A Month

It was June 18 when I could get back to the garden. It has been a busy month, and if I don't jot down something to mark time and space, I will forget the causes of the success or failure of my work.
I got three loader buckets of horse manure from the stables. I unloaded the manure and dumped it at one end of the penitentiary. I finished fixing the wagon garden to be ready for the soil: first I lined the bottom with plastic; then I added some surplus pavers; then a substantial amount of rocks, and finally I filled the bed with a mix of my compost, the horse manure, and peat moss. Then I filled the four beds I had built this past winter and spring. I planted tomatoes of several varieties (from my own seeds) in three of the four beds, and peppers and eggplant in the fourth (also from my own seeds).
The yard was parched and I had to water everything starting from the fruit trees. They are looking better now, and:
the apple tree is loaded with fruit

the old peach is promising a good crop (not too visible in this picture)

the young peach has three peaches on it, and here is the picture of one

Unfortunately all three grafts failed. The plum and apricot crops also failed.

The grape vines have very little fruit, and I had to repair the damage to one vine caused by the wind that accompanies our monsoons. I hope to train the vine to circle over the "gate" I built

Of the vegetables, the green beans are the fastest growing, some in the box by the greenhouse and some in the wagon garden 

The five volunteer tomato plants in the greenhouse trough are loaded with flowers

and the ones in the boxes are coming along

I am thinning them down as the stronger ones elbow out the weaker plants, thus performing a sort of vegetable eugenics. We'll have to see if there is enough summer left to enjoy the produce.

And Nancy added a nice touch just outside the door to the yurt

So, a part of the old Ponderosa has been put to good use.

Going solar

I finally got back to working on my garden. But when we decided to give solar a last chance, we were faced with the dilemma: either the beautiful Ponderosa that grows through the deck goes, or we have no solar power.
We went with solar, and so we had to give up the tree. So, before I get back to recording the progress of my garden, I'll have to post one video, the one that sees Craig at the top of the tree cutting the last segment of it and speed-lining it to Leon on the ground.

How Craig Onken topped our Ponderosa so we can have solar energy

Good Bye Beautiful!

Reversal.
True, the apricots seem all to have fizzled, but the young peach has at least three fruits growing; the apple is loaded, and so is the old mama peach. Here is one baby fruit on the baby peach tree:

and the lady bugs are doing their faithful work on the aphids that every year infest the premises:

 

The grape vines are showing their new leaves

and the cactus is in almost full bloom. Ah, spring and the beginning of summer!

News, bad and good.
Two items of bad note: the apricots are not materializing. All flowers are dropping off. And the leaves of the plum tree are wrinkled sick. I have treated both trees with a spray oil, and I hope to see some results in the next few days.
And here is the picture of the good news, a baby peach; and there are many others on the branches of the tree.

Grubs and roots.
The veggies in the wagon garden, one of my raised beds (raised, but resting on the ground), did not produce well the last two years. I had noticed the heavy roots before, but I had attributed them (and the failed crops) to a mistake I had made in the composition of the soil and the fertilizer I used. No such. The roots come from an opportunistic tree, whose trunk is about fifteen feet from the bed.
I have had to work hard to empty the bed, which was a mess of tangled roots. This pile about one foot high and three feet in diameter is what's left:

As I screened the removed soil, I found grubs,

and evidence of the power of these roots trying to establish themselves, penetrating, even, some peach pits:

On the fun side of things, here is the apple of my yard:

Update

Update.
I think the apricot tree is giving us her first fruits. I hope I am not mistaken. The little thing is only about 3/8 of an inch but cute as hell.

The plum is in full bloom:

And the apple looks like this:

I like, I like...

Tree Updates.
Yesterday I took pictures of my fruit trees, first the old peach in full bloom:

Then the apple, just starting to show its flowers along with leaves:

And then the plum: