garden update
Jun. 25th, 2005 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quietannThe garden is in need of serious weeding, but not until the weather is a little cooler! We have a huge number of "volunteer" white daisies, and I am not counting them as weeds, because they are very pretty. Various perennials didn't survive the winter, for unknown reasons. Others survived and then some, like the bleeding heart bushes, which are HUGE. I guess they liked the cool spring; they will probably die back now that it is hot.
I have 7 tomato plants this year. Six are "Sweetest 100" cherry tomatoes, purchased as a 6-pak of tiny plants for $1.98 in early May. They are all now HUGE and flowering profusely. I also got an "Isis Candy" heirloom cherry tomato plant, but so far it has dropped all its flowers without forming fruit. (BTW, if anyone has room for "yet more tomatoes", Mahoney's Garden Centers currently have all of theirs on sale. The Tewksbury Mahoney's has about 25 varieties, including many heirlooms, and a lot of them have fruit on them. They have mostly outgrown their pots, but should be transplantable -- but not on a 90 degree day! I'd get some, but I don't really have anywhere to put them.)
y raspberries are growing like crazy, and I should start getting fruit around July 4... and if all goes well, I should be picking raspberries more or less continuously until October. (I planted varieties that ripen at different times; last year the fall-bearers did the best.) I have red, black, yellow, and purple varieties. Also, much to my delight, the small, seedy, but very yummy wild black raspberries that nearly disappeared a few years ago are back in full force. Raspberries are my favorite fruit...
I have gotten a fairly good number of strawberries this year, but they are difficult compared to the raspberries. The deer and groundhogs eat the plants, and slugs get the fruits, and some of the fruits just rot on the ground. The strawberries I have been able to pick have mostly been quite yummy, though, especially the "Darselect," which are an early season June-bearer and the most vigorous of the varities I have. Strangely enough, the deer and groundhogs leave the wild strawberry plants alone; the fruits are tiny and of varying quality, but the plants are quite attractive and would be a nice edging for a flower bed.
Blueberries... I will have some this year, if the birds don't get them first! The number of berries range from none to lots, depending on the bush. They are also fairly fussy (they need a lot of soil amendments to make the soil acid enough, and they need frequent watering) but so far, so good with them. Some may be ripe in the next few weeks.
And last but not least, my little cherry tree is fully leafed out and growing!
I have 7 tomato plants this year. Six are "Sweetest 100" cherry tomatoes, purchased as a 6-pak of tiny plants for $1.98 in early May. They are all now HUGE and flowering profusely. I also got an "Isis Candy" heirloom cherry tomato plant, but so far it has dropped all its flowers without forming fruit. (BTW, if anyone has room for "yet more tomatoes", Mahoney's Garden Centers currently have all of theirs on sale. The Tewksbury Mahoney's has about 25 varieties, including many heirlooms, and a lot of them have fruit on them. They have mostly outgrown their pots, but should be transplantable -- but not on a 90 degree day! I'd get some, but I don't really have anywhere to put them.)
y raspberries are growing like crazy, and I should start getting fruit around July 4... and if all goes well, I should be picking raspberries more or less continuously until October. (I planted varieties that ripen at different times; last year the fall-bearers did the best.) I have red, black, yellow, and purple varieties. Also, much to my delight, the small, seedy, but very yummy wild black raspberries that nearly disappeared a few years ago are back in full force. Raspberries are my favorite fruit...
I have gotten a fairly good number of strawberries this year, but they are difficult compared to the raspberries. The deer and groundhogs eat the plants, and slugs get the fruits, and some of the fruits just rot on the ground. The strawberries I have been able to pick have mostly been quite yummy, though, especially the "Darselect," which are an early season June-bearer and the most vigorous of the varities I have. Strangely enough, the deer and groundhogs leave the wild strawberry plants alone; the fruits are tiny and of varying quality, but the plants are quite attractive and would be a nice edging for a flower bed.
Blueberries... I will have some this year, if the birds don't get them first! The number of berries range from none to lots, depending on the bush. They are also fairly fussy (they need a lot of soil amendments to make the soil acid enough, and they need frequent watering) but so far, so good with them. Some may be ripe in the next few weeks.
And last but not least, my little cherry tree is fully leafed out and growing!
- Tomatoes: Mahoney's has served me well here. I am no good at starting them from seed...
- Raspberries and strawberries: http://www.noursefarms.com/index.html . Nourse Farms is wonderful! The plants are healthy, the prices are reasonable, and they have a lot of varieties.
- Blueberries (and the cherry tree): http://www.sln.potsdam.ny.us/ St. Lawrence Nurseries has an "elboid connection" in that JBVB is a friend of the owner, and Russ Nelson designed their (very simple) website. They specialize in cold-climate fruits and trees, and heirloom apples, and have a lot of unusual stuff. Read their policies and ordering info carefully!
- Info on mail-order nurseries: http://davesgarden.com/gwd/ Garden Watchdog carries reviews of most mail-order nurseries. If nothing else, the reviews of the *bad* places are really entertaining as an example of shysters in action!
