Tuesday, June 21, 2011

First day of Summer

Its beautiful out. Blue sky, some thin, high clouds- not enough to cast shadows so its basically a clear day.  Temperatures are in the high 70's to low 80's,  dry and comfortable with a pleasant breeze. Just perfect.

Garden is doing well.  Needs much weeding of course.  The little one's wakefulness is making it hard to weed and get most things done. I have been bemoaning he condition of my grapes, they are growing like crazy and i wish i had understood pruning instructions this spring-  bu i didn't understand them at that time.  Now i do and i realize what i should have done.  Hubby bought me a nice set of pruners.  Not expensive ones, but for 5 grapes i don't need $75 pruners. Under $20 for a set of two is fair enough.  These actually look like good ones, drop forged and come apart for sharpening. One is a bypass and the other is a needle nose.  If i wanted to sound all pro, i could call them secateurs, but i think 'pruners' is a better suited word for my skill level. lol

The other task i have been bemoaning is setting up my netting for the cucumbers.  But then, they don't really need it right now. I got such a late start on them due to the low germination of many of my seeds. Three of the four types had to be reseeded at least one of each. 

I also need to spread some 10-10-10 in the sandier part of the garden. Its so sandy there is slow growth.  I also have some leaf yellowing going on with my squash.  Their large leaves have yellow along the edges and i'm sure its a fert issue.  The new part of the garden does not have much compost or manure from last year in it. Its very sandy and would be perfect for carrots if i wanted any this year.

Another thing is that the apple tree is due for another treatment of Bonide. I have to stay ahead of the bugs this year.  I missed one spraying last year and that was the end of it for the apples.
I need to also research what i may need to spray the pear tree for.  Its doing wonderfully so far. I actually don't know what bugs will bug a Stanley Prune Plum or any other plum for that matter.   I'll also spray the grapes for fungus and blight after they are pruned. Mainly a precaution- its been on the damp side this year.


Well someone has finally fallen asleep so....


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I got the apple tree sprayed!

And the grapes pruned

Before:




After:

Marechal Foch before:


Marechal Foch after:


It wasn't as intimidating as i expected it to be. With all that growth i understood what was going on. Books tell you that this or that branch will do something if you don't prune it and why,  but its different to actually see what that is.  So now i know what happens!  And now i'm ok with removing parts.

I noticed some browning on some leaves,  just one so far.  I think this was Frontenac  or Reliance: