The big news this week is that one of the people within our circle is undergoing surgery. While not a minor surgery, it isn't open heart or removing tumors either. It will, however, impair their mobility by a bunch.
Mrs ERJ elected to fly unto their aid with lasagna and plans to "sit" with them for a few days.
I will keep the home-fires burning and keep busy.
Very likely Mrs ERJ and I will pray a Rosary tonight with the intention of a great outcome for the surgical procedure.
Dacha orchards
I have been thinking about home orchards and more specifically "dacha orchards".
The orchard at Southern Belle's house is an example. As the home-owner, she got to select where it was planted. They wanted to keep the yard the way it was and that pushed the orchard to a spot that is 200 feet from the house. In my opinion, it would be more valuable if it were closer to the house.
At this point, her orchard has 11 fruit trees and five hazelnut bushes.
Two of the apple trees are Liberty which is a mid-season (mid-September in southern Michigan) apple. The other five varieties ripen later in the season (Galarina, Melrose, Fuji, Gold Rush, Winecrisp). She has two peach trees with peaches likely to ripen two weeks apart. She has one mulberry tree and one pear tree.
A handy maturity chart. Dates will change year-to-year and in different places.. Order is very likely to stay the same.
All trees are planted on approximately 12'-by-20' spacing.
Looking at this as a starting point for a pre-planted orchard:
I would probably replace the peaches with something else because peaches are typically short-lived trees. One of the substitutes might be a European plum variety like President or Bluebyrd (for canning) that is resistant to black-knot. Ideally, it would have a second variety grafted into it for pollination. Pozacaga and Kenmore are both self-pollinating but are both vulnerable to black-knot. I would probably replace the other peach tree with another pear tree...probably a very-early ripening one.
I would definitely keep the mulberry. It provides fruit from mid-June into August. Another advantage of mulberries is that you can harvest them by spreading a tarp and shaking branches and you can make pies using the entire berry, seeds, stem and all. Very labor efficient.
Some mulberry pictures
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| A reminder of how tiny some of the unselected, wild mulberries are locally |
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| A picture of some Silk Hope mulberries courtesy of Lucky Pittman. |
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| If you tip your screen a little bit, you might get a little more color-contrast. This photo shows a mulberry scion and shows how large the pith is. Some of these sticks could pass for soda-straws. Fortunately, the wood cuts easily and does not shatter. |
Yesterday's work-tickets
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| The feed-lot panels are up and I tied the tomato vines to them |
I grafted four mulberries as I continue to empty out the fridge.
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| Before weeding: a row of pole beans |
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| After weeding |
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| We have garter/ribbon snakes by the gross-lot. Milk snakes are much less common. I think milk snakes are exceptionally handsome. |
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| The small holes in these dock leaves are probably snail damage |
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| Raspberries |
I've had the darndest time getting my plums to set fruit. I got 2 compatible varieties, they both flower profusely, and there is even a period of overlap during the flowers. I have 3 beehives on the property, and have hand-pollinated with a Q-tip. 7 years, not a single fruit. If you come across some scion wood, it'd be worth it to graft multiple varieties to one tree.
ReplyDeleteMy peaches are my favorites tree's. They've made the most fruit in the 8 years we've been on the property. Short-lived perhaps, but quick to harvest for a fruit-tree?
Blueberries are a close second. The deer don't seem to bother them at all.
Good point about the timing of the slug hunt, ERJ. On my morning walks, the snails are always about in the early morning as the sprinklers have just completed their job.
ReplyDelete