RIP Kari

It is a good day for some greenhouse work, rainy and cold.  For the most part, the greenhouse is coming alive.  There is mostly good news.

It looks like we may have our first Psidium myrtoides, purple guava.  Grown from seed given to me by Sadhu at Govardhan Gardens, these plants are probably 4 years old.  They have proven extremely difficult to manage in containers, with a pendulous habit and a stubborn refusal to grow as a tree.  The first one bloomed a few weeks back and it looks like we got fruit set.  Too early to jinx it with pictures.

I've found the key to T.R.Hovey papaya, and that is heat...aimed directly at the pot.

 

Lychees are blooming, and for the first time, some overlap between Sweetheart and Brewster.  I'm not convinced I'll have any fruit set yet.

One little limeberry is pumping out fruit like crazy.  A few ounces last year went into the Tutti Fruiti wine.  We should have a bit more this year.

And finally, RIP Kari.

Spring Cleaning

Last weekend we bottled 3 gallons each of lychee, starfruit, and lemongrass mint wine.  The starfruit and lemongrass are sound, but the lychee is potentially really good.  We'll hold these for summer - the pool opening is just 3 weeks away.

Lisa is thrilled to be bottling

We have been busier in the yard than in the cellar.  Beautyberries and grasses are cut back, amsonia cleaned up, we've gotten through the first round of weeding.  I realized that for the last couple of years I've been spraying my agastache 'Honey Bee Blue' thinking it was a weed. It seems pretty widespread, so I suspect it'll be back one place or another.

Mulch started going down yesterday.  The pearlbushes made it through their first winter.  They look a little lonely but with a final height of 10' I'm not going to be too impatient.

Three little pearlbushes (two shown)

We've discovered that the self-seeded asparagus wakes up a little earlier than the original behind the chicken coop.  The first shoots of the season have been eaten, looking forward to more.

I hacked paths into the blackberries so hopefully the harvest will be easier.

Haskaps are blooming.  I ordered 5 more plants to fill in the little bed east of the garage.  I can already taste the 2018 haskap wine.