not at all sure of the right types for this area's weather, I asked they choose something fairly easy care, evergreen and not likely to create problems with my foundation. This is what they put in. To this day, I still have no idea what they are.

To describe them, they are evergreen, they spread about twice as much as they grow in height and right now each is about 8 feet wide and 4 feet high. And for a close up...

You can see in this close up what the blooms and leaves look like. They have a very heady scent that is quite enticing. I associate the smell with gardenia but I'm not good with very precise smells. The leaves are waxy and firm. I'd really like to know what they are. Any idea?

My alien hostas are coming up fast and I'm very happy to see they weren't all destroyed when my foundation was re-stuccoed last fall. It looks like some close to the wall may have had some damage as they aren't coming up fast or as thick, but there is survival! I desperately need to separate these out this year and spread the wealth to the other beds around the house I'm building. I actually included this picture to show the effect of 30 minutes of rain that produced over 2 inches of rain! It overflowed the gutters and came down in sheets, pushing the soil right over the bed edging and into the yard. I estimate I lost about a cubic yard of newly laid compost/topsoil mix in that half hour.

My dogwood is blooming so prettily.

And the bulbs are starting to bloom and be all showy for me.

And not to forget a little puppy love, here is Boscoe smiling up at me because he knows he's about to get his belly rubbed. It is totally his favorite.

State of the Garden - 2 April 2009

And now it is officially garden season for me! Yippee. (Insert jumping and clicking heels together here.) So here is a quick and very incomplete tour of what is going on and growing up so far.

Blueberries are blooming.

The first small green buds that will be branches and leaves are showing on the new apple trees.

Potatoes are showing above the soil. Here are All Blue.

Here the 2 new beds are slowly getting planted as the season changes. Purple cauliflower and onions in the front, with radishes, carrots, peas, brocolli, brussel sprouts and other colder weather crops starting the more rapid growth phase. Some unfortunate tomato transplants I decided to risk a bit early struggle valiantly, remaining far more stunted than their brethren under grow lights in the house.

And, of course, Boscoe the Big Man, as he fruitlessly examines the beds for any carrots he might dig up when I look away.

Strawberry Patch and a Matching Dehydrator

Like some of you out there have reported, I too have had a great deal of difficulty getting my strawberry plant orders in. Finally, after placing 3 orders with 3 companies, 2 of them came in. What is funny, is that the only one I didn't have problems with was Jung's. I ordered from them last of all and got theirs first.

Gurney's came in second with only one delay. My Park Seed order, placed in January, still hasn't come and no notification has ever been given, only reluctantly admitted when badgered by phone.

But anyway, I'm now the proud mama of 75 Strawberry plants and I immediately set to work getting them in the ground.


Now, that strawberry patch may not look impressive to you, but to me it is a joy to behold. Why? Because that piece of ground is a nightmare! Truly. That little tree you see is actually the 4th one of it's kind to be there. The previous three have died there. My house isn't even 4 years old so this is worriesome.

The matching one on the other side is hale and hearty. It is only in this patch of dirt we have problems.

I finally figured it out though and now have high hopes. It turns out this little 6 foot by 12 foot patch of ground had several problems: poor drainage and fill dirt hidden underneath being the main culprits.

So, this past weekend I dug it out. I mean...dug. Pulling out all the house building debris that construction workers had hidden underneath the pretty layer of dirt and sod they put down afterwards, digging up the dead tree, freaking out over a great many worms and bugs, pulling up every blade of runnered grass and weed was the first half. I then filled it back up with a lovely compost and topsoil mixture and added 6 inches in height for drainage. I bordered it with those blocks and then planted my tree and strawberries.

What amazed me was that those little leafless bundles of roots put out leaves in less than 24 hours. Amazing!

Oh, and those 3 in front are testers. I went ahead and bought 3 of those $2.98 each strawberry plants from Lowe's to see if there really was a difference in the plants by the time for bearing comes. We'll see!

And for my big news...drumroll...I finally bought an Excalibur Dehydrator! I got the 9 tray, 3900 Model, which is my heart's desire! This month, till today actually, they had a pretty amazing special going with 50 bucks off the price plus a whole lot of accessories and free shipping. They are a significant investment, I know, but using the WalMart Nesco special last year for the first time showed me the value of a good dehydrator.

For me, it is really important to Store what I Grow and Eat what I Store! In short, no waste if possible. Freezing stuff is fine, I suppose, but it uses a lot of energy. Dehydrated stuff is no fuss, no muss and isn't going to spoil when I lose power in storms. Plus it keeps nutrition really well and seriously, who doesn't love home-made jerky or fruit wraps?

I'm very excited to get it and can't wait to start the production going for this year!

To Orchard or Not to Orchard

It is now an established fact that I do love gardening. I really can't think of ever going back to not gardening. The taste of a tomato so fresh I can almost taste the sunlight, lettuce so recently plucked that it is still finishing up photosynthesis while we enjoy it and corn so new and bright and sweet that it is shocking.

Yes, I do love my veggies. But I also love the process. Lovingly tending the tiny seedlings, the exciting day when those strong plants get bedded into the garden and the smell and feel of the foliage as it grows.

Oh yes, I'm a gardener alright.

But what about fruit? I do so want more permaculture that I'm feeling a terrible lack.

But there is a little hitch to just doing it.

I'm not going to be staying in this house after I finally leave the military. Instead, I'll either be moving to the 3/4 acre that I already have a few states away or, if I finally find "the place", then to there. But either way, it won't be here.

So actually planting an orchard doesn't seem smart. For most things, I'll just be getting that first harvest when I'm ready to leave. But also, who wants to to wait several years for that first harvest from trees once I get moved. Ahh..the conundrum.

What I have done is buy a few dwarf apple trees that I'm told I can keep in very large containers for a few years. We'll see if that is true. I also have 4 Arbequina Olive trees coming that can supposedly be kept in large containers forever if need be. Again, we'll see.

But for every tree that I buy and keep in a container, I also have to be committed to hauling that now much grown tree all the way to my final homestead. And while I will have a military shipment of my regular household goods, I will also be hauling all the rest and my SUV in a truck on my own. I'm sure that is going to be stressful for them.

So what does everyone out there suggest? Should I go for it and fill my life with everything from elderberries to pears or should I stick with the 7 trees I have. Or at most, get a few of those ever so tiny citrus trees that are more like houseplants.

Tough call...

Arbequina Olive Trees....Finally!

For several years I had only to go to my local store to get the best olive in the universe. The tiny and perfect Arbequina.

They are like crack.

One taste and you're over with. Even the girls got addicted to them. When we got transferred and suddenly, no more true imported Arbequina olives were available. Believe me, I searched. It wasn't happening. Finally I had some imported myself at ridiculous prices. But they weren't the same and were clearly inferior to the previous perfection. A sort of anemic relative really.

After a few years of this I decided that enough was enough and if I couldn't get them, I would grow them. Yet after several months, I still couldn't find decent sized trees, with parental history of a compact height and excellent quality oil.

But now I found GrowQuest in Oregon. They were very prompt in answering questions via email, helping me to work out what size trees I should get and even working out the best shipment options for my wallet and the trees. Super fantastic. So now I have 4 trees on the way that should, if I care for them properly this spring and they adjust to the new weather, give me olives late this summer! Oh yeah...my own olives.

Now, the trees aren't here yet so I can't give you a final opinion on the seller yet but I will as soon as they arrive. You can also be sure I'll post pictures of them throughout the year so you can see how things are going.

Wish me luck!