Saturday Farmer's Market - One Step Backward . . .

Created by Heather at Capricious Reader, and now hosted by Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made on.

Guess what I've been learning. Fruit Trees aren't as easy to nurture as shade trees. Who knew?

* The Nectarine trees: 

I discovered what I thought was blight on one of the Nectarine trees and was preparing to dormant spray this fall/winter, but within a week the tree was completely defoliated and the new buds were dead.

The other Nectarine tree, which had set fruit for the first time this year, has small signs of disease and the fruit is deformed with callous like spots.


The Master Gardener informed me that I had, not blight, but peach curl, which is almost impossible to eradicate and keep at bay without masses of poison. One of the local orchardists was in the office at the time and he said that he finally gave up and pulled out all his peach trees. (I didn't have the heart to ask if he replaced them with GMOs.)

We have made the decision, after harvest, to get rid of the nectarines, and replace them with something that will require fewer toxins and pain to maintain.

* One of the Pluot trees:

I noticed from the kitchen window after dinner one night that the Pluot tree with fruit was leaning quite a bit. I told my husband that we needed to brace it the next day and guess what? In the morning it was bent in half and the trunk was split. Emergency phone call to the experts, fence posts, rope, duct tape - and the tree supposedly has a good chance of healing and recovering fully.

* The Kumquat tree:

The frost hit this one hard. It devastated the entire crop last year, and damaged a lot of the foliage. It has a a few buds right now, but not many.

* The large Plum tree:

We had to tie up and support this tree last week. We fastened it to the fence, and supported the heavy branches to keep them off the ground. With all the braces it sure looks strange.

But the fruit is almost ready!

Soon . . .

Not all is bad news, though. 

* The small Damson Plum tree gave us two sweet and lovely plums! They were totally unexpected and I didn't even see them until they were ripe. I bought this tree half dead at the end of the season two years ago. It grew lopsided with few limbs (almost three feet between the first row of branches and the second), and this year the top was broken off so it filled out in that screwy way trees do when they've been pruned wrong. But goofy as it looks, it is healthy and I refuse to give up on it.

* And the Pomegranates!

They're doing fine.

 








My Banana plants finally arrived, so I need to complete the enclosure and get them planted. (We can't have them getting out and terrorizing the dogs now, can we?)








I finally reworked the pallet I plan to use for a vertical garden. I still need to attach the weed cloth, and fill it with soil and Basil.

There will be three rows of plants with plenty of room for them to grow, but not until next season.

Another sweet volunteer.
I have no idea what it is.
(a weed, I'm sure)

Humming-Bird
- D.H. Lawrence

I can imagine, in some otherworld
Primeval-dumb, far back
In that most awful stillness, that only gasped and hummed,
Humming-birds raced down the avenues.

Before anything had a soul,
While life was a heave of matter, half inanimate,
This little bit chipped off in brilliance
And went whizzing through the slow, vast, succulent stems.

I believe there were no flowers then,
In the world where the humming-bird flashed ahead of creation.
I believe he pierced the slow vegetable veins with his long beak.

Probably he was big
As mosses, and little lizards, they say, were once big.
Probably he was a jabbing, terrifying monster.

We look at him through the wrong end of the telescope of Time,
Luckily for us.

Within My Garden, rides a Bird
- Emily Dickinson

Within my Garden, rides a Bird
Upon a single Wheel --
Whose spokes a dizzy Music make
As 'twere a travelling Mill --

He never stops, but slackens
Above the Ripest Rose --
Partakes without alighting
And praises as he goes,

Till every spice is tasted --
And then his Fairy Gig
Reels in remoter atmospheres --
And I rejoin my Dog,

And He and I, perplex us,
If positive, 'twere we --
Or bore the Garden in the Brain
This Curiosity --

But He, the best Logician,
Refers my clumsy eye --
To just vibrating Blossoms!
An Exquisite Reply!

And finally, the exuberant mailbox bed, viewed from the sidewalk