What have you done today in the Garden?

Yesterday I looked around the "micro orchard". These are the, mostly, antique or historic apple varieties that I, mostly, grafted a few years ago onto highly miniaturizing Budovski-9 rootstocks. The Espaliers are bought trees, three red-flesh varieties of "Redlove" (Swiss breeder Markus Kobelt) that I bought as-is and not my grafting. I also espalier-trained a Honeycrisp and a Zestar.

Many are blooming now. These are the early-blooming varieties. There are buds on some of the others too.

Gravenstein on Bud-9. About 4 feet tall. Gravenstein apples are very early and excellent flavor.


SummerRed on Bud-9. About 4 feet tall.


The Pristine (early yellow, on Bud-9) and CosmicCrisp (bought on M-27 very dwarfing rootstock) have buds. Others I'm not sure about blooming for this year, Porter (a centuries old yellow variety), Jonathan, Jonared, Black Oxford, Sweet-16. And a novel genetic dwarf apple, "Apple Babe" which I bought last year. The regular orchard is also starting to bloom.

Unknown Columnar (The nursery tree was mis-labeled) but the source looks a bit like the variety "Blushing Delight". On Bud-9. About 6 feet tall.


Columnar "Urban Apple" "Golden Treat" - purchased on this rootstock. I think it's "Moonlight" in Europe. It's about 6 feet tall.


Columnar "Urban Apple" "Tasty Red". (Bought last year on this rootstock). The lowest blossoms are about 6 inches off the ground!


Columnar "Northpole" on Bud-9. This bears on "trees" under 3 or 4 feet tall! Again, the lowest apples are about 6 inches off the ground.



Redlove Era. Espalier.


Redlove Odysso. Espalier.


I hope that the Redloves will tell me this year if they are worth the garden space. So far, the apples on those have been few, and small. They do have a nice flavor, sort of like a cranberry-apple blend. This Spring I grafted different varieties onto two tiers of these, as replacements in case I decide to prune off some of the Redloves.

Zestar, espalier trained. The top tier is Rubinette. So far, Zestar has been a shy bloomer.



It looks like several of the "micro trees" might bear fruit this year. That will be fun. These tiny trees are easy to fuss over and so far the apples have been bigger and tastier. I'll be happy with 5 or 10 or 15 apples per season per tree. I can't manage bushels of apples.

On the home orchard websites, they tended to criticize the columnar varieties as novelties. My experience so far is they can be quite productive and the apples have been delicious.

Meanwhile, the pear trees are blooming too.



Oh my, that could be a lot of pears! Pears are my favorite canned fruit, and I can give them away, too.

 

That mini-orchard is going to outstanding shortly!

 

Thanks DM! It's part of my effort to have a senior-friendly garden in my later years. All human-sized, easy to putter and maintain. I'm excited the trees are coming into fruition at such small sizes. The varieties are mostly disease resistant or heritage varieties that are not available at stores, or just unusual.

 

Everyone is very industrious today. I’m just waiting around for the repair guy to come and fix the tire on the big tractor. Fixing to mow the pastures today. Got all the watering zone up and ready on the computer program for the garden all zones programmed to water . The programs know the weather reports when it rains it doesn’t water the garden.
I really do like the b-hive program it keeps track of each zone if water needed and reports any water leaks. And it gives me more time to start new project,
The sour cherry tree is full of blooms lots of cherries for deserts. Blackberries are budding and the apple trees are just starting to bud.
Of course the rhody’s are budding , azaleas the magnolias are full of blooms as well as the roses lil buds setting and many others.
It’s cloudy today and nice weather to mow the pastures. I hope it clears soon , need to tackle the weeds takin over many garden areas.

 

Potted up the small tomato plants, there's a hole where i dug up the redcurrant bush so filling it with old compost and did a bit of hoeing.

 

Hey DHR....that little Hedgehog door to the wonderful world of hedgehogs is just the neatest thing ever. I'm so sorry about 'Arry. :-( His legacy and all of your hard work will be a welcome for a new guest. Maybe it's 'Arry's offspring??

 

@Daniel W - so nice to see those apple blossoms.

 

Thanks for that.
The jury's out, as to whether it was 'arry or not. I might have more information tomorrow,.

 

Well Is it or isn't it 'arry?

The camera nearest the house picked one up twice last night around 3.00am. Unfortunately, it's supposed to take a still picture followed by a 12 second video. But there was just the videos. I'll have to re-check the settings. So I had to freeze the video on my laptop to take these with my camera.







What makes me think it was a different hedgehog, is that it had a wander around the patio, but didn't go inside the feeder.

There were two pesky cats sniffing around the feeder within minutes of the sightings.

 

I think that it's a different one, 'arry would have been out by now.

 

Nothing done in the garden for the past couple of days. My BOSS, aka, general health calls the tune.
However I noticed a few days ago, the first shoots of the dahlias had been a tempting dish for the snails. Using slug/snail pellets the next day presented lots of snails in the tubs of dahlias and lilies. This promted me to spray with slug kill. Also I spotted some familiar visitors in their bright red attire. Yes as always, they were in pairs and doing 'naughties'. Introducing them to my thumbnail and forefinger their Brief Encounter soon came to a close. All of my roses are looking good. Today, Tues.2/may/23 I went for my spring covid booster. I'm wondering if this booster thing is going to be the norm. My first jabs the pfizer ones. were at Guys Hospital. Then my local pharmacy opened up a new center. Here I was given the Modrena one. This has given me a feeling of a fat, punched nose and face, blocked nose every morning. Todays jab, yet another newbie. Sorry but I have to have my laugh. Immitating the Goons. I can't help it. Eccles! You've deaded meeeee.

 

The mention of the Goons reminded me of my early teens. I had an aunt who managed an off licence near Regent's Park. Several of her customers were BBC people and they often gave her complimentary tickets to shows.

Of course my uncle couldn't attend as he had to mind the shop. So sometimes she took me. One time we went to see the Goon Show recorded, I think at the Camden Theatre which wasn't far away.
I've always liked the Goon Show. I appreciated the comedy but also liked the musical interludes featuring the Ray Ellington Quartet with the excellent jazz guitarist Judd Proctor. Followed by the Dutch jazz harmonica player Max Geldray with an orchestra conducted by Wally Stott, (who became Angela Morley).

I've had 163 episodes of the Goon Show on mp3s for over twenty years, downloaded from file sharing sites, although I haven't listened to any for many years.

 

I finished planting the fresh tomato bed - dwarf BrandyFred, Muliagul Moon, Eagle Smiley, New Big Dwarf, Puck, Extreme Bush Dwarf, Early Girl, Dwarf Golden Champion, Dwarf Chocolate, Dwarf Tanunda Red, Reisentraub and Early Girl Hybrid Bush.

There are extra slicing or salad tomato seedlings yet to plant, somewhere.

I planted the Verbascum seedlings among the container tulips.

I planted the Dusty Miller seedlings in a deck container.

I need to refurbish a raised bed for the sauce tomatoes. Priority for the weekend. I did dig out soil by the sides, which will need re-setting.

Slugs chewed on one tomato plant so I spread slug bait.

I'm not seeing pollinating insects around. I used an artist's paintbrush to cross pollinate the miniature, columnar, and espalier apple trees that are blooming. Then I saw one honeybee, which isn't much.

 

Today is a big push day to get some outside done. I cleaned out the memory garden when I was up and out at 6 this morning. With a long snow season year comes a lot of mice and vole damage. My northern hydrangia, peonies and pasque flowers took a beating. I'll plant the artichokes today.

Carrots, beets, kale, swiss chard, leeks and onions will go in today. Perhaps potatoes, but they may wait a few more days. Although it is quite warm, Saturday is a chilly one predicted with a high of 7 and lows of -3. After that things look more promising.

I really must begin hardening off the tomatoes and peppers but it is a struggle to figure out when right now. I think they may get some deck time under some remay today. Until the rain comes this afternoon.

All perenial flowers except the Echinacea will be planted today. Mulch will be taken off of the berries, apple trees, cherry tree, blueberries, haskaps, asparagus. Everyone will be fertilized before the rain. With some luck I will take the dead growth out of the raspberries and asparagus.

I have to try and plant before the rain to take advantage of the free watering. With the high creek water levels it will be a month before I can safely put in the pump. I'll wait until after saturday to plant the brassica.

I think it will be a hot hand wax day, and perhaps a hot bath tub at the end of the day.

 

Planted out a few kale plants. Set the paver that was keeping the gate from opening and am off to get a few bedding plants for the extended front flower bed.