Apple Tree: Winter Growth!

I have one young, but mighty 3-in-1 apple tree. Last year, one branch produced around 18 full-sized apples, as my green plastic garden tape can attest. Wow! They were delicious, truly.

During the winter, this same branch is now dotted with new leaves which, hopefully, signals a bountiful new season of fruits.

I took this photo minutes ago and am pleased to report that other branches are likewise showing this same new leaf growth.

Relatively modest successes such as this encourage me to further improve my efforts in gardening in general, and likely, to add more fruit trees to my garden in the future.

CONSUMER ALERT UPDATE:  Apple seeds are highly toxic if ingested. More information on toxic plants can be found here: http://www.calpoison.com/public/plants-toxic.html

Off-Season, Contrarian Gardening

Oftentimes, I get caught up in the “proper” ways to garden, following the practices and traditions of how to maintain particular plants and paying close attention to the needs of seasonal gardening.

This season, though, I made a tiny rebellion. I decided not prune my roses for the winter. The rose plants remain healthy (as my white iceberg roses attest) and I would like to see the results of my letting my roses grow freely and will likely skip my early summer pruning as well.

The tomato plants that I started from seed, grown in containers, toward the end of summer-early autumn, well, they insist on fruiting during these cold days and I will not deny them the chance to grow. And why should I?

I think most gardeners would be delighted to have homegrown tomatoes in the winter! I am quietly waiting for them to mature, with the hope that their flavor will still be good.

Please let me know what off-season crops are in your garden, and any contrarian gardening practices that you have employed with success!

CONSUMER ALERT UPDATE: The non-fruit parts of tomato plants are poisonous if ingested.  More information on toxic plants can be found here: http://www.calpoison.com/public/plants-toxic.html

Fan Aloe: Autumn Flower Spike

My fan aloe has a flower spike that looks rather modest in the autumn, compared to its warm season presentation, but still quite lovely.  As these photos show, you can’t judge a book by its cover! From a shy, understated beauty, this flower spike becomes an audacious diva come spring and summer.

I am keeping this plant in a 5-gallon container for now, but am contemplating planting it directly in the ground next year, as most of my succulents have already left their comfortable container “nests.”

What I really love about my small collection of succulents is that, when mature, most have produced out-of-this-world beautiful flower spikes. They seem rather sedate plants throughout many months of the year, then totally dazzle with the flower spikes. Amazing!

Fig Tree Cuttings

A good friend was very kind to give me four cuttings from her fig trees. I am keeping them in containers for the time being, until roots form. When they are taller and more robust, I will transplant them directly into the ground in my back yard.

The close up is of one of the Kadota fig cuttings. The other shows the four cuttings: in the background  (shorter cuttings) are the Kadota; the other two are, according to my friend, from an unknown fig tree. I have sampled some of the figs from these trees and they are delicious! I am hopeful that these cuttings will take and will become trees.

Consumer Alert:  The milky liquid from this plant or its unripened fruits (also known as latex) may irritate skin: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/fig.html

Kew Gardens Visit: Bird Watching

I was able to squeeze in some bird watching while at Kew Gardens. As with many gardens, where there is vegetation, you will likely find a bird. Happily, I enjoy gardening and bird watching! Soon after I arrived, I saw a familiar favorite, Canada geese, who were enjoying the lawn. Canada geese fly overhead each fall-winter.

But I was intrigued and stunned to see a most unusual bird, which to me looked like it had the body of a male Montezuma quail and a prehistoric head. This wild and beautiful bird is the helmeted Guinea fowl (also known as Numida meleagris sabyi or ), a native of Morocco. It was fairly big and was alone, and probably a domesticated bird introduced to the gardens.

Domesticated or not, it is always exciting to fire up the brain cells to identify a new bird, drawing from my knowledge of other birds. I made an audiovisual recording of my first impressions of the bird, in absence of easy access to pen and paper. After reviewing my British bird book, it was thrilling to find out who this bird is!

Kew Gardens Visit: Outdoors

I returned this afternoon after a whirlwind few days in beautiful London! Every now and again, I like visiting botanic gardens and parks to get inspiration for my own garden. One of the inspirational places high on my list is Kew Gardens. Also known as The Royal Botanic Gardens, this is one of the world’s most notable and famous.

I was really impressed by the majestic trees. My stay was regrettably brief, so I will have to make several more visits in the future to get a more comprehensive experience at Kew! What I was able to see was a truly beautiful, serene landscape, the type of feeling I enjoy for my own garden.

Kew Gardens Visit: Indoors

Kew Gardens is home to the world’s largest surviving Victorian glass structure. Known as The Temperate House, this greenhouse contains impressive specimens, but the structure itself is quite beautiful, as you can see!

They had an impressive collection of indoor specimens, ranging from plenty of leafy plants (photo 2), to boldly colored plants, such as the bold gold of Rhododendron macgregoriae (photo 3) and red-orange Nine-pin heath (also known as Erica mammosa, photo 4).

Consumer Alert: Rhododendron is a very toxic plant (may cause death) and should never be ingested. More information can be found here: http://www.calpoison.com/public/plants-toxic.html

Bland Fruit from the Market

It’s a travesty, one that I have experienced multiple times from small and large supermarkets: bland fruit. I have had so many such bland experiences over the past 12 months that I am wondering if some markets have made a decision to stop tasting a sample of the fruit before buying, in favor of simply buying the cheapest fruit. Good-looking fruit is certainly not synonymous with delicious fruit! And you can bet that I tell all of my friends where I bought bland fruit. I give these markets chance after chance and it seems that over the past 12 months, quality of fruit (and my customer loyalty) has eroded.

The flavor-packed, juicy apples from my garden this year (above!) have left me quite keen on finding flavorful fruit. This week, I have apples, from the market. The fruit is nicely colored, firm. But it takes only a bite to know that these apples were only packed with water, without the accompanying apple flavor. What happened? I have at least 10 more of these awful things to finish before getting more fruit (I hate to waste anything). I will go with a “sure thing” (with regard to flavor) later this week, bananas.

I have also been burned this year by bland grapes, nectarines, peaches, and plums. The farmers’ markets in my area happen during times when I am not around, so that is not really an option and I am opposed to buying fruit from high-end (priced) markets. I will try Trader Joe’s and see how that works out; otherwise, I will probably try ethnic markets. And I will continue to tend to my modest fruit garden because I trust the results of home-grown.

Fingers crossed that my next trip to the market will provide sweet results!

CONSUMER ALERT UPDATE:  Apple seeds are highly toxic if ingested. More information on toxic plants can be found here: http://www.calpoison.com/public/plants-toxic.html

It’s A Quince!

What a shocking but happy reveal! My 3-in-1 pear trees have produced juicy pears commonly found in supermarkets, but what I thought were fuzzy pears, with their unusual apple-like shape got me to investigating a bit more. Why would a pear be fuzzy, I thought.

I found out more information about my two 3-in-1 pear trees. Yes, they produce pears; I’ve eaten them. But my trees are also dwarf varieties, and that was the key to unlocking this mysterious fruit.

As it turns out, dwarf pear trees are often grafted onto a smaller quince rootstock, to keep the trees small. How very interesting! If you have a dwarf pear tree that is producing what looks to be a fuzzy pear, you might have a quince on your hands! Let me know if this has happened to you also.

As shown in my photo above, taken within the hour, the fuzz will rub off easily, but I’m letting nature take care of that as it matures. The fruit used to be bright green, but will be ripe and ready for picking when it becomes yellow. One of my quinces fell to the ground and, at the time, I still thought it was a pear. I cleaned it off and cut off a small piece and discovered very quickly how very sour a raw, immature quince really is!

My more productive tree has five quinces growing right now, about the same size, the size of an average apple. I will likely cook a very cherished, boutique quantity of jelly from it. I absolutely love, love, love having surprises like this. Pears and quinces grown on both of these trees.

I am curious which of the variety of pears was pushed out, if any, to accommodate the quince on my trees.  I bought these two 3-in-1 pear trees, bareroot, on clearance, and they each had five labels attached to them! It would be fabulous if I had on each tree quince plus three varieties of pear. Dare to dream!

By the way, the quince is not widely grown in the USA, fewer than 200 acres. For more information about the quince, including its history, see http://afrsweb.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jan07/quince0107.htm?pf=1.

CONSUMER ALERT UPDATE:  The quince is related to apples and pears, whose seeds are highly toxic if ingested.  For this reason, do not ingest the seeds of the quince. More information on toxic plants can be found here: http://www.calpoison.com/public/plants-toxic.html

Tomato Plant in a Cage

I just put in a few wire tomato cages for my Black Krim tomato plants. Started from seed, my tomato plants are not yet fruiting, which is the best time to put in cages. In my zeal and inexperience during my early days as a gardener, I did not care when I put in tomato cages, even if the plants were fruiting.

My hands are steady but are not always patient so I would sometimes put in the cages into the container of an already-fruiting tomato plant and inadvertently pull off immature fruits. Sad!

In the case of this specific plant in the photo, the plant is a little bit short, so I added one skinny wooden stake to encourage the plant to grow straight up (vs. toppling over, which I have experienced in my early days!).

I have wondered if it’s not too late to expect tomatoes this year from my plants. I will give them plenty of TLC and water – the sun and nature will take care of the rest. My climate is mild so it would not surprise me if I had tomatoes well into autumn, but I will report on that potential success story should it materialize! I have had prior success with container-grown tomatoes growing through autumn so there is precedent!

HOW TO: Tomato cages typically have four prongs. Whether growing in a container or directly in the ground, the plant should be in the center of where the four cage prongs are to be gently pushed into the soil.

CONSUMER ALERT UPDATE: The non-fruit parts of tomato plants are poisonous if ingested.  More information on toxic plants can be found here: http://www.calpoison.com/public/plants-toxic.html