Beginning of Summer

This weekend we made the big move. We pulled out all of the greenhouse plants and pool deck furniture, signaling the official beginning of summer.

We're trying something a little different this year. In the spirit of thigmomorphogenesis, we are putting some new plants out by the pool. Some of our tropical fruit trees are well-rooted enough, we think, to hold up to the strong winds we occasionally get.

Fig (Ficus mysterious), jaboticaba (Plinia cauliflora), camu camu (Myrciaria dubia), citrus (Labelus missingii)

Star apple (Chrysophyllum cainito), acerola (Malpighia emarginata), Washington Navel orange 

Calamondin

Ficus mysterious

Jaboticaba (Plinia cauliflora)

It's a great time of year for flowers and foliage.

Lilac

Fothergilla gardenii

Cercis 'Appalachian Red' with owner shadows

Cercis 'Forest Pansy'

Korean Spice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii)

Asimina triloba, Paw Paw

There is bud break on the grapes and the first spray of the year is in the books. We had the driest September-January period in Missouri in 40 years, in addition to zone-testing -9F temps in January. At least one of my varieties did not like it at all. Winter survival numbers:

• Frontenac 9/9 
• Foch 9/9
• Traminette 8/9
• Chardonel 9/9 
• Chambourcin 9/9
• Norton 42/44
• Vidal 5/36

Basal shoot on Vidal, one of five

There is no time this year to replant. Best advice I've gotten so far is just cut them back and see if they return from the base. These vines grew very well last year and in fact my plan was to devigor them a little bit by letting them fruit. Scratch that plan. 

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.

One week each year...

Outside it may be the best week of the year.  Haskaps continue to bloom, as do the Hellebores. Today nothing is prettier than the Flowering Quince, Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Toyo-Nishiki.’ The viburnum in front of the house is doing its thing, filling the air with a beautiful scent in spite of the 30pmh winds.  Not sure of the species, but I suspect V. carlesii.

We pruned up the Seven Sons Flower, Heptacodium miconioides.  We've grown this one to about 10 feet. It had some ugly water sprouts which we let go too big.  We cleaned it up and it looks great.

We spread several carts of mulch. Lisa puts in on thicker than I do, and I'm grateful for that. However, she has determined that the crabapples must go. I disagree. For one week each year they make a deposit and then they live off of that deposit until this time next year.

Lisa next to one of the trees she wants to remove

Craft Day in the Garden

We started off in the greenhouse Saturday, and I'm happy to report that 'Kari' continues to show signs of recovery.  Every year is different and interesting.  This year, the second, younger jaboticaba bloomed dramatically, and I think we'll have more fruit from this tree, this year, than we have had from the older tree in its lifetime.  Jaboticaba has become one of my favorite trees.  If I freeze every fruit for 8-10 years I might be able to make a gallon of wine.

First jaboticaba of the year

I was forced due to time constraints to try a new lychee pollination program.  I had little to lose, because the paintbrush method used for the last several years produced nothing.  This year, no paintbrushes.  I just took blooms loaded with males and beat them over and onto blooms loaded with females.  What do you know?  I have about 20 lychees right now.  Some will inevitably drop, but many are already dime-sized.  I do believe we are back in the lychee business.

We have blooms on dragonfruit, citrus, plumeria, sugar apple, and many others.  Dwarf Namwah bananas have started to ripen.

Dwarf Namwah bananas, less the two ripe ones we ate Saturday

We started moving plants out this weekend.  No blooms on the passion fruit yet, but growth is emerging.  My daughter would be tickled to see our solution to the ugly, fragile trellis we had last year.  We found tomato cages at the store for $7.  Add a can of purple spray paint (so that the color matches the blooms) and we have a new and improved passion fruit stand.

Winston can't believe the color

The yard is approaching its spring bloom peak.

Viburnum, katsura tree, and fragrant abelia

Amsonia is filling in the greenhouse bed

The mint is up and that means it is mojito time.  Dinner was mint/red pepper lamb chops, bacon-wrapped home grown asparagus (can you find the stray in the pictures above?) and fruit salad.  With dinner we cautiously opened a bottle of white catawba.  I failed to adequately adjust the acidity preferment on this wine and so the main task became taming the sharpness.  Maybe it was the mojitos clouding our judgment, but this bottle was better than drinkable.