Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Walking the walk...
Not sure what it is about this picture and Tucker's facial expression that I love so much...
Yard progress
So many things are happening in the yard right now... I'm just glad to know, after talking with others, that I'm not the only one who walks around the yard after work just to see what all's changed in the last 24 hours. While these pictures may not represent sudden changes in the last day, they sure show what's going on!
These next two pictures are the sand plums I put in last year. What's really interesting is how one is covered in flower buds and no signs of leaves, while the other is all leafy with barely any hint of flowers.
Over in the arborvitae we have a bluejay nest. I know it's a bluejay because the bird launched out of there and gave me quite a scare as I was walking by the other afternoon. Since then I've caught Tucker eyeing the bluejay in the tree - I'm going to have to watch that closely!
The asian pear blooms are all open now!
Made seriously good progress on the back end of the yard this past weekend. I dug five post holes so I could move where the apple espalier fence will be. (Notice one post doesn't have a cap - the end of the post is a bit misshapen and I'll need to sand it down so the cap fits on). Those trees sitting there are NOT the apple trees - they're stand-ins just to help me gauge what things might look like in the future. I also cleared out the old compost bin recently, tore out a ton of weeds and brush, finished off the two new raised beds, etc... I'm thinking of maybe planting some very short perennials between the two raised beds - maybe some echinacea. And the rock (which got covered in weeds last year) is a great place to sit for a short break...
This one's for Peter - the Serviceberry's in bloom, and the deer haven't bothered it one bit this year!
Still waiting on the Sensation lilac to finish popping open. C'moooooon, do your thing!
These next two pictures are the sand plums I put in last year. What's really interesting is how one is covered in flower buds and no signs of leaves, while the other is all leafy with barely any hint of flowers.
Over in the arborvitae we have a bluejay nest. I know it's a bluejay because the bird launched out of there and gave me quite a scare as I was walking by the other afternoon. Since then I've caught Tucker eyeing the bluejay in the tree - I'm going to have to watch that closely!
The asian pear blooms are all open now!
Made seriously good progress on the back end of the yard this past weekend. I dug five post holes so I could move where the apple espalier fence will be. (Notice one post doesn't have a cap - the end of the post is a bit misshapen and I'll need to sand it down so the cap fits on). Those trees sitting there are NOT the apple trees - they're stand-ins just to help me gauge what things might look like in the future. I also cleared out the old compost bin recently, tore out a ton of weeds and brush, finished off the two new raised beds, etc... I'm thinking of maybe planting some very short perennials between the two raised beds - maybe some echinacea. And the rock (which got covered in weeds last year) is a great place to sit for a short break...
This one's for Peter - the Serviceberry's in bloom, and the deer haven't bothered it one bit this year!
Still waiting on the Sensation lilac to finish popping open. C'moooooon, do your thing!
Friday, April 09, 2010
Fruit!
Well, maybe not yet, but this is a good sign I should have SOME asian pears this year!
This is the tree that was the tallest/most developed of the three-pack I got when we first moved to the house - about three years ago. And then then first winter we had Doogie, we didn't realize he was going out and chewing on the trunk of the tree when out on a bathroom run. So that pretty much killed the trunk of the tree - I lost A LOT of growth... I hacked it back potted it up, and decided to see what would happen. Thankfully he chewed up high enough that there was still some of the scion/grafted on new tree above the rootstock that it put out a few new shoots....annnnd they're starting to leaf out AND develop flower buds. Yay!
Now what you see there are A LOT of flower buds. More than a dozen! That means A LOT of fruit, right? Nope. If I left all those on there to fruit, the tree would most likely drop some shortly after they developed into small fruit, and then the remaining ones would form really small asian pears - the tree just wouldn't have enough energy (nor space!) to fully develop all of them.
So the hard part, just like when you're pruning a tree, will be to thin out some of the growth. That means I'll need to go and break off either some of the blooms, OR some of the fruit when they're really small (I think about the size of a dime?).
If asian pears are anything like apples, it sounds like they develop a "king fruit" flower in the center, which is surrounded by other buds. The king fruit would be bigger. So you might suggest I save that flower now and bust off most of the rest, right?
Nope... Good thing I went to that pruning workshop a couple weeks back. While we were told some people break off the excess flowers, we learned you're better off letting them all at least get to the fruit-development stage. That way you don't run into something like thinning the blossoms now, and then having a hard frost. That could seriously thin out the blossoms - so better to leave some now and wait to see what happens with any upcoming frosts...THEN thin out the fruits if needed.
Boooooy, I sure hope I get a couple asian pears this year!
This is the tree that was the tallest/most developed of the three-pack I got when we first moved to the house - about three years ago. And then then first winter we had Doogie, we didn't realize he was going out and chewing on the trunk of the tree when out on a bathroom run. So that pretty much killed the trunk of the tree - I lost A LOT of growth... I hacked it back potted it up, and decided to see what would happen. Thankfully he chewed up high enough that there was still some of the scion/grafted on new tree above the rootstock that it put out a few new shoots....annnnd they're starting to leaf out AND develop flower buds. Yay!
Now what you see there are A LOT of flower buds. More than a dozen! That means A LOT of fruit, right? Nope. If I left all those on there to fruit, the tree would most likely drop some shortly after they developed into small fruit, and then the remaining ones would form really small asian pears - the tree just wouldn't have enough energy (nor space!) to fully develop all of them.
So the hard part, just like when you're pruning a tree, will be to thin out some of the growth. That means I'll need to go and break off either some of the blooms, OR some of the fruit when they're really small (I think about the size of a dime?).
If asian pears are anything like apples, it sounds like they develop a "king fruit" flower in the center, which is surrounded by other buds. The king fruit would be bigger. So you might suggest I save that flower now and bust off most of the rest, right?
Nope... Good thing I went to that pruning workshop a couple weeks back. While we were told some people break off the excess flowers, we learned you're better off letting them all at least get to the fruit-development stage. That way you don't run into something like thinning the blossoms now, and then having a hard frost. That could seriously thin out the blossoms - so better to leave some now and wait to see what happens with any upcoming frosts...THEN thin out the fruits if needed.
Boooooy, I sure hope I get a couple asian pears this year!
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Pointing to the sky
Let's try this again - looks like the pics embedded in this post from this morning never showed up.
Since this is the year I'm allowed to start LIGHTLY harvesting from the asparagus patch, and since some are gaining some height, I'm guessing it's time for me to pick a few of these to have with dinner!
And now that the Purple Passion asparagus are coming up, I can DEFINITELY tell them apart from the Jersey Knight (green) asparagus. Not gonna get much more purple than this!
It seems like asparagus are like people - where sometimes you get something that just happens to grow a bit differently from the average. (No, I'm not making any statements about myself with that comment...)
Since this is the year I'm allowed to start LIGHTLY harvesting from the asparagus patch, and since some are gaining some height, I'm guessing it's time for me to pick a few of these to have with dinner!
And now that the Purple Passion asparagus are coming up, I can DEFINITELY tell them apart from the Jersey Knight (green) asparagus. Not gonna get much more purple than this!
It seems like asparagus are like people - where sometimes you get something that just happens to grow a bit differently from the average. (No, I'm not making any statements about myself with that comment...)
Walking the walk...
Not sure what it is about this picture and Tucker's facial expression that I love so much...
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Rain, rain...
...please come our way! I see that you're heading in this direction, and I realize there's tornado watches out west, and strong storm cells, but my rain barrel is out of water already, and the heat this week is drying out the soil of my little growies, and I haven't gotten out the hoses or turned on the outside water yet. Please - a little hydration would be nice?
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Excitement in the yard!
How excited am I right now?!?!?!?
I'm this excited!!!!
"Excuse me sir, is that an asparagus in your bed, or are you just happy to see stuff sprouting?"
Seriously, I KNOW I checked yesterday and there were no asparagus. Now? Probably about 6 spears around this size. These two were close together, but being coy - there was no way I could get BOTH in focus at the same time.
Oh well, it's starting to look a little porno around here, so let's move on to some prick-ly stuff. Check out all these raspberry canes starting to pop up!
And what's got me really excited? This Sensation lilac! It didn't bloom last year after I put it in - now it's LOADED! I can't wait to see one blooming in person!
Right, now I'm bordering on needing a cold shower. Wait, no, I can just look at how crappy the lawns looking right now. You can see that it looks baaad, right? Just look right past this year freshly (and CORRECTLY) pruned asian pear that, wait, OMG look at how it's LOADED with fruit buds!! (I actually think I'll have to be a tough guy and thin some of the fruits...AND I'm hoping it gets inspired to put out some fresh stem growth this year...)
Even though it was a fun day that turned crappy, with wind storms blasting through here and ripping the points where the velcro tabs were stitched onto the tarp/"roof" of the "gazebo" on the deck...things are starting to look a bit more sunny...
Another bit of excitement? A new gadget arrived today. Thanks to the Camel Camel Camel service I got emailed a price reduction alert on this the other day, so I got the THGR810 extra thermometer/barometer for the WMR100 weather station for under $35 - usually lists for $59.99! Here it is hanging outside temporarily, so I can double check the data on my existing weather station....but that's not the only purpose it'll have...
See that cardboard outline? That's where the future 6'x8' greenhouse will go! Thanks to a neighbor down the street forwarding me an email coupon, I have a raincheck to get the out-of-stock $380 greenhouse for $299! (Oh I see they're now listing it for $299 on the greenhouse - oh well, coupons rock! 'Sides, I SWEAR it's the same greenhouse I see everywhere else for $600-$700!) Anyhow, off to the left of the imaginary greenhouse? The new Mantis Compostumbler...more on that on a later post. And the empty wooden bed to the right? The future dedicated herb bed....NOT to be shared with pretty flowers, perennials, dog pee, etc...
K, back to pretty flowers - the hyacinths are finally blooming! They're looking a bit tired after 2-3 years of blooming. I think hyacinths are something you need to replace periodically to keep from having sparse blooms?
I feel like I had more daffodils last year... Perhaps I killed too many while doing landscaping last year...Anyhow, the ones that are up are beautiful!
What's this that's about to bloom!?
The weeping cherry in the backyard. It's very heavily branched AND covered in flower buds...pretty!
This worm's eye view of a tree in the front yard looks sort of menacing...
It's not - it's the front yard red bud, which has way more buds all over it than the one in the backyard. Can't wait til these flowers start popping open!
Also in the front yard is the other weeping cherry. Considerably fewer branches, and with way fewer buds, their more vibrant pink color should make them pop at little more at least...
Started from seed last year, and even moved once, this lupin looks like it's finally taking off - yay!!
I'm also starting to see where the peonies have been planted the last two years. Seems I forgot to mark many of them - now how'd that happen!?!? I should definitely put markers down this year.
I put in two mail-order cherry trees from Stark Bros last year. The sad thing about mail-ordered bareroot trees is they look really pathetic... Both trees have their trunks lopped off about 3 feet above the ground, as were their few side branches. I know that's for both portability AND to promote new growth....but they're still looking really sad...
While Doogie and I were out roaming around the yard taking pics, we had a visitor. (Ignore all the messes - I'm part way through about a dozen projects, and today's high speed wind storms didn't help matters!) Anyhow, we were out there, and Tucker strolled on past. Um, WTH? I double checked the back door - did Brett let him out? No. Did he pry the back door open? (Which he HAS done before) Nope - not this time.
Oh nice! Well - I take most of the responsibility for this one - I just put the screens back in earlier this week, and did it from the outside, and didn't double check from the inside, and I guess I didn't have this one back in all the way. Oopsie!
K, back to the fun stuff!!! Check out this sexy bitch I couldn't resist bringing home with me today!
I don't know if you can tell, but the different branches are at different levels of budding out with leaves. Why? Well...
That's right, it's 4 types of cherries grafted on to one tree (I goofed and said 5 on Facebook earlier).
Check out these varieties (something *I* need to do since I haven't heard of all of them...)
(Uh, I thought it was MontmorEncy?)
And two of my blueberry bushes bit the dust this winter, so I replaced them...
The trick is to get different varieties to improve cross-pollination/fruiting.
And something I've wanted to try growing on the south side of the house the last couple of years? WINTER-HARDY KIWI! The deal is - we can't move for at least 4 yrs...it's going to take them awhile to fruit.
Oh, plus you have to get a boy plant and a girl plant. Donzells had one girl left and lots of boys (and she was looking a little victimized!) So I brought her and the most handsome of the guys home....we'll see how this arranged marriage goes over the years...
Also in the shopping today? Four HUGE rosemary plants for $3.50 each at Lowes!
And I've honestly tried being cheap and growing my own hen and chicks from seed. Doesn't work for me. So I cheated - aren't they sexy!?
Wrapping up...shots of the backyard...
Just look at the pretty forsythia and cute puppy - ignore this weekend's projects that are still a mess.
Oh yeah, the started-from-seed leeks are itching to be planted.
And the last of the excitement - the two thermometers are REALLY close in their readings. Channel 5 is the new one, and Channel 1 is the original.
Channel 5 will end out going INSIDE the future greenhouse, and then when I finally get the software to figure out which one Channel 5 really is, I can get email alerts if the greenhouse temp gets too high/low... ;-) 'Cause gadgets are FUN!
I'm this excited!!!!
"Excuse me sir, is that an asparagus in your bed, or are you just happy to see stuff sprouting?"
Seriously, I KNOW I checked yesterday and there were no asparagus. Now? Probably about 6 spears around this size. These two were close together, but being coy - there was no way I could get BOTH in focus at the same time.
Oh well, it's starting to look a little porno around here, so let's move on to some prick-ly stuff. Check out all these raspberry canes starting to pop up!
And what's got me really excited? This Sensation lilac! It didn't bloom last year after I put it in - now it's LOADED! I can't wait to see one blooming in person!
Right, now I'm bordering on needing a cold shower. Wait, no, I can just look at how crappy the lawns looking right now. You can see that it looks baaad, right? Just look right past this year freshly (and CORRECTLY) pruned asian pear that, wait, OMG look at how it's LOADED with fruit buds!! (I actually think I'll have to be a tough guy and thin some of the fruits...AND I'm hoping it gets inspired to put out some fresh stem growth this year...)
Even though it was a fun day that turned crappy, with wind storms blasting through here and ripping the points where the velcro tabs were stitched onto the tarp/"roof" of the "gazebo" on the deck...things are starting to look a bit more sunny...
Another bit of excitement? A new gadget arrived today. Thanks to the Camel Camel Camel service I got emailed a price reduction alert on this the other day, so I got the THGR810 extra thermometer/barometer for the WMR100 weather station for under $35 - usually lists for $59.99! Here it is hanging outside temporarily, so I can double check the data on my existing weather station....but that's not the only purpose it'll have...
See that cardboard outline? That's where the future 6'x8' greenhouse will go! Thanks to a neighbor down the street forwarding me an email coupon, I have a raincheck to get the out-of-stock $380 greenhouse for $299! (Oh I see they're now listing it for $299 on the greenhouse - oh well, coupons rock! 'Sides, I SWEAR it's the same greenhouse I see everywhere else for $600-$700!) Anyhow, off to the left of the imaginary greenhouse? The new Mantis Compostumbler...more on that on a later post. And the empty wooden bed to the right? The future dedicated herb bed....NOT to be shared with pretty flowers, perennials, dog pee, etc...
K, back to pretty flowers - the hyacinths are finally blooming! They're looking a bit tired after 2-3 years of blooming. I think hyacinths are something you need to replace periodically to keep from having sparse blooms?
I feel like I had more daffodils last year... Perhaps I killed too many while doing landscaping last year...Anyhow, the ones that are up are beautiful!
What's this that's about to bloom!?
The weeping cherry in the backyard. It's very heavily branched AND covered in flower buds...pretty!
This worm's eye view of a tree in the front yard looks sort of menacing...
It's not - it's the front yard red bud, which has way more buds all over it than the one in the backyard. Can't wait til these flowers start popping open!
Also in the front yard is the other weeping cherry. Considerably fewer branches, and with way fewer buds, their more vibrant pink color should make them pop at little more at least...
Started from seed last year, and even moved once, this lupin looks like it's finally taking off - yay!!
I'm also starting to see where the peonies have been planted the last two years. Seems I forgot to mark many of them - now how'd that happen!?!? I should definitely put markers down this year.
I put in two mail-order cherry trees from Stark Bros last year. The sad thing about mail-ordered bareroot trees is they look really pathetic... Both trees have their trunks lopped off about 3 feet above the ground, as were their few side branches. I know that's for both portability AND to promote new growth....but they're still looking really sad...
While Doogie and I were out roaming around the yard taking pics, we had a visitor. (Ignore all the messes - I'm part way through about a dozen projects, and today's high speed wind storms didn't help matters!) Anyhow, we were out there, and Tucker strolled on past. Um, WTH? I double checked the back door - did Brett let him out? No. Did he pry the back door open? (Which he HAS done before) Nope - not this time.
Oh nice! Well - I take most of the responsibility for this one - I just put the screens back in earlier this week, and did it from the outside, and didn't double check from the inside, and I guess I didn't have this one back in all the way. Oopsie!
K, back to the fun stuff!!! Check out this sexy bitch I couldn't resist bringing home with me today!
I don't know if you can tell, but the different branches are at different levels of budding out with leaves. Why? Well...
That's right, it's 4 types of cherries grafted on to one tree (I goofed and said 5 on Facebook earlier).
Check out these varieties (something *I* need to do since I haven't heard of all of them...)
(Uh, I thought it was MontmorEncy?)
And two of my blueberry bushes bit the dust this winter, so I replaced them...
The trick is to get different varieties to improve cross-pollination/fruiting.
And something I've wanted to try growing on the south side of the house the last couple of years? WINTER-HARDY KIWI! The deal is - we can't move for at least 4 yrs...it's going to take them awhile to fruit.
Oh, plus you have to get a boy plant and a girl plant. Donzells had one girl left and lots of boys (and she was looking a little victimized!) So I brought her and the most handsome of the guys home....we'll see how this arranged marriage goes over the years...
Also in the shopping today? Four HUGE rosemary plants for $3.50 each at Lowes!
And I've honestly tried being cheap and growing my own hen and chicks from seed. Doesn't work for me. So I cheated - aren't they sexy!?
Wrapping up...shots of the backyard...
Just look at the pretty forsythia and cute puppy - ignore this weekend's projects that are still a mess.
Oh yeah, the started-from-seed leeks are itching to be planted.
And the last of the excitement - the two thermometers are REALLY close in their readings. Channel 5 is the new one, and Channel 1 is the original.
Channel 5 will end out going INSIDE the future greenhouse, and then when I finally get the software to figure out which one Channel 5 really is, I can get email alerts if the greenhouse temp gets too high/low... ;-) 'Cause gadgets are FUN!
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