Irony, Possibly

Isn’t ironic?  Donchathink?  The more that I’m gardening, the less that I write about it.

Yeah, well, OK, anyway…

Thanks to the global economic meltdown, I have had a bit more time in my yard.  That is to say, I get up, go outside, and work myself silly until my wife makes me come in to eat dinner.  And still… it feels like I’m falling behind.  The truth is that I’ve got a bunch of projects that I want to complete while I still have the time, and they all take longer than I expect.  Tonight, I was out repotting my pond plants, training and propagating my goji berry, and starting some seeds… at midnight… with a headlamp.  That’s because I spent most the day transplanting a bamboo (into a groovy galvanized water trough) and building a little bamboo teepee for my kid’s garden to replace the upside-down tomato cage– with which I could not deal.

But I digress… again…

Spinach

The spinach is looking good… it’s either too early for leafminers, or the neem is working.

"Clove Currant"

The black currant “Crandall” is in bloom.  I think that’s my favorite plant– only because of the scent of the blossoms.  Wow.  Zowie.  It’s spicy and sweet and fills the air, especially at night.  Actually, the currants are pretty good, too.

Trilliumses

The trill… iae?  are looking great for all the abuse I gave them.  One of my projects is to make another shade garden under the camellia trees that line my driveway.  I moved these in there a couple of years ago, and of course, they completely disappear… and are then covered by all the stuff that comes off the trees.  And then stepped on.  I am definitely going to tag them this year.  Probably.

The Newly Espaliered Red Currants

Would you look at all the flowers on those currants?  It’s currantastic.  This winter, I built a frame to espalier these guys and forcefully converted them from 3D to 2D.  They don’t seem to have minded.  Currants are tough as nails.  I actually jammed some of the prunings into my nursery bed, and I think they all rooted.  When I was having a tree removed, the arborist drove his stump grinder right over one of these.  Smashed the hell out of it.  This year, you wouldn’t be able to tell me which one it was.  Tough, I tell ya.

Poofy Cherry Tree

The Rainier cherry keeps on keeping on.  If you recall, last year, I had aphid pestilence.  I thought it might kill the tree, but it appears to be none the worse for wear.  Last year, I hesitated to treat the aphids because I didn’t want to affect the beneficials.  This year, I’m going to be a bit more aggressive– at least with some insecticidal soap, neem, and possibly pyrethrins.  For the squirrels who’ve decided to eat the blossoms, I use a product called “rock”.  Squirrelicidal Rock.

Bacterial Canker on the Peach

What with all that good news… how about some bad news?  It’s pretty well confirmed that, contrary to what some seemingly knowledgeable people have told me, the Oregon Curl Free peach has bacterial canker.  So, all that sulfur spraying?  Probably didn’t do anything.  Seems that this little nasty is best treated with copper.  Ah well, we’ll give that a try, but I’m afraid she may be doomed.  I think this was the first fruit tree I planted in this yard.  The first of…  twenty?  The crazy thing is that in the summer, it looks healthy as a horse.  It’s only the spring when it oozes and loses branches that you can tell she’s sick.

The Rare Yellow-Hiney Mason Bee

If you look closely at this picture, you’ll note two busy little bees mid-air, hauling their catch into the block.  At last count, I had nine full tubes.  I’m actually sort of surprised that they’re moving so slowly.  Most of my trees are already at petal drop.  The good news is that my neighbor’s trees (on which I’ve been working on renovation for the last coupla years) are loaded with blossoms.  Anyway, they generally come home with pollen all over themselves, so they must be doing OK.

The Asian pear just after peak bloom.

It looks like another good year for Asian pears.  It’s very nice to see so much of my stuff starting to mature to the point where we can actually expect a decent harvest from them.

All done done...

Finally… Monday was the last day for our teaching intern from Japan before returning home.  She’d been living with us for most the year while teaching at our son’s school and became part of the family.  I’m happy her last day was the best one so far this year.  Now, THAT is how you use a hammock, people.  Good job, Fumi.