Stop Eating My Apples!

UGH! Are those flying ants!?? They were all over my garden and on my lawn!

Hundreds of them! Carpenter ants? Oh no! I stepped on as many as I could, but I'm sure I hardly made a dent. Most disturbing, one large batch was within five feet of my back door!


On the other hand, the tomatoes look like they might actually be starting to ripen!

Of course, the ones with the most color have also been eaten by critters already, or have some metabolic damage.


I didn't get too many flowers planted in the veg. garden this year (for beneficial insects), but those I did plant are only just now starting to bloom.


Okay - something is eating my apples. Here's a small pile collected under the Jonagold. There were more the day before - something ran off with them overnight.

But there! Do you see it? It's not just insects - something is taking BITES out of the apples while still in the tree!

Okay, Ellen...calm down. Who could the culprits be? Deer? Bears? Squirrels? Crows?

The bears are certainly out eating the apples, but not in my yard (no damage to the fence since spring).

Deer might be, but they don't have the right kind of teeth to do this kind of damage.

Squirrels? Maybe - I'm sure they are around and they must know when the dog is trapped inside.

Crows? HM. I've seen them fly off with dropped apples from the yard.


Well, all I can do is hope that some of the apples are left alone and ripen enough for me to eat them.

I was all excited last week to see I actually had a northern spy on the spy tree - I didn't think I had any this year. When I took these photos, though, a day or two later, it was gone. GONE!

LEAVE MY APPLES ALONE!!!

Harvest Updates

Two evenings ago I was dumping food scraps into the compost pile when I noticed a fair number of pea pods on the pea vines. I thought I'd pick a few for the dog's dinner, and ended up with a shirt full of peas! When I got them all shelled, I had well over a quart of 'em. Who'd have thought we'd have a pea harvest in mid-August!

Meanwhile, the beans continue to produce, and the zucchini are rolling in. This weekend I should tackle the potatoes - completely naked now thanks to the CPB. There's no point leaving them in the ground now to keep growing. Without any leaves, I can't imagine there's much food source for the tubers.

I'll need to pull garlic, too. The plants are all looking quite brown and deceased - much like the potatoes, actually.

The apples are ripening nicely on the Jonagold and Haralson. Several have dropped to the ground and have been nibbled on by who knows what. I've seen crows fleeing the yard with green apples in their beaks, but I suspect most of the damage is from rodents of one stripe or another. Still, I expect to have several apples this year, if all goes well.

I heard a NYS apple report on the radio this morning. The statewide harvest is down quite a bit (we did get those frosts after the trees blossomed), but they said the apples that did grow should be of exceptional quality. We shall see. I'll have to make my pilgrimage to the orchards early this year! It seems that like many things this season, the apples are ripening about two weeks earlier than normal. Hm...a trend across the entire plant spectrum this year it seems.

Crop Updates - an Evening in the Garden

My heart has simply not been in the garden this year. The weeds and pests have taken over, and I can't seem to get myself to care. It's the whole job thing - will I find a new one (and be moving), or will I be on unemployment come winter? With the former, I won't be able to reap the benefits of my veg garden, with the latter, a garden's worth of produce will surely be welcome if there is no income! I waver between the two. Some days I'm out there weeding and mowing, but most days I just don't seem to care. It's been a strange year.

I finally gave up on the peas. The freezer is full and the plants were slowing down. The pods that remain I'll let dry and then harvest for seed.

Still, other things should be ripening, so it was time to tour the beds and see what was what.

The garlic will be ready for harvesting pretty soon. The tops are turning brown, which is usually the indicator. I pulled up this one to check size - not too bad. I'll give the rest another week or two.


Ah - the Haralsons are starting to redden! I'm very excited about the apples this year. Only Haralsons and Jonagolds, but there are several fruits on these two trees.

As you can see, these runner beans are still refusing to grow up.

The pole beans are just not robust this year, either. Only now are they FINALLY starting to fill in, but even so, they are Spartan. Reasons? I have a few possibilities: these are the same beds in which I planted beans last year; I didn't use any innoculant this year; we had a cold snap early in the season; we had a lot of rain in June, and very little rain in July; and the soil is generally pretty poor. Take your pick.

But, the beans are blooming and that's a happy thing. The hummingbirds are content - between the beans and the bee balm, there is finally food for them in my yard.

The first two blossoms here are runner beans (scarlet and painted lady); the others include Cherokee Trail of Tears, Rattlesnake, and Blue Coco, among others.

Beans are starting to form. I imagine in a week or so I will start picking and freezing.

Look! A tomato!

The zucchinis are doing well - lots of blossoms and some fruits already, which something seems to be enjoying.

I picked these last night and after some judicious trimming, they became stuffed zucchinis. Rice, sausage and tomato sauce.

After a slow start, the cukes are now loaded with blossoms!

I admit, I have been a poor gardener this year. Not knowing if I was staying or leaving, my heart just hasn't been in my garden. So, I did not patrol for pests, and here is why one wants to keep on top of CPB infestations:

The leaves were completely gone from the spuds and the plants were brown and dead. Still, I was hopeful that there might be some potatoes underground, even if small, so I dug in with my hands.

Voila! Not a whole lot, but better than none at all. These are, I believe, purple majesty potatoes.

Scrubbed up, they are a beautiful purple-black color. It almost looks like a pan full of very large black olives!

The inside, as you can see, is a beautiful deep purple.

And look! Purple smashed potatoes! I know, some folks will turn their noses up at this, but I think they are lovely. And they taste just wonderful.

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The Growing Season is Starting Up

It's very exciting around the garden these days, for Things are happening.

Just as the apples and crabapples were budding, we were hit with another snow storm (well, sort of a storm - mostly just cold weather and snow in the air, although we netted about 0.1" of snow on the ground). Just about every growing thing now has blackened leaves. But, nature perseveres, and now the trees are blooming.

Here is as bough from my white-flowered crabapple. Last year was the first time it had blossoms - about a half dozen. This year it is loaded.

The other crabapples are full of buds, too. The wildlife crab was hit hard, so it is not the solid plume of flowers it was last year. In fact, the Royalty crab isn't either. It was loaded with buds, but now they don't seem to be opening, or at least not with any sort of vigor.

The regular apples, however, are doing well. Here are the flowers on the Haralson:

The Jonagold is also loaded, and this year, for the first time, I have a few flowers (very few) on the Milden. The Milden isn't looking too well, though. The middle trunks are defunct. I cut off one earlier this spring - it was well and goodly dead. The other is nearly dead - no leaves, no flowers. The Northern Spy is a late bloomer, in many ways. It's leaves are only just starting to emerge, and I think it will have a few flowers, but they will be later in the season.

I also noticed this year I have a wild apple that has volunteered in my yard! It's about as bit as some of the whips I planted last year, but IT is loaded with blossoms. The wild varieties are so much hardier and grow up so much more quickly than their domesticated cousins.
Meanwhile, this last Sunday was a PERFECT day. It was in the low-70s, with a cloudless blue sky and a nice breeze. I spent part of the morning chasing red admirals around the yard trying to get their photos. There were many of them, all feasting on the dandelion buffet that is my lawn, but none would sit still long enough to shoot! I finally tracked this one down in the veg garden.

And then I spent the rest of the day re-digging the remaining veg beds. The weeds had taken over the final six beds and they were a chore to clean out. It was like starting from scratch and digging up the lawn! By Monday afternoon all six were finished and are now almost ready for planting.

I am still going to hold off another week or so before I really get stuff planted - more cold weather is possible. Still, I may get the spuds in this week.

Meanwhile, the garlic is doing great:

I took the row covers off the peas yesterday and they are looking great, too! Put in the poles and posts that will hold their trellises (when I get around to making them).

Wish I could be as optimistic about the onions. They are just not looking too great. Gave them a good drink yesterday, but only time will tell if they survive and produce.

I'm "on vacation" again this week, so I hope to get a fair bit of stuff done in the garden, in between going on flower hikes with my pal Jackie. I've got a couple days off next week, too, during which I really hope to get stuff into the garden.

Farewell, Black Oxford

After much agonizing and research, I've finally come to the conclusion that the Black Oxford apple tree has fire blight. I've suspected it from the first year I had it, but I couldn't get any "experts" to come out and confirm it.


So, last night, after work, I did the kind thing and cut it down.



How sad the small pile it made...


...fitting into a grocery bag with room to spare.


I've stuck the bag in the garage with the thought that once the wood dries I can burn it in the woodstove.

Next I'll have to do something with the stump, because it will probably continue to sprout. I can either dig it out (ugh), or paint it with RoundUp, like I did the honeysuckles two years ago. Decisions, decisions.

Dad's Apples

Two nights of frost, one a real killer, prompted me to pick the apples.




All told, I got four "perfect" Jonagolds!



There were more Jonagolds on the tree, but they are beyond my reach and also looked like something else snacked on them.



The Haralson has a few fruits, but they look pretty poor, so I left them on the tree as well.



Oh, and in case you are wondering, I call them Dad's Apples because when I first moved here and selected apple trees at the nursery, my dad chose the Jonagold - they are his favorite apple. This is the first year I've had any that look edible.

Can Spring Be Far Off?

Seeds are coming in! I placed most of my orders 2-3 weeks ago, and the seeds have been rolling in. It's very exciting! Soon I will have to dust off my growing lights, get some seed starting soil, bring in the seed trays, and start planting the ones that need a few weeks' head start.

This year I'm going to try something new: grains. I've placed an order for some wheat and oats, with the great idea of producing my own flour. Far fetched? Perhaps, but I'm dreamin' big here. According to the folks at Ecology Action (formerly Biointensive Gardening, or some such name), 300 sq. ft. of grain is enough to produce one loaf of bread a week for a year. Hm. We'll see. I'm not planning to plant that much, but I will give it a try. Of course, I will have to purchase a grain mill, too...maybe if this works out it will pay for itself in a few years, eh?

I've had my paper and pencil out and have been trying to draw up the schematics of what will go where this year. I really should be better organized - this would greatly enhance my crop rotation. Still, haphazard works, although not quite as well.

I've also ordered five more apple trees, as well as a variety of native shrubs (nannyberry, grey-stemmed dogwood, staghorn sumac, serviceberry, hawthorne) to replace the honeysuckles that were cut down last fall. This should make all the birds very happy.

Spring can't come too soon this year!

The Last Planting

Two nights ago I got the last of the garlic planted. Even though I know that garlic is a late season plant, it still seems odd to be planting at this time of year, when most things are dead or dying, and when snow has already covered the High Peaks!

If all the garlic comes up next year, I will be well-endowed with the stuff. I'll be giving it away at Christmas! Maybe I'll try to sell it at the Holiday Fair! This is, of course, putting the proverbial cart well before the proverbial horse! Let's see if the stuff grows first, eh?

Yesterday afternoon I pulled up the corn stalks. I had thought of leaving them up to provide some sort of shelter for small birds in the winter, but in the end I just decided to yank them out. Now they are lying on the ground between garden plots, in theory blocking weed growth (ha).

2009 will be another year of weeding. I didn't really keep up with it this year and the buggers took over several beds and most of the "paths" in between. This is what happens when one runs out of mulch.

I've finally given up on the butternut squashes. I had three coming along, but even covered with row covers to protect them from the frost, they just weren't growing. So, I've cut my losses.

Three beautiful Northern Spy apples grace the tree this fall. I am so tempted to pluck them now, but I know that Spies are one of the latests apples to harvest, so I wait.

It is a glorious autumn day here in the North Country and I should be getting home and spending some time in the yard with the animals.

Happy gardening to all!

Late June in the Garden

I borrowed a camera, so I've finally got some shots to put in this blog!

Here is the view of the veggie garden as seen from its northeast corner:

The tall things on the left side in the back (not the trees) are the poles strung with string to be trellises for the peas and pole beans. The white thing is the row cover over the broccoli plants.

And here's the view from the north side, closer to the western edge:

The two beds this side of the covered broccoli are the potatoes and beans (good garden companions), followed by two beds of tomatoes. The three beds that are perpendicular to all the others (on the far right) have more tomatoes (farthest away) and then squash (too small to see in this image). The beds behind these, in the back of the photo, have the onions and corn, which will not be knee high by the 4th of July; I'll be lucky if it hits 6" by then.

And these are the first apples I've had on the Haralson apple tree. MAYBE they will make it through the season and be edible come fall!!!

Working our way around the yard, here are the "Weedless Gardening" beds I put in this spring. The one on the left is planted with a variety of sunflowers, while the one on the right has some Paul Robeson tomatoes, Red Reselection Celery (I'm not convinced it's actually growing), and then the rest of the bed is filled with buckwheat, oats and other plants for green manure and beneficial insects.

Rose Chafers - I am over-run with them! Here they are making short work of one of my grapes. This plant actually had buds for at least two, maybe three, bunches of grapes. I guess I can kiss them goodbye. And I had such high hopes - last year I only got one grape. Not one bunch of grapes, ONE GRAPE. I spent two evenings this last week out there with a jar of soapy water and a stick, knocking these insects into the jar to drown, but there are just too many for this hunt and pick method to work. If anyone has an "organic" solution to these pests, please let me know. The bluebirds apparently don't realize that these are available for eating! Maybe they taste bad?

Peas - lovely peas. These are, I believe, the Laxton's Progress #9 peas, although I have another variety that has started to bloom now, too.

And lastly, chives - wonderful companion plants that attract all sorts of great pollinators.

The Weekend Chores

It may still be too cool to get the rest of the garden planted, but that doesn't mean other chores aren't possible. So, this weekend I put up trellises for the growing peas and for the yet-to-be-planted pole beans.

Reading through my notes, I discovered that potatoes should be planted almost as soon as the ground can be worked, like peas. I guess I was confusing potato requirements with corn requirements. Anywho, I remedied my failings by getting the potatoes in the ground on Friday. Four varieties this year: German butterball (my favorites), Austrian crescents (interesting), Carola (also good), and, new this year, red gold. Not only did I plant the 'taters I ordered, but also the ones that had sprouted from last year's harvest (and I never got around to eating this winter). All told, I have three beds of potatoes.

That leaves me only three small beds for the rest of the produce. Not enough. True, there are also the two new beds I created last weekend just piling manure on top of newspaper, but I am leery of using them (what if the manure is too strong, even though it's been rotting almost a year, or what if it provides way too much nitrogen and not enough other nutrients). So, I dug into the compost heap from last year and tossed some of that (still not completely composted, but maybe 70% there) on top.

I peaked under the plastic I put down in April to kill off more lawn, thinking I wouldn't be able to utilize that area until late summer, and it actually looks nice and brown underneath - I may attempt to till up beds there this next weekend (if it doesn't rain). I should be able to get another 4-5 beds out of that plot!!!

Lastly, I started to install my drip irrigation system. Ran out of the clips/staples that are used to tack the dripper lines to the ground, so I had to stop. Installing driplines is really not difficult (aside from trying to get the coiled tubing to lie flat). I had opted for 12" spaced drip line, even though the catalogue recommended 6" for veg gardens, and now I'm thinking they probably knew what they were talking about (but the 12" lines were significantly cheaper). My timer only has four settings per day (rather than the desired six), so I've upped the watering duration from 9 minutes to 15 minutes each time. It works great...except in the spaces where there is no water dripping. I suppose I should dig down to see just how far the wet zone spreads from each dripper, but I hate to disturb the stuff I've planted. I think my next option will be to run two lines down each bed, rather than one snaking its way over the surface. This is how we learn - from our trials and mistakes.

Meanwhile, the crabapple blossoms are starting to open! And two apple trees (Haralson and Northern Spy) have flowers - at the very tippy top where the deer couldn't reach this winter. The Jonagold, which gave me my first apples last year, has no flowers this year - I suspect too much trauma from browsing pressure. The remaining trees (Milden, Black Oxford, and Keepsake) are all too young to have fruits yet (and were also heavily browsed; must find a solution for this).

My azaleas (Northern Lights varieties) are also starting to bloom, just as the rhododendrons (also Northern Lights) are shriveling up and calling it quits for the season.

And, as a final note, the bluebirds are being quite vocal these last few days. I checked my nest boxes on the golf course last night, and found only one with a potential bluebird nest in it. One box is full of twigs - signs of wren occupation. Another had twigs, but they are now covered with a layer of moss - chickadees? I have one enterprising chickadee who was sitting on her nest yesterday when I peaked in; when she flew I counted a whopping eight eggs!!! She's an over-achiever. One other box was stuffed with grasses - I suspect a red squirrel. The rest of the boxes were all empty. As for my boxes at home, well, I've seen bluebirds around, but apparently none have chosen to take up residence (yet). Even though eggs have been laid and chicks are hatching out in the banana belts of the Park (Lake Champlain area and the St. Lawrence Valley), our bluebirds haven't laid their first eggs yet - some haven't even chosen nest sites yet. Yes, we are a good several weeks behind the rest of the state.