Stanley Prune Plum in Flower

He bloomed for me on Mother's Day :o)



We got some much needed rain over the last few days and warm temps,  its been nice.  Today (Monday) is feeling cold by comparison.  Its about 50 degrees out,  we've been spoiled by high 60's and mid 70's.

(Tuesday)  Last night we did have frost warnings.  I worried a bit about the prune plum blossoms,  but there was not much i could do about it,  so i just brought my seedlings in and went to bed.  Looks like we escaped the frost because the blooms all look fine.

The apple tree is about to bloom,  so i went for one more spraying with Bonide.   Its not easy since i had to use the hand pump sprayer,  not as efficient as the hose end sprayer.  Hopefully i gave it a good enough soaking.  I hit the grapes too.

Looks like i got close to 100% germination on my squash, melon and cuke seeds:



And it looks like i'll get blooms from the Autumn Olive this year too:


My dad came and tilled the garden once more:



Hopefully this week,  i'll get the rows dug out and the black plastic mulch laid out so i can plant next week!

A walk around the yard

Starting with the Stanley prune plum.  I'm really hoping it blooms this year.  I think there might be a chance,  but i don't see any signs yet. Not too sure what to look for,  i think they bloom later than apples and may not show buds until a while later.


Autumn olive.  I grew it from seed about 3 years ago now.  Its supposed to be self-fertile and is a lot like Goumi.


Carmine Jewel cherry.  Year 2.  After paying so much for these tiny plants last year,  i am so happy to see this one doing so well.



Goldbeere elderberry.  This one has golden yellow berries.  It tried to bloom last year,  but it was too soon after planting.


Nova elderberry...  lots of berries last year,  i didn't get to pick them all.  It needs some pruning.


York elderberry.  Smaller berries than Nova,  but just as prolific.


One of the grapes waking up. Not sure which because the vines are all mixed up.


Apple tree greening up nicely.  I'll need to spray it again this weekend.


Strawberry pot. I'm unsure if i'll get strawberries this year or if it takes a full year,  this is my first serious try.


Blueberry and lingonberry bed


The other Carmine Jewel cherry, looking good.


Beach plum,  the smaller of the two last year, but growing.


The beach plum that got broken from the snow.  It should recover i hope.


Female "Titan" sea buckthorn.


The male without a special name...  i was a little annoyed when i got this one.  The company went out of stock so he came about a month late last year. I had paid for a gallon pot and the female was definitely a full gallon plant.  When the male arrived,  i suspected it was a 6" potted plant put into a one gallon pot, then shipped. I don't expect them to bloom for the first time in the same year.


Phoenix Tears gojiberry:


The other Goji.  They both have flower buds but they start out tiny.


This is the blueberry that had a rough winter:


This is the one that looks the best:

Blogging outdoors and pics of what is growing.

Its  a bit chilly out today but its been so nice i decided to take the laptop outside and try making my entry from the table in the driveway.  Its interesting how 65 degrees indoors on a winter day can feel so cold,  but 65 degrees outdoors in the spring feels balmy.  Unfortunately its the breeze that is bringing a bit of chill to the air and the sun is behind a bit of hazy clouds right now.  But that should be clearing up soon.  Its supposed to reach the high 60's today and Thursday is expected to be in the 70's.   Sounds fine to me!

So far nothing iss flowering of course,  but leaves are popping out all over.  I managed to get the fruit trees sprayed yesterday and my dad delivered me a new trailer load of well-rotted horse manure. The garden badly needed some fresh poop.  My soil is rather sandy and the organic matter from the other year has broken completely down,  so we needed some fluffy richness.

Here is one of the goji plants setting out some nice healthy leaves


This is the male seabuckthorn


And the female


One of the beach plums waking up


One of the cherries


Blueberry and lingonberry


A not-so-good photo of Stanley's leaf buds


Autumn olive



The other cherry


The elderberries


The grapes are still sleeping.  If i remember correctly,  they don't begin to leaf out until the apple is about to bloom.


Speaking of the apple...


Hubby, spreading out the manure for me.


We still have piles of garden rubbish that needs to be burned,   but we have not had rain for quite a while so its been too dry to safely burn anything.   No rain in the forecast either for the next week or so.  If we don't get rain we will probably have to cart off the stuff and let it break down in a pile somewhere.

I may start bring out the brassica seedlings to begin hardening them off today or tomorrow.  I need to get the sunflowers started and i'm a bit late on trying to get some herbs started.  I had a number of things that didn't germinate quite the numbers i had hoped for,  so i may have some gaps to fill.

I'm hoping my dad will be able to come by this weekend and till the soil,  i'm hoping for two tills before planting.  This should disrupt many of the weeds and get the warmth deeper into the soil.  It may not matter in the end because we are going to try using black plastic in the rows this year to block out all those confounded weeds.  But i won't be able to use it on the bush bean rows or the potatoes,  so its best to do what we can to keep the weeds in check.

Speaking of potatoes,  my Adirondack blues came in last Thursday.  My daughter is happy with the skin color of them.  We won't get a look inside until its time to chunk them up to plant,  but i bet they will look pretty cool.   I have grown a few blue potatoes before...  i think they were All Blues,  i got a small box of them from Walmart one year,  enough for just a little plot in one of my little gardens many years back.

I ordered 10 Sparkle strawberry plants that should be arriving soon,  they didn't come today.  I was going to put them in a container,  but i'm not sure which one i might use.  I almost hope they are out of stock and i'll get a refund or credit,  because i ran out of options.  I used to have a round, white pot by the front door.  Its been here since before we bought the house 10 years ago.  It finally developed a big crack in the side so it was time to go.  I'm replacing it with my big terracotta-looking pot that is about 3'x12".


  I was going to put the strawberries in there,  but i kind of want flowers in there since its going to be in the front...  i was thinking the nasturtiums would look nice. But then,  i want strawberries and since i don't really have many purely decorative flowering plants anymore a big pot of strawberries won't be out of place with my landscaping.  So, we'll see.  If the strawberries are out of stock (they were in stock when i ordered,  but the next day they were listed as sold out,  and i'm pretty sure Pinetree is good at updating their stock accurately-  but this time of year things run out fast and they are very busy so things might slip through.)  I did just look across the yard and remembered this:

Maybe that will be the place for the "nasties".

The goji seeds i planted for my mom have come up nicely,  one is really big and the others look fine.  The schizandra are not doing anything noticeable yet.

*Sigh*  I just can't wait to plant the garden and enjoy a warm summer.

Pictures on a gray day

We had a good deal of rain last night.  I don't have my rain gauge hooked up yet,  so i have to guess just under an inch.  It was enough to melt away much of the snow.

I went out earlier on this gray day and snapped some ugly pictures.

I was annoyed to see that one of my beach plums got snapped in half:



I'm sure it will grow back,   but it really has a bad break.  Maybe i'll need to stake them next fall and hopefully prevent this.

Female Seabuckthorn looks good


As does the male



Gojis


One of the Carmine Jewel cherries


I hope it and the other survived and really put on some growth this year.

Blueberries and lingonberries


Closer look at one of the blueberries


The garden looks so gross at this time of year


Stanley prune plum and hydrangea


Here's what is left of the snow in the yard


The apple tree seems ok



And the grapes


The weather is supposed to be warm today,  but expected to get colder in the next few...   Possible snow on Saturday-  i hope it won't last too long.

I'm going to try and get the rest of the early seeds started either today or tomorrow.