It is the end of another gardening season.  This was a very dry summer, and I found that I had to do a lot of watering because my flowers and shrubs were wilting.  I found that a lot of "crops" struggled this year and didn't do so well:  cucumbers, squash, and watermelon, for instance.  My pumpkins, on the other hand, turned orange in August and started rotting.  In the end, I was able to collect lots of eggplant, kale, peppers, green beans (which came really late this year!) and one lovely watermelon.

 

The rain and cooler temperatures are finally here, and at this point the only thing I am gathering in is my beloved dahlias.  This huge raspberry-colored dahlia finally bloomed this week.  I thought for sure the frost would come first.  This is a new dahlia for me, "Raspberry Punch", so I'm glad I get to see what the blooms look like.

 

I work full-time now - the first 40hr./week job I have held since my student teaching days, and before that, 1990!  I am not teaching, however, and I'm going to miss my summer days spent in the garden.  It's going to be much harder to grow all the things I've been growing throughout the years.  However, where there's a will - there's a way!

 

By September, I'm usually ready to put the garden to rest.  I, like many gardeners I know, give up on the weeds by mid-July and just focus my attention on harvesting and preserving the bounty!  The only thing I preserved this season was herbs - lots of them!  I grew lots of chamomile for tea and dried it out.  My son and I are now enjoying lots of home-grown tea!

 

At this point, I am trying to get out for a few hours a week to clean up and feed some plants.  This weekend is supposed to be a beautiful one - warm and sunny, with temperatures near 70!  I love walking out to the beds and seeing the startled birds take flight.  I love that they love to hang out there.  The rabbits that slept in my perennial garden this summer seem long-gone.  The frost is soon-coming, and they know it!



Apple Trees and Other Fruit Trees - Pruning and Disease

I pruned my apple trees on April 5.  I knew I had to hurry, as the daily temperature is warming up and the trees will soon be in bloom.  The best time to prune apple trees and other fruit trees is while they're still dormant, which is late winter to early spring.  However, I did read somewhere that any pruning is better than no pruning at all. Again, I followed the instructions I received at a WMMGA seminar.

I pruned my plum tree, nectarine tree and pear trees yesterday, on April 9.  My plum tree looked horrendous.  It had (and still has) "wounds" all over and looks pathetic.  I'm wondering if I should rip it out?  I tried to prune off as much of the wounded wood as I could, but the trunk also has gaping wounds. The base of the trunk is also a mess with chewed bark. I feel so bad for this tree!  I wonder if I should call a tree specialist or just consult a good book. Maybe I should send pictures into the email hotline!? Now there's a thought!

 All of the trees showed a lot of new growth, but a lot of that growth had to be cut off in order to let light and air through the tree.  Also, many of the branches were growing either straight up or straight down, or they were growing inward or rubbing against each other.  I cut so much that I was worried I wouldn't have anything left of the trees!  However, this is good for the trees and will result in a lot of fruit (I hope!!)

Pruning got a little tricky where "central leaders" were concerned.  All of the trees have obvious central leaders except for my nectarine tree.  There just isn't one central leader. As a result, it looks like a tuning fork!  I think this is because it wasn't pruned properly in the past.

Fruit on the Trees

I noticed the other day that some of my trees have a lot of fruit, while others don't.  I wonder if this is because each tree's fruit develops at a slightly different time.  For instance, one apple tree is loaded with fruit - but not the other.  The nectarine tree is loaded with fruit, but not the plum, and one pear tree has lots of pears, but the other has almost none. 

Mulching Around Fruit Trees

Jamie and I planted our fruit trees almost two years ago, but we really didn't do much to protect them or care for them.  I noticed that some animal has been gnawing at the base of the trees, so I'm going to have to wrap them in the fall.

Another thing that I should have done was mulched around the base of the trees to protect them from lawn mowers and weed-whackers.  I started this project yesterday, and my goal is to do one tree a day.

I laid down some weed cloth around the base of each tree, over the grass.  I only removed the grass that was right around the tree trunk, because I want to keep that part open and clear for the tree so it won't suffocate.  Then I covered the weed cloth with the mulch.

A Morning at the Testa Farm

 

 

 

 

 

Back in March, my friend Diane approached me at church because she had some eggs to give away.  I discovered that she and her husband raise their own chickens, and I asked her if I could go over and see them some time with James.  Thankfully, she said "yes", and James and I finally went over this morning. I had been waiting for warmer weather, and today was a glorious, summery day.

What a treat!  Dianne and her husband own 10 acres not too far from here, and they have quite a farm.  I loved it!  They have a beautiful perennial garden and herb garden near their house.  Dianne took us for a tour around the property.  First, we saw their little waterfall and brook.  James loved that, and took his sneakers off so he could dangle his feet in the water.

Nest, we saw their orchard.  They have apple, peach, pear, plum and cherry trees.  They have put up a 6-ft. high fence around the orchard to keep out the deer, which doesn't seem to be helping as much as they would like.

Next, we visited the chickens.  This was fun, and James asked if we could get chickens, too, some day.  I would love to, but what an undertaking.  We'd have to build a coop, for starters.

Finally, we took a look at the blueberry, raspberry and blackberry bushes. Some of their bushes are quite mature, others are small and young, like mine.

We were commenting that it's a lot of work, all this growing and gardening.  But we both agreed that we enjoy it immensely, plus we see the value in acquiring the skills and using our land to grow food.

Working with fruit trees

I hadn't set aside enough time to prune the trees this season.  I finally took some time in April to examine the branches, though.  Leaves had already started to appear on the branches, so I decided to wait until next year to prune them.  It needs to be done at the end of March, no later than the first week of April. 

However, we learned in WMMGA that we can widen the crotch angles and improve the structure (or scaffold) of the trees.  The time to do this is in April, and  it takes about 5-6 weeks to accomplish.  So, I purchased some Gorilla Glue, gathered some rocks from the back yard, and made some weights to use on the trees.  Only 2 of the 6 fruit trees seemed to need some help:  the plum tree and one of the pear trees.

 

 



I noticed that there is a lot of damage on the plum tree.  The base of the trunk has been gnawed at by either mice or voles, and the trunk and lower branches have cracked, rubbed bark.  I don't know if it's been caused by deer or the sun, but I will make sure to wrap my baby trees in November to protect them from winter injury and pests.