Spring has Sprung, 2020 Version

Let's start with the yard. We had plenty of help with the mulch this year and it's all down by the first week of April, thanks to Hunter.

Epimediums

This little loader was not sufficient. Bucket was too small and it didn't easily clear the edge of the truck. We made it work but next year we'll use a real loader again. The grasses are mowed, pre-emergent down, beautyberries and other shrubs pruned. We're seeing 100% survival of the transplanted hellebores in the woodland area, and the epimediums are starting to poke through.

In the greenhouse, most plants look good. We have strawberry guava and grumichama fruit set. Pitomba is flowering as never before. We lost a calamondin, and a couple of the other citrus trees don't look great. The star apples have some marginal leaf necrosis, I wonder if they didn't like so much fertilizer. Hopefully we get them outside soon and they perk up. I took some fall cuttings of grapes, and some of them are pushing leaves.

Frontenac Gris

Speaking of grapes, we have the vineyard pruned. The Chardonel look like a complete loss. They didn't look great last fall but we got 3 gallons of wine from them. It may be the last Chardonel wine we make. My plan is to replace these with Frontenac Gris from cuttings. Aside from the Norton losses to crown gall, we're otherwise in good shape. Foch broke bud 4/9. We replaced some of the Norton with 10 Itasca vines. Itasca is described as having "aromas of pear, quince, violet, melon, minerals along with faint notes of honey." It broke bud already on 4/10. Another 10 Norton were replaced with La Crescent. This grape is used to make off-dry to sweeter wines and is known for "aromas are primarily apricot, peach and citrus." I'm linking the Stark Brothers page here because after the crown gall trouble on the vines from AA Vineyards, I found a new source. Our Frontenac, Vidal and Traminette look strong and I see bud swell on at least 9 Nortons. 

Itasca foreground, row 1; La Crescent row 2

Foch and Traminette

Jake and Taylor were in town for a few weeks after being sidelines due to the pandemic. Jake fished at every opportunity (thanks to Dave, Jane, Betsy, Jorgen, Tom, Jamie). 

Almost Spring

Mid-March and we've finally gotten a couple of nice weekends. Grapes are pruned. We don't have the die-back on Vidal we experienced last year.

Before

After

Lisa got the lespedezas and beautyberries cut back. She moved a ton of biomass.

Last year we were able to use a loader to move mulch, but this year it's too wet. But we have the same helpers, and we've made good progress.

We also got some house work done as well. The screens in the living room doors were torn, and we replaced them.

End of Winter

The winter of 2017-2018 felt as if it would never end. Plants are 2-3 weeks behind this year, and we finally just got some warm temps last week. Naturally the one year spring is late, the pool opening is early.

Never has the pool been this clean yet this cold.

We have struggled for months with water loss from the pool. After filling it up last week, we came back yesterday to find it several inches down again. I suspected this to be the cause of a persistent wet spot behind the poolhouse. The cattle have absolutely wrecked this ground on the other side of the fence, eventually requiring some fencing reinforcement. Yesterday I found the cause. The fitting on the filter was cracked and dripping water down the side of the filter and right into the drain. It went unnoticed because there really wasn't much of a wet spot on the floor until now. I used a clamp and piece of old hose as a temporary fix, and now a day later, the poolhouse is dry again.

Tom lent us a skid loader and we spread two truckloads of mulch a couple of weeks ago. The late spring allowed us to get much of the mulch down before the perennials came up.

Lisa got the deck cleaned up. My Big Green Egg operation has been pushed to the end of the deck to help keep smoke out of the kitchen.

Big day today - we'll bring some greenhouse plants out. I'm battling some serious issues with thrips, courtesy of a well-intentioned friend who will go unnamed. These plants badly need to get outside and get cleaned up.

Spring Collection of Pictures

I have been collecting a few pics of some interesting garden, greenhouse, and kitchen things, and so while I have nothing particularly interesting to write about, a post is in order.

Earlier this month we spread 45 cubic yards of mulch. Tom lent a skid loader which made all the difference.

My dear, with my dear dog

Around the yard, we have fruit...

Paw Paws (Asimina triloba)

Seviceberries (Amelanchier 'Regent' and others)

Elderberries (Sambucus canadensis)

...and flowers...

Japanese Snowbell tree (Styrax japonicus)

Shining Bluestar and Threadleaf Bluestar (Amsonia illustris and A. hubrectii)

Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus)

Viburnum sargentii ‘Onondaga’

Carolina Allspice (Calycanthus floridus)

Cercis canadensis 'Appalachian Red'

...and in the greenhouse, fruit as well.

Jaboticaba

Grumichama (Eugenia brasiliensis)

In the vineyard, some vines are showing a lot of growth...

...and, one day, this happened.

We have had a lot of rain.

Anas platyrhynchos

In the kitchen, a few interesting things.

Shawn is fond of carrot fries

Green papaya

Green papaya slaw, much better than expected actually

Blueberry lemon cake 

Kingston is slowly getting trained...

Keeley is not, but she's loyal.

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.

Fraternity Mulch

My friend and fellow YMCA board member Tim also happens to be the chapter advisor for Phi Delta Theta here at Westminster.  Each year they donate some labor to the Y auction and this year it was our pleasure to be rewarded with their time.  What better way for a Phi Delt to spend a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon than spreading mulch?

We didn't have enough tools because we didn't expect quite so many guys.

A public thank you to Tim and the Phi Delts from Westminster!