Blog Archives
Thinking About Fruit
We are thinking about putting in a fruit display garden/orchard here at the Extension Office. It’s not a sure thing whether or not we’re going to do it. We are just in the exploration and pre-planning stages.
One of the most important factors is determining if the spot we have available can actually grow fruit! My best estimate right now is that the soil is classified as a Sandy Clay…not exactly what we’re looking for in a fruit garden. We could probably make it better by incorporating a whole bunch of compost, but it still won’t have great drainage like many fruits require. I’ve also taken a soil test from the area to see if the pH is anywhere close to reasonable. (You have no idea how shocked and excited I’ll be if the pH test comes back as anything below 7.5!)
One of the reasons for growing fruit in a small home garden that we discussed during Master Gardener class last week is that you can grow fruits that are unusual or not easy to find in the grocery store.
Of course, I had to bribe everyone to see my point of view by feeding them – Red Currant Scones and this yummy Red Currant Pie. I had frozen 4 cups of currants back in June when the single Red Currant bush in the Demo Garden was loaded. When’s the last time you saw fresh (or even frozen) red currants in a grocery store in Kansas? That’s right…pretty much never!
So, that being said, which fruit would you like to see planted in a fruit display garden?
Friday PhotoEssay
Friday sure came fast this week! That whole Labor Day Weekend thing puts quite a cramp in my blogging style. Happily, the garden is enjoying the still hot but not so ridiculous temperatures we’re experiencing. The fall veggies are going strong, promising another 2+ months of gardening.
Somehow I feel like this cantaloupe plant is confused as to what time of year it actually is. It is still blooming…in September! I haven’t dug around to see if there are any new cantaloupes set on, but just the fact that it’s still blooming is rather amazing to me. It doesn’t even seem to be fazed by any insects or diseases.
The caterpillars have abandoned our fennel plants after eating them to sticks and have turned their attention to our parsley. They are making short work of it too. I’ve also seen these caterpillars testing out grape leaves and gomphrena flowers. I think our butterfly caterpillar population might be getting out of control.
Speaking of insects getting out of control, the flea beetles are making a comeback and have found our fall radishes and Bok Choy. I sense neem oil in their future!
Our single surviving apple is starting to turn red! A couple weeks ago, I was asked if I was sure that it was supposed to be a red apple, since it was just hanging out and being green. I double checked the tag and the catalog, and ‘Crimson Spire’ is supposed to be red. It’s exciting that it is actually starting to turn red!
We have Hyacinth Beans planted out along our trellis, but they are enjoying growing on the inside of the trellis too. They have just started blooming vigorously in the last couple weeks.
The hordes of tiny grasshoppers that were enjoying the garden this spring thankfully didn’t turn into hordes of huge grasshoppers eating everything in sight this summer and fall. However, this guy is enjoying the citrus marigolds.
I guess this is the time to mention that I’m going to be out of town a lot for the next 3 weeks for various work activities. I will probably post once or twice a week, but not a lot more than that. At some point in here, I’m going to write up my comments on all the different varieties of things we’ve tried this year, so be watching for that.
Have a great weekend!
The Melon Saga Continues…
Today was an exciting day in the Demonstration Garden! We not only finally did some of our fall planting (we’ll see how that goes for us in a couple weeks), but we got to harvest our sole, lonely watermelon.
After some deliberation, we decided that we should pick it, as it fits the standards for watermelon ripeness. The little tendril by the stem had turned brown and dry. (Can you see it? It’s there by the top of the melon.) There was also a yellow patch on the bottom. Or on the top rather, when you turn it over. Since it was the only melon, it was rather scary to pick it because if it wasn’t ripe, then we would be out of luck!
Happily, we were in luck! If anything, the watermelon was slightly over-ripe. It was sweet and juicy, and perfect for eating on a hot summer morning. As you can see, it was quite seedy, which we aren’t used to anymore with all the seedless watermelons in the grocery stores. Still, if you want to grow a watermelon and you don’t have much space, this is a fun melon to grow.
Family of 4 Garden Harvest
8 oz. cherry tomatoes @ $0.25/oz =$2.00
1.8 lbs. tomatoes @ $2.00/lb = $3.60
1 cucumber @ $0.75/each = $0.75
Weekly Total = $6.35
Yearly Total = $186.58
Friday PhotoEssay
It’s Friday, and that means pictures! Which reminds me…you all should go out and take a couple great tomato pictures to enter in our Tomato Day Photo Contest! Categories are Mr. Tomato Head, The Artistic Tomato, and Unique Tomato Growing Methods. (Maybe we need a category for critters that eat tomatoes?!?)
Speaking of critters eating plants, we have some quite content Swallowtail Butterfly caterpillars on our fennel.
Then there’s this ugly guy on the long beans. I’m definitely not thrilled to have him around. It looks like either a corn earworm/tomato fruitworm (very lost, granted), or some sort of cutworm. Either way, he was smushed into the ground after I snapped a good picture!
Our ‘Mars’ seedless grape is starting to ripen. It is always the first of the three grapevines, and usually the most affected by black rot. You can see a shriveled grape that probably had black rot. There were whole clusters that were affected this year. This vine also has more leaf cover, which probably caused the disease to be worse than on the other two vines.
The ‘Orange Blossom’ looks like it will be the first non-cherry or non-early tomato to ripen. I have a picture of this same cluster from Tuesday and they are all green. This morning there are two beginning to turn orange. This isn’t the fully ripe color, but it will be exciting to see what they’re like!
Our Suhyo Cross Cucumbers are starting to take over their territory too. The plants went from being fairly small to covering the whole section of the garden in just a couple weeks! The cucumbers aren’t quite ready to pick yet, but they should be by sometime next week.
Have a great weekend!
Friday PhotoEssay
There’s some exciting things in the garden this week! Take a look:
Not really sure how this snuck past me until it was the size of a tennis ball, but we have a baby watermelon! I’m actually very impressed by this plant so far, especially if I can avoid thinking about the pitiful germination rate.
The Suhyo Cross Cucumber also is starting to develop some cucumbers. The other plants all have lots of flowers, but no cukes yet.
The cantaloupe, finally has some female flowers that will should turn into cantaloupe. Goodness knows we’ve had enough male flowers on the plants for at least 2 weeks.
The flowers all seemed to burst into bloom this week. This is a ‘Lemon Bird’ Cosmos.
The sunflowers also opened up. This was the first one to open on Tuesday. Today there are several open.
Have a great 4th of July weekend!
The Demo Garden Blog 