Monday, May 18, 2020

GARDEN AND ORCHARD UPDATE

It might have been a rainy, wet day but I still went to the farm to check on things.  Plus it gets me (us when we both go) out of quarantine for a bit.

With all the rain, the garden and orchard got a nice boost of water and they are doing great.

Here are some pictures of how things are going.  

First up the vegetables:

Green bell pepper plant
Pepper plants all have blooms and even some small buds on them.

Heirloom straight neck squash
Squash blossoms!  We see some little squash on there too, pinky finger size right now so should be a few more weeks and we'll be having a squash casserole.  This one plant is well on its way to filling up the raised bed that it is in and we're OK with that...more squash casseroles, ha. 

Celebrity tomato
And look!  Two tomatoes (this is on the celebrity tomato plant).

Rutgers tomato
And another tomato on the Rutgers tomato plant. Plenty of blooms starting to appear as well.  Fingers crossed!

Basil
This is the basil...not doing well for some reason and we're not sure why.  We usually grow monster basil.  In fact it has always taken over the entire 4x4 bed by the end of the season so this year we just planted one in the middle.  Maybe it's lonely, ha, but for now I'll blame our screwy weather.  This is actually looking better than last week so maybe it's finally on a growth spurt.  Come on basil, we need some pesto!

Now on to the fruit trees:

Persian lime
Person lime tree.  Blooms all over and even a few tiny limes making their first appearances!

Meyer lemon
Meyer lemon tree.  Same thing, blooms all over and a few tiny lemons appearing.

Owari satsuma
And here is the Owari satsuma orange tree.  It's got about ten fruits on it all about the size of large marbles.

Anna apple
And what do we have here?  An Anna apple.  But not just one there are about eight on the tree and I might have missed a couple hiding in the leaves!

Peach
And look!  A peach!  OK so we may only get one but so far it's a pretty peach.  This is on a peach tree we thought wouldn't make it but it's finally bearing fruit and that's OK.  We posted once that this tree was on the "replacement" shortlist and now we've got one perfect looking peach.  It's gotten a reprieve for now.  

Bruce plum
And lastly, here are some plums!  There are about half a dozen on this tree in various stages of ripening.  Since they apparently ripen at different rates, I need to see how to know when to pull them.

So that's it, so far so good.  

This coming weekend (weather permitting) will be mowing and edging but also on the list is a simple deer deterring fence (albeit simple) to go around the fruit tree area.  A reader sent us a video link to the idea and people swear by it.  We'll see how that goes and of course details and photos when I do it.

Hope you had a good weekend!

12 comments:

  1. wow...everything looks great especially your fruit!

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    1. Thanks!!! Fingers crossed it keeps all this up, ha.

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  2. my spouse just planted a big boy tomato and a cucumber on saturday. he is still looking for a cherry tomato plant. things have been so cool up here he didn't want his plants to freeze.

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    1. I can't believe the weather this year everywhere, it's been crazy. Here's to tomatoes in your future!!

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  3. I hope no critters find your fruit between weekends. Congrats on the orchard!

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    1. You and me both, ha. That's why this weekend needs to be the deer deterrent attempt. Since they aren't covered in fruit this season, this will be a good test to see if the fencing works. Better to lose a few now rather than all later on. Hope we can save this this season.

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  4. Marvelous.
    Everything looks peachy keen. Won't be long before you will be picking your very ow, home grown fruit and veggies soon to follow before long.
    Amazing what a nice shower of rain from Mother Nature can do.

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    1. Thanks! Isn't it amazing how just a good soaking rain makes everything explode with growth? Of course that's weeds too, ha.

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  5. Everything is doing great. Lots of beautiful fruit and vegetables this year!

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    1. Thank you, coming from an expert gardener like you that means a lot.

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  6. For some reason my basil was slow starting and actually looked like it would die. I bought a basil bedding plant. I discovered it had three plants in the little pot. I thought it was three. So, I separated them and planted them all in the same large pot. Then, it drooped about and refused to grow. Then, it acted like it finally figured out what to do. It is doing fine now.

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    1. Wow, that's interesting!! Hmm, maybe it's the year for struggling basil, ha. That's the way this was, it just seemed to hang on by a thread until this past weekend and now (I guess we'lll see this weekend) it seems to have turned a corner. Basil is so good we use it ALL the time. Here's to your basil and ours, may they grow into big plants! :-)

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