As for Colorado, Saturday we are expecting temperatures today of about 72, with chances of rain in the afternoon. Highs are likely to be in the range of the 60’s for most of the next week, with lows in the upper 30’s. We’ll send some of that warmth east as time allows.
Some of you may have read about my yard in my various past posts here in the Garden blogging. Some have even visited for some Kossack meetups and even for Crawfish Boils like what’s coming up June 4th. If you have interest, let me know in the comments if you want to come.
For those unfamiliar, I would like to introduce you. The flower bed you see above used to be a row of juniper bushes growing out over the sidewalk. I had those removed soon after we moved in. I have a Vietnamese immigrant fellow who is a very inexpensive gardener who mows the lawn of several houses in the neighborhood on a weekly basis. He also does additional work and he hired an assistant to build the wall of paving stones, I supplied the bulbs and we buried them under fresh planter’s mix. They’ve been growing for about four years now, and while some years are better than others, they’re now doing fairly well. I guess they might be a bit crowded, but I do like thick beds of flowers. After the spring, they die back and I have ice plants, some hostas and some sun-loving flowers, including some sedum. I’ve tried Astilbe and some other shade loving plants because there’s a thick tree above them, but enough morning sun comes in that I think it’s too much for those shade lovers. The sun lovers do okay — iris, some
My previous house in Morrison, Colorado, was a place where I put in a drip irrigation system and grew vegetables. When we moved into our current house, I lost my vegetable garden but gained an orchard. The squirrel eating a peach above? That was the mature peach tree that was able to produce fruit only twice before we lost it in the very wet, cold spring last year and the tree succumbed to the peach tree borers that had been girdling the tree since before we owned it. However, before it perished, squirrels planted two seeds and I now have two young peach trees about 3 feet tall. I also had purchased a peach tree to be growing when the inevitable came. The main stem of that tree died in that cold spring, but side branches came up and while I’m not sure which variety is growing, it is taking off. The main tree was Elberta, but the root stock might be different, and that’s what’s growing. Last year, when the big tree died, I purchased another peach tree for cross pollination, not realizing that I had the little ones amongst some weeds. Now I have four, with two of them producing blossoms this year.
The second major crop is plums. They are some small plums, about 1-1 ½ inches long. The two larger trees also succumbed to the borers, but there were several thickets of smaller, thin trees. Most of the plums are red to dark purple, but some are yellow. They’ve only produced strongly a couple of years but they seem to be more reliable than the peaches. Two years ago, I made fruit “leather” in my dehydrator with the pureed plums and a good amount of Splenda. Four years ago, when I checked the plums, each had a little larvae that must have been planted as the fruit was formed. When I made the fruit leather, no larvae. I had thought about trying to spray insecticide to kill the moths, but I decided to preserve the bees and just live with the moths.
The third and most reliable crop has been pears. There’s a large flowering pear tree, but there is a large (30 foot tall) fruiting pear tree and a smaller one. I have to harvest some pears by climbing on my roof and reaching over with a pole with a basket. Both had issues with fire blight in the damp spring last year, but I think both will be able to recover. Here’s a picture of just part of one the crops I’ve produced.
I’ve canned many jars of pears, but I’ve also really liked sliced, dried pears dusted with cinnamon sugar.
About four years ago, I planted an apple tree from Costco with four grafts on it, but it died last year in the cold spring after only producing a single apple in its short, young life. I tried planting cherry trees, but they also perished in that spring (many trees had problems — a grove of cherry trees in the park a short distance away lost 80% of the trees). So I planted some more apple trees — one was a set of three and one was by itself. They’ve been slow to leaf out this, their first year, but the single one hasn’t yet and I’m starting to think it may not have made it. It also had some damage from fire blight.
A present from Kossack Merry Light was a volunteer apricot from her yard. It has more than doubled in height and I read that it needed another to cross pollinate with. For that reason, last year I purchased a Chinese apricot and this spring, right before the huge snowfall, it started producing blossoms. It has produced just one blossom since, but since Merry’s hasn’t yet produced any blossoms, I don’t know that I’ll be lucky enough to have any fruit.
I’ve planted a couple of additional trees — an Asian pear last year (the squirrels really appreciated that one) and just yesterday, a little nectarine, again from Costco. I chose one that would ripen in September (they had different ones that would ripen anywhere from June to October, but I chose to have one that might flower after the frosts).
I also have a couple of white grape vines that grow up and through some trees and along fences. I made raisins a couple years ago.
In addition, I have a number of elderberry bush/trees, a large mulberry tree (the robins love that), 4 crabapple trees, some chokecherry trees and several other flowering bushes (dogwoods, etc). In addition, every year I plant three tomato plants, but that’s the extent of my vegetables (though I guess, technically, they’re fruit).
Sure this is a large plot, about 4/10 of an acre, but I really enjoy the seasons, the hopes and worries as the temperature rises and falls, paying attention to the pollinators, encouraging bees, butterflies, being thrilled to hear a hummingbird, and being able to raise and feed not only my family but multiple families of birds, squirrels, garter snakes and mice. Sometimes I even get larger critters invading my backyard.
I’d be happy to hear your tales of flower, veggie and fruit crops.