Good Things Happen In Threes
Yesterday I cut the grass in my little experimental orchard out at the farm. I am happy to report that my apricot from McFayden nursery in Manitoba finished blooming. A plum tree and two of the three apple varieties also from them are in full flower. There is also a little apple tree out there that I grew from seed, and it is also blooming. As I was cutting the grass I observed forest tent caterpillars on one of the apple trees I had started from seed. Remembering the wise words of my forest entomology professor, Dr. Evans, I found a whiskbroom and proceeded to brush them off and crush them. I know it sounds messy, but they are softer than the broom, and the broom is not going to harm the tree, so there is no need for toxic, life-threatening chemicals.
This morning I trimmed the spruce, and pine in the conifer hedge along the north side of the yard in town. The tamaracks hadn’t grown enough to warrant pruning.
Most of the rest of the day was spent weeding the big garden at the farm. New things were popping out of the soil: plums, apricots, beaked hazelnuts, horse chestnuts, and the usual amure maples, Manitoba maples, nanking cherries, green ash, etc. Most of the larger seeded species had sprouted in sets of three. I was especially proud of the horse chestnuts, as these seeds were from trees that I had grown from seed that my brother brought me from British Columbia. I had the second largest size of spencer-lemar containers filled with sandy soil and dug in flush with the external soil level. In this I had planted the horse chestnut seeds in the fall. The tree that the seeds came from is absolutely loaded with flower spikes. Weather permitting, I anticipate a bumper crop of horse chestnuts this fall.
The blue camas is half way through flowering. By next weekend I anticipate very few stragglers will still have blossoms. The mariposa lilies already have flower buds, and may start blooming in about a week. The fritillary lilies are forming seedpods. They bloomed during a spate of exceptionally cold weather, and I am observing a variation in more than just a few seedpods: usually the pods are three-chambered, whereas stress has occasionally produced four-chambered pods in my plants. True to my nature I have been separating out all the four-chambered pods and planting them in my little experimental plot to see what strange mutants will emerge – I will keep you posted!
My European hazelnuts seem to finally be acclimatized and are rapidly catching up to the beaked hazelnuts that are a year older. I am excited to get these babies down into the experimental orchard. Good gardening! MM.
Yesterday I cut the grass in my little experimental orchard out at the farm. I am happy to report that my apricot from McFayden nursery in Manitoba finished blooming. A plum tree and two of the three apple varieties also from them are in full flower. There is also a little apple tree out there that I grew from seed, and it is also blooming. As I was cutting the grass I observed forest tent caterpillars on one of the apple trees I had started from seed. Remembering the wise words of my forest entomology professor, Dr. Evans, I found a whiskbroom and proceeded to brush them off and crush them. I know it sounds messy, but they are softer than the broom, and the broom is not going to harm the tree, so there is no need for toxic, life-threatening chemicals.
This morning I trimmed the spruce, and pine in the conifer hedge along the north side of the yard in town. The tamaracks hadn’t grown enough to warrant pruning.
Most of the rest of the day was spent weeding the big garden at the farm. New things were popping out of the soil: plums, apricots, beaked hazelnuts, horse chestnuts, and the usual amure maples, Manitoba maples, nanking cherries, green ash, etc. Most of the larger seeded species had sprouted in sets of three. I was especially proud of the horse chestnuts, as these seeds were from trees that I had grown from seed that my brother brought me from British Columbia. I had the second largest size of spencer-lemar containers filled with sandy soil and dug in flush with the external soil level. In this I had planted the horse chestnut seeds in the fall. The tree that the seeds came from is absolutely loaded with flower spikes. Weather permitting, I anticipate a bumper crop of horse chestnuts this fall.
The blue camas is half way through flowering. By next weekend I anticipate very few stragglers will still have blossoms. The mariposa lilies already have flower buds, and may start blooming in about a week. The fritillary lilies are forming seedpods. They bloomed during a spate of exceptionally cold weather, and I am observing a variation in more than just a few seedpods: usually the pods are three-chambered, whereas stress has occasionally produced four-chambered pods in my plants. True to my nature I have been separating out all the four-chambered pods and planting them in my little experimental plot to see what strange mutants will emerge – I will keep you posted!
My European hazelnuts seem to finally be acclimatized and are rapidly catching up to the beaked hazelnuts that are a year older. I am excited to get these babies down into the experimental orchard. Good gardening! MM.
2 comments:
I was wondering what your experience has been with your hazelnuts. You mention European Hazelnuts. I have had hazelnuts for two years and got a couple of nuts this last Fall. I am hopeful or the future. I had order a couple of Northern Hazelnuts (an oriental and native beaked variety) and a couple of Skinner (developed in Manitoba). I have ordered other varieties for next spring.
http://web.mac.com/marlo.steed/Hazelnut_Blog/
Feel free to contact me at marlo.steed@uleth.ca
Oh by the way I live in Lethbridge Alberta.
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