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I love to garden. For me, one of the best things about owning a home is that you can grow food. When I bought our house, there was a raggedy apple tree in the backyard. I almost took it out, but my wife, my friends and my family convinced me to keep it. Now that it's in much better shape my wife picks apples and bakes fresh pies and apple crisp. I'm so glad I listened to them.
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March 2007:
Another year has past, and it's time to get working on the garden again. The apple tree has just finished blooming and there are a couple walnut sized apples starting to appear. Chris and I planted corn seed, strawberry plants, garlic and red potatoes this weekend. We are going to plant squash and green beans next weekend. The fig is starting to get a lot of leaves on it and half a dozen or so figs. I was getting worried about it. After the first of the year, all the leaves fell off. It just looked like a dead stick for a while there. I was relieved to see the tips of the branches turn green and open up. A couple of weeks ago we planted onions. It looks like just about all the onion sets grew, so now we have about 100 onions. A couple are just about big enough to eat as green onions.
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July 2006:
Summer is in full swing, and so is the garden. We have begun to see a larger variety for fruits and vegetables over the last month. The temperatures have been in the 90's, so we are watering often to keep the plants from wilting.
We picked and ate the first ear of corn of the season this past week. No joke. That ear of corn was the best tasting ear of corn I've ever eaten. We had some sweet corn from the store, so my wife and I cut the ears in half and shared them. The corn from the store was good, but the home grown ear was way more tender and flavorful. I can't wait for more corn to ripen.
The two cucumbers we planted in the same mound are trying to take over the whole bed. I have to cut them back some every week. We have taken about five cucumbers off the plants and are enjoying them very much.
Red potatoes have started poking out of the ground. They are a little smaller than the red potatoes that you see in the store. I love potatoes, so I'm very anxious to dig them up and try some.
The cherry tomato plant has many small green tomatoes on it. We have it in a container, and are having to water it twice a day. My wife said a couple of them are starting to turn red. I'm glad to see it producing, but I'm not really fond of tomatoes. That's more for her.
The neighbor's grape vine, that hangs over our back wall has several huge clusters on it. These are green grapes. We didn't get any last year, but two and three summers ago we got very sweet grapes off the vine. The grapes on it now are about half size. We check the vine frequently to monitor the process.
Some of the other crops are starting to slow down. The first harvest of apples is just about done and the tree if flowering again. The asparagus is just about done, so we are letting the last few sprigs fern. The strawberries look healthy, and still offer a few berries every once in a while. The berries on blackberry are struggling in the heat. The plant seems to be doing fine with new growth and even some flower. Both dogs have been eating berries off the bush.
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June 2006:
Our efforts are starting to bare fruit. We've been getting some asparagus for a while now. Only one of my older plants appears to have survived. The one plant is producing a stalk or two a week. The new plants are also producing, but the stalks are too slender to eat. I guess next year I will plant some more 2nd year asparagus plants to replace the original plants that are not producing this year.
The tassles are poking out of the top of one of the corn plants, and the top ear of corn is showing its silk. Only five plants from the first planting survived. The second planting is about a month behind the first five. I sprayed the silk with some bug killer to prevent corn boarers. I did not realize you had to do something about the corn boarers and lost the whole crop. Well we got an ear or two, but I had about 25 plants.
The berries on the blackberry started ripening last week. Chris picked about 20 berries off the plant this past weekend and we put them over french vanilla ice cream for dessert. I love eating blackberries off the bush when I'm out in the garden.
We got our first fig from the tree that we planted earlier this year. The fig is a funny plant. It goes through growth spurts. It will do something, like produce some tiny figs, then appear to do nothing until the next spurt. All the sudden about two weeks ago, one of the two original figs started to darken. Over the course of a week, it went from green to dark purple, to almost black. It also softened. I wasn't sure how to tell if it was ripe or not, so I picked it after about another weeks. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite ripe. It was edible and juicy, but not very flavorful. I'm sure I should have left it on the plant a little longer. I notice the other day that there are two more little figs on the plan. The second fig from the spring is starting to get hints of purple on it. I got some 10-10-10 fertilizer pellets today, and worked a little into the soil. Hopefully that will help.
We have a couple of mystery plants this year. Four plants popped up in the general area where we had zuchinni, yellow squash and cucumbers. The three plants kind of look the same, so we're not quite sure what we have. We transplanted two of them and gave the other two to my friend Price.
We also have strawberries, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and onions. It is kind of fun and relaxing to go out to the garden in the early evening and inspect the progress. At this time of the year, there is a surprise waiting for you almost every day.
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May 2006:
We are not planting as many fruits and vegetables was we did in previous years. We ordered some seeds and plants from Gurneys. We ordered Sweet corn, asparagus plants, another blueberry plant (because my first one died), beans, potatos, and some flowers.
Now that the seeds and plants have arrived, I have been slowly preparing the beds a section at a time. I took out some of the grass from behind the garage and planted about half of the corn (one row). I had a full row of plants about four to six inches tall, when Chris and I left for a week in Oregon. When we returned there were only had about five plants. Apparently something ate the pants right down to the ground. I replanted what was lost and the 2nd row around the 7th of May. I'm keeping a close eye on the corn now.
The blackberry is flowering and even has some fruit beginning to form on it. I weeded around it, and I am keeping it well watered. There are also strawberry plants from last year. I weeded them as well. Something was eating the berries the day before they were ripe. It wasn't snail, because I already put down bait and killed them. I think it's sow bugs. I picked up some spray for fruits and vegetables. Hopefully, that will take care fo the pests. I'm looking foward to fresh berries.
The fig leafed out in April. For weeks it looked like it wasn't going to do anything, then all of a sudden it started sprouting leaves everywhere. The two figs still look the same. I'm hoping that they develop properly, and that we get a second harvest in the late summer or early fall.
We got a couple of asparagus sprouts right before we left for Oregon in late April. When we returned the three sprouts were about 15 inches tall. I snapped all three of and now we are getting a fourth and possibly a fifth. I planted another six plants this year. The are 2nd year plants, so hopefully we will get a decent amount of sprouts next year.
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March 2006:
I was getting worried about my new fig tree. In the month that we've had it, the plant didn't seem to be growing. Two of the leaves fell off and one got damaged by the dogs. Every time we watered it, the leaves would turn a little yellow. We were careful to let it dry out between waterings and not water it until the leaves were completely green. Still I was getting a little worried about it.
When we returned from our four day weekend trip in Phoenix, I took a look at the plant again. I was pleased to see several new leaves forming. This morning when I went out to take another look at it, I noticed two tiny little figs at the top of the plant. I'm very pleased to see that the plant is acclimating and starting to show signs of growth.
Two weekends ago, I cleared out the weeds from the asparagus patch. This is the third full year that the plants have been in the ground. We are supposed to be able to harvest this year. Not all of the plants survived, so we won't get a huge amount.
The apple tree is flowering, but I really cut it back. Apples grow in clumps of five usually. To get the best apples, you are supposed to remove all but the largest apple in the clump when they get about the size of walnuts. I plan on doing that this year.
The blackberry has retreated for the winter. Every now and then, it produces a cluster of flowers and eventually a few berries. They ripen one at a time, but still it's a fun treat.
It's time to pick out our seeds from the catalog and order them. I think this year we are not going to plant as much as we have in the past. Definitely corn. I think I'm going to get another bunch of asparagus and probably another blueberry bush. I think my blueberry bush died over the winter.
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February 2006:
I decided I wanted a fig tree this year. Don't ask me why, I just decided I wanted to grow figs. I picked up a Black Mission fig at Lowes this year and planted it in the back yard. It keeps turning yellow on me, which usually means too much water. I think I've finally realized that watering it once a while is more than enough right now.
I pruned the apple tree way back. Last year we got a ton of rain around Christmas and then it turned really warm after the first of the year. As a result, my apple tree blossomed in late January (early). I usually prune in late January, so that I ended up not pruning at all last year. This year I was determined to prune the tree.
The blackberry bush condinues to get a couple flower every once in a while. I picked an ate a berry in mid January and kick another and gave it to my wife in late January. They were delicous. There are a couple more berries on the bush. I'm looking forward to the summer harvest. This is year three so I'm hoping we get enough berries to makes some jam. The dwarf blueberry the other hand doesn't look so good.
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