Summer Days in the Garden

When the daytime highs reach the mid-nineties, (mid-thirties C), something in me switches to pick-and-preserve mode. It just seems like that's what I ought to be doing, and it is!

We're enjoying fresh steamed beans & I'm canning
canning as many as I can. These are Tendergreens.

Summer squash is doing well. I only have about 3 or 4
plants because we all know how prolific it can be!

I've tried a number of varieties over the years, but the standard
yellows seem to do best. Love these sauteed with onion & basil.

I planted cushaw for winter squash where I planted clover as a
living mulch. Cushaw has always done well for me, although
the clover is beginning to wilt from the hot dry weather.

I have two varieties of tomatoes, Homestead and
a  Roma type. The Romas are struggling with
anthracnose, unfortunately, which seems to be
a recurring problem for me with paste types.

I have one row of sweet potatoes that seem happy. For the past couple
years, however, I've grown my own slips and never gotten very many.
I'm not sure why, but would honestly love about 4 - 6 times as many.

Okra is a favorite and doing well. We eat it
oven fried and it freezes without blanching.

Lots of cucumbers too! We're eating plenty fresh
and I'm restocking my shelves with lots of pickles.

My several rows of popcorn are doing well. 

Field corn. Half of the patch has done well, the other
half has no ears! I suspect nitrogen deficiency. I
plan to cut those plants back and dry for stover.

Amaranth has only done so-so. This is a
feed crop for me so the more the better.

No shows for me this year have been Swiss chard, which I planted twice! No joy with watermelons either. I had half a dozen indoor starts that didn't make it, and neither did the seeds I planted directly in the ground to replace them.

In the fruits and nuts department, we had no peaches or almonds this year, even though there were plenty of blossoms! No strawberries either, because I lost all my plants in last summer's horrific heat and drought. The apple harvest will be okay, although less abundant than last year.

This Gala is still a little green but has good flavor.

Pear trees have produced only a few, so I'm not expecting much of a harvest there. A first this year will be my Japanese persimmon!

First time for fruiting this year, four of them!

I planted it in my first hedgerow two years ago and confess I haven't given it a lot of nurturing. It's had to struggle on it's own but it's survived and beginning to produce! We have a wild persimmon too, but it's so tall that the only way to get fruit is the ones that fall to the ground. Critters both tame and wild keep the area pretty well cleaned up, however, so there's never any left for us. Even so, those fruits are small compared to the Japanese variety!

Another first will be crabapples.

I'm thinking pectin and jelly!

This is the first year I've gotten more than only 5 or 6 of them!

Blueberries and figs are my old faithfuls.

Even though it's been cooler this summer and with more
rain, the blueberries haven't produced as well as last year.

Figs are usually ready for harvest in August.

So there's my mid-summer garden report. How about you?

Summer Days in the Garden © July 2017 

by Leigh  at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

First Almond Harvest

Firsts on a homestead are always exciting. This year's first was our first real almond harvest.

1st sampling of homegrown almonds

We planted an All-In-One almond tree in December 2009. It's given us beautiful blooms for a number of years now.

It blooms in March (when this photo was taken)

Hall's Almond trees are more commonly planted, but the All-In-One was described as soft shelled and heat tolerant. Heat tolerant is always a plus in my part of the country. Considering how hot and dry our summer was, I'd say it has performed as advertised.

Of almonds, it's only given us a handful or so in the past, but this year I picked up a bucketful.

Since this was a first harvest I had to look up the particulars of harvesting, processing, and storage. My The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food says to harvest when the hulls are splitting on the nuts growing on the inner branches of the tree. These are the last to ripen, so it serves as an indicator of when they're ready. Mine were falling to the ground, some with split hulls and some with intact hulls.

The book said to remove the hulls immediately. This is so the nutmeat can dry properly. I hulled the ones I could, but many of the hulls were too hard to remove. I spread them out on an old sheet under one of the pecan trees, wondering if the hulls would split as the nuts dried. They did not. I reckoned this because we had a wet muddy winter followed by a hot dry summer; the harvest wasn't being textbook.

Then last weekend Hurricane Matthew gave us a gift of a quarter-inch of rain. Not as much as we needed, but enough to soften many of the hulls so that I could remove them.

I spread them out to dry, but not until we sampled a few.

The shells seem hard compared to pecans, but my nut cracker split them right open. The driest ones were easiest to crack.

According to UC Davis almonds can be stored in the shell for eight months at room temperature (which they say is 68°F / 20.0°C, and to which I say, "Ha ha, try room temperature during one of my summers"), and for a year or more in the fridge. Shelled almonds can be frozen and retain good quality for over a year.

It will take awhile to crack all of them so I'm not sure how many we'll end up with, but I guarantee every one will go to good use.

First Almond Harvest © October 2016 
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Fruits & Nuts 2012 Tour

Looks like it's going to be a good year for fruits and nuts.

Peaches

Peach trees planted fall of 2009

My peach trees are loaded, one (pictured above) in particular. The branches are bending to the ground under the weight of the fruit. Impressive but not good management. I should picked off a bunch at an earlier stage. That would have meant less of a burden on the branches, and larger peaches. Last year all my peaches were loaded with worms. I'm hoping for better this year. They're almost ripe so we'll be harvesting these later this month.

Apples

Apple trees planted fall of 2009

This will be our first year to get a few apples! I planted two varieties, Gala and Fuji, and we'll get some of both.

Crabapples

Crabapple tree planted fall of 2010

I have one crabapple (our first) on my little crabapple tree! I planted it because my brother loves crabapple jelly. Also, I'm hoping to use these to make cider vinegar one of these days.

Blueberries

Surprise trying her hardest to get a taste of blueberry bush

I have to say that the blueberry corral has worked very well. Last year it was an ongoing battle with the goats to try and harvest any blueberries (that tale here.)

Blueberry bush was here when we bought the place

This year will be a different story because the bush is loaded with unripe berries. Blueberries are ready to harvest here in July.

Elderberries

1st elder bushes were planted winter 2009.

We planted our first elderberry bushes December 2009. I've added more every year since, with a goal to make an impressive hedge. This year we have more flowers than ever before, but experience has taught me that the birds love elderberries, even green ones. Maybe I should net them. Hmm.

Red Raspberries

Red raspberries, planted spring 2010 and 2011

I haven't done well with my red raspberry plants. For every three I plant I lose at least one, often two. It may be the spot I chose to plant them, up the hill from the elder bushes. The higher up the hill the more quickly the ground dries out. Watering more would have helped, but some things are difficult to get to. Above is the sum total of my very first raspberry harvest, two whole berries. (Hey, it's a start, right?)

Sand Cherries

Sand cherries, planted spring of 2011

Something unexpected has been our sand cherries. I planted these to make a pretty privacy hedge, not thinking a lot about the fruit, except that I try to only plant things that are edible or medicinal. The largest plants have produced these for me....

My very 1st bowlful of cherries

Not enough to do much with and they're pretty extremely tart. Still, they aren't as seedy as I expected for a native type cherry bush. One of these years they'll probably make an excellent batch of jelly.

Figs

Baby figs are beginning to grow. Mature trees were here when we got here.

I discovered that we had fig trees while I was clearing out overgrown brush our first summer here. Since then we've enjoyed a good harvest every year. My dad especially loves the canned ones and has put in his request for as many as I care to send. Fig harvest will be in August.

Grapes

One vine, variety unknown, was here before we were

One grapevine was here when we bought the place. I don't know when it was planted, but unfortunately it is now in all shade and doesn't do very well. The grapes will turn dark purple later in the summer and are seedy and very sour. The birds will get to them before I do. I should consider propagating a few of my own vines from this one, but we haven't decided yet where to put them.

We have Muscadines as well, wild ones. I got a good harvest our first autumn, but none since, so I'm hoping it will be a good year for them. Some day I will plant some muscadine vines.

Rugosa Rosehips

Rugosa roses with hips beginning to ripen. Planted fall of 2010

I love my rugosa roses. Beautiful, single hot pink blooms and huge bright red hips. I'd like to have an impressive hedge of these too. I did transplant some volunteers, two of which look like they'll survive if they get plenty of water this summer.

I also promised some nuts on this tour, and here they are,

Almonds

All-in-One Almond. Planted winter 2009

Last year we got a small handful of almonds, but this year looks like we'll have a modest harvest. Almonds are Dan's favorite nuts, so I planted it just for him. I love them too, so it's a welcome addition to the yard. I bought an all-in-one because I read that Hall's Hardy, while indeed hardy and easier to crack, weren't as sweet. All-in-one is self pollinating (not sure about Hall's) and it's pale pink flowers in the spring are a delight to the eye.

Pecans

Pecan trees just finished blooming, so we'll have to see what makes

Mature pecan trees were one of the bonuses when we bought the place. Last year was my best ever for pecans; not terms of quantity, but quality. This year? We'll have to wait and see. :)

Non-producers this year are the pears. Theses were planted the same time as the apples. Trees that are still small and young aren't producing yet either, my Stanley prune-plum, North Star cherry tree, and my two hazelnut trees. I also wasn't expecting much from the strawberries and wasn't disappointed. Last year's plants were swallowed up by wire grass. I transplanted the ones I could, and also planted some new. Unfortunately wire grass seems to love strawberries and it's found it's way into this new bed too. Some days I feel like I just can't win. On the other hand, looks like we've got a lot to be thankful for this year.

Fruits & Nuts 2012 Tour © June 2012 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Almonds & Elderberries, Plan B

The almond tree and elderberry bushes I ordered arrived earlier this week. Like the fruit trees, there was a rain delay before we could plant them. Thursday was cold and blustery but sunny, so we took advantage and set out to plant them. The almond tree was to go in the spot we prepared in October for it and the fruit trees. The elderberry bushes were to go in the garden side zigs of the zig zag fence.

The first thing we wanted to plant was the almond tree. But as Dan dug the hole, he found that by the time the hole was deep enough to plant the tree, he'd hit water.


No. Good. Nut and fruit trees need well drained soil and will not tolerate standing water. Planting the almond here could kill it.

We'd already seen the potential for this when we got all that rain from Ida. We'd built up the soil where we wanted to plant the trees, so that after the next heavy rain the water drained better. However, we now realized that surface drainage wasn't helping subsurface standing water. Granted we have clay soil, which holds water, but also we've had a lot of rain: 6 inches in November and over 5 inches during the first two weeks of December. The good news is that our drought is officially over.

We needed a Plan B for our little almond tree. After a little discussion, we decided to plant it where I had wanted to put a ginkgo tree, in last summer's garden.


This is a semi-dwarf, self-fertile All-In-One Almond tree, and this is a good spot for it.

I had pretty much decided against the ginkgo after Dan and I visited a local nursery that carried them. We had a good discussion about shade trees with the manager there, and learned that in our part of the country, ginkgoes grow slowly and actually don't do well. Since then, Dan and I have been discussing possibilities for this spot as well as shading the house from the hot, setting summer sun. A true shade tree would take a long time to grow, so we have been considering trellises and a vine on that side of the house. (Maybe now I can plant hops!). Because of all this, it was easy to decide where to put the almond tree.

The spots for the elder bushes are on higher ground, so they went in as planned.


These are common North American Elders, Sambucus canadensis. The zigs and zags of the fence give me eight spots to plant shrubs and bushes on the garden side, and these two are the first. For the rest of them, I'm considering two more blueberry bushes (types for fresh eating, for which my rabbiteye is not), two raspberry bushes, and maybe two rugosa rose bushes. Hopefully I can get all those in by spring!

We were still concerned about the lowest apple tree we planted, considering the water problem we discovered. Even though it is up the slope from where we planned to put the almond, we wondered if it was still too low for the underground water to drain completely.


We dug a trench for drainage and it did get a little water seeping into it. This trench will be filled with stone like a French drain and covered with soil.

The big question is what to do long term. Best possibility might be to put a cistern at that bottom corner of the garden. That way we could channel all the water coming down the hill into it for future use.

As much as we wish we could have followed through with our original plan, all this rain before planting has been a blessing. If it hadn't been for that, we wouldn't have known about this drainage "problem." At least we found out about it beforehand and can change our plans accordingly.

Almonds & Elderberries, Plan B photos & text copyright 

December 2009 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/