Pleasant surprise

I have been watching my fruit trees, and much to my delight I saw signs that the peach is going to produce fruit. There are scores of babies like this one:

Not the best picture, and not in focus, but look at the single plum I saw growing on my newest tree:

Fun and joy!

And I can only hope that the pear trees will be similarly generous. Looking at the blossoms, things look promising:

Vegetable-loving rat caught!

 An audacious rat has been eating the potato leaves and beet leaves growing in my greenhouse. All the potato fronds are gone! And this gives you an idea of what's left of my dozen beets:

The rascal had avoided my trap for two weeks. Then I set up a second trap, and armed it with peanut butter, and here is the result:

I have been preparing my raised beds, and so far I have planted green lettuce and spinach in one; radishes and green beans in another; and pole beans and arugola in a third one. I've been busy mixing compost and manure and stirring and replacing what's left from last year.

My trees are doing well, especially the pear trees, now coming into full bloom:

And I am hoping that some of the peach flowers that have gotten past the two freezes we've had will turn to juicy fruit. We'll see!

Dirt (brown gold)

As I previewed yesterday's post, I noticed that in all of last summer I posted a total of TWO entries. Well, that's not keeping a journal! Summary 2023: Tomatoes, Apples: excellent. Beans, spinach: disappointing. Squash: very good. Broccoli: not good. Couldn't get arugola or mesclun to produce anything.

Back to the present.

This morning I prepared my dirt to fill the first bed with spinach and lettuce. I started with two wheel barrows as seen here:

On the left the dirt that consists of two ingredients: my compost, and horse manure, in approximately equal proportions. On the right a quarter-inch strainer on an empty wheel barrow. Now I am ready to sift my dirt, in several batches, and here is the resulting top soil with which I will cover the seeds in my bed:

This is fine stuff! Ready to cover the spinach and green lettuce seeds I have put in one of my beds. And if you are good, I'll show you a picture of it.

Spring is here

It has been over six months since my last post.

I have worked on the garden over the winter, preparing it for the real work of spring. I have turned some of my beds; I have collected a pick-up load of horse manure and distributed it to my fruit trees; today I prepared a small bed of spinach, a sort of experiment to see how early I can plant spinach. Last season spinach was a disappointment, and I am trying to do better.

The apricot tree was the first to flower, and to suffer the results of two freezes. The flowers are gone from the branches. Another year of no crop.

The peach tree in the vegetable penitentiary flowered next, and much to my surprise, the flowers are still lingering on the branches, as seen in this picture taken today:

Is it possible some of them will turn to fruit? I hope so. The other two young peaches no longer have flowers. The tiny one that gave us three fruits last season is taking a rest now.

I have a new prunus domestica tree, and it has flowers, but I do not expepct any of them to make it to fruit.

The apple tree(s), the old matriarch that gave us so many apples last season, is about to flower, as are the three youngsters.

The pear trees are looking very good and seem to be about to burst into flower. I am anxious to see what they will do in this their second year in my "orchard."

Spring greetings and happy gardening!