Garden Update

[rachelmanija]

We had autumn for about one week, and then jumped straight into winter. Snow is expected later this week. Alas for my morning glories which will never get a chance to blossom.

Raccoon and garden photos.

I've been slowly working away at my garden, collecting rocks from landslides and using them to shore up crumbling slopes and create paths. I've planted some native plants, and have bulbs coming in that I will plant on an otherwise boring and weedy slope.

Paths and leaves.

I have created a small orchard of two apple trees (Gala and Gravenstein), two cherries (Bing and Rainier), a nectarine, and a Carpathian walnut. Hoping to plant some pluots and maybe hazelnuts this spring, if I can get the local nursery to order them.

The blackberry hedges are once again totally out of control. Thorny green vines have gotten into a nearby tree and drop down like snakes, then root. I'm hoping to dig up and replant some along some fences.

Things which grow well here: Asian greens, miners' lettuce, chickweed, blackberries, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, shallots, garlic, blueberries, thimbleberries.

Things which do not grow well here: Honeyberries - dropped dead. Bell peppers - total failure with multiple attempts. Salal berries, salmonberries, golden currants - very spindly and pathetic. Peas - probably too cold. Melons - NONE of them ever sprouted, and I planted a lot. I had thought also morning glories, except those refused to grow at any point when they'd have had time to grow, then suddenly sprouted and grew vigorously one month before the temperatures hit freezing. Very annoying.

Questionable: Raspberries. The bushes grew okay, but I didn't get much fruit.

The hens continue to lay. Kebi keeps warning me they'll stop for winter or molting or something, but so far they've always staggered that so I get a regular egg supply even if a couple of them aren't laying.

Comments

[luzula]

I LOVE Gravenstein apples, they are my FAVORITE. And they smell so good, just having a bowl of them in a room makes the whole room smell great.

[ratcreature]

Mine too! My absolute favorite apple. It's a shame that they don't really keep well and at least here are hard to find in grocery stores. I always have to buy them at the market where there is a stand from an orchard that grows them. But I eat a lot of them when they are in season.

[sholio]

WHEEE, PLANTS.

Peas do really well here, so it probably isn't too cold, but I could see some other factor explaining it - soil type, amount of sunlight/water, some other thing. There are some plants I've tried and tried to grow and only got to work when I finally hit upon the right combination of soil/water/sunlight/nutrients, and some things that do really well for me some years and terrible other years (e.g. squash). I tried beans one year and got a few spindly, pathetic beans, and then last year, the second time I'd tried, my beans went bananas and I ate green beans off them all summer.

There's also a tremendous amount of variability in fruit yield from year to year, so the ones that didn't do well this year might do better next year or vice versa! (But you have a really shady, dry yard, so I could see a lot of plants that *technically* might grow well in your climate just never doing well in that place specifically.)

[rachelmanija]

Huh, I'll try peas again. I love them and they grew really well in LA. I had them in a pretty sunny spot so I don't think too much shade was the problem.

[sholio]

If I've waxed enthusiastic to you about hugelkultur in the past, which I know I have, this year's peas went absolutely WILD on my new hugelkultur beds - in what I know was very poor, shallow soil; a lot of other things I tried to grow there did not do well - so maybe next year you could try making a heap of wood with a heap of dirt on top of it and growing some peas on that! (I mean, at the very least it can't do *worse*, right?) Evidently one problem with hugelkultur is that the decomposing wood causes the soil to be nitrogen-poor for the first couple of years, but peas fix their own nitrogen so they don't care about that.

[rachelmanija]

I'll try that. I did some hugelkultur beds, but I didn't try peas on them.

[philomytha]

A walnut tree, wow! How long do they take to come into bearing? There are a couple of mature walnuts in a heritage garden not far from here and I ate a couple of the nuts fresh off the tree once and they were astounding.

I've never had any luck with melons, they're pushing the envelope of what grows here anyway, though I had varieties that were tested in Wales which is even cooler and cloudier and wetter than here, but after about four years of trying I decided it wasn't going to work out.

I don't keep hens myself, but I look after my neighbour's hens a lot and I find that even when the days are shortest you get some eggs even if not as reliably as in summer.

[rachelmanija]

The walnut tree should start bearing in 4-8 years. I feel like I'm placing a bet with myself over my lifespan.

I'm going to try again with melons, in a sunnier area and planted earlier.

[ethelmay]

The raspberries I am familiar with take two years to bear. There are probably different kinds, though. But I wouldn't be surprised if this year's canes are more productive next year.