BYC gardening thread!!

[Bogtown Chick]

Wow! is right! Those are some laden apple trees. The bees will be busy with that tree! DH ordered 10 trees through our local hardware store--bare root from the University of MN. Haralreds and Honey Crisps. I have a lone mature honey crisp now that is somehow cross pollinated each year --probably from neighbors' trees. And then last fall I added another honey crisp and Red Baron when they were on sale. I gave them their first pruning today.

I was trying to remember this really good apple a Doctor I worked for offered me at my work place and finally found it on the U's list of apples.-- Keepsake! It was THE best apple I ever had. Perfect flavor sweet and tartness, extra crisp, and it keeps for months in the fridge--thus the name. I wish I would have known the name prior to DH's order. I might see if it's not to late to get it added on. Going to have a regular orchard around here! The bear and raccoons will love us....

 

[Peep_Show]

DH -- a court-mandated drug and alcohol counselor, mind you -- stated when we moved to the country that he'd like an orchard...a cider orchard, to be specific. Yesterday we drove up to Truchas, NM (elevation 8000 feet) to pick up the cultivars. Today DH was a sod buster digging holes in the yard. Our 8 apple saplings (okay, really twiglets) are York Imperial, Turley Winesap, Albemarle Pippin, Wickson, Ribston Pippin, Black Oxford, Baldwin and a Muscat de Bernay. ( I picked up a Reliance peach and a Sugar Princess peach just for good measure....love me some peach pie!) Safe to say it'll be a few years before our cider harvest goes into anything but mini-bottles or we contemplate a still. (Did I mention DH also wants to learn to play the banjo? He's even mentioned a goat. Somehow I've been married all these years to a closet hillbilly...who knew? Does living in the country do that to folks?) (No offense intended to y'all that are hillbillies, by the way. It's just surprising that after a decade or so this has surfaced so strongly.)

The established yard and orchard here has figs, two pecans, three nectarines, five apples, three pears, a cherry or two and I think an apricot. There are a couple of stumps where I'm told peaches were before their demise from neglect (overladen with fruit and they split). We've also got a small vineyard of white table grapes....and 55 rose bushes. The previous elderly owners of the property vacated the premises in early 2012, so the yard(s) and orchard were a horrid mess to prune and dethatch, which was my late summer and Fall project. I got a lot of sun. They had a gardener come in before we purchased the place, but he was just a mow-n-go guy for the lawns. (Winter was spent rehabbing and repainting the interior... For some reason I didn't notice the abundance of yellow which -- surprise, surprise -- doesn't cover in one coat of paint+primer). Spring has found hundreds of yellow daffodils all over the place. The previous owner was involved at one time in several community gardening projects, but knew very little about proper pruning and fruit production. Sigh..... It has kept me busy and has me stretching for my long-lapsed Master Gardener brain RAM which probably dumped about 15 years ago.

But I'm LOVIN' the country life (again) and looking forward to putting in a veggie garden as time permits. We'll have chickens, too, so hopefully lots of compost. Looking forward to reading how all the gardens grow on this thread if/when winter ends for y'all east of the Rockies.

 

[Peep_Show]

And, yes, the bees are busily abuzz in the trees. Someone in the neighborhood -- I don't know where -- has managed to keep his hives free of Africanized hybrids. Nice fat little happy Italian bees have legs heavy with pollen balls. Nirvana!

I'm hoping that a couple of the established apples are good eating apples. Don't know and time will tell! I'll be on the lookout for Keepsake, though. Our local farmers market has had all sorts of unknown-to-me apples and it has been an adventure tasting.

 

[SunnySkies]

Well, I can finally see the ground, so I'm starting to lay compost and redo the drip system and start seeds. Finally.

And my bee hives are flying today.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

DH -- a court-mandated drug and alcohol counselor, mind you -- stated when we moved to the country that he'd like an orchard...a cider orchard, to be specific.   Yesterday we drove up to Truchas, NM (elevation 8000 feet) to pick up the cultivars.  Today DH was a sod buster digging holes in the yard.   Our 8 apple saplings (okay, really twiglets) are York Imperial, Turley Winesap, Albemarle Pippin, Wickson, Ribston Pippin, Black Oxford, Baldwin and a Muscat de Bernay.   ( I picked up a Reliance peach and a Sugar Princess peach just for good measure....love me some peach pie!)    Safe to say it'll be a few years before our cider harvest goes into anything but mini-bottles or we contemplate a still.  (Did I mention DH also wants to learn to play the banjo?   He's even mentioned a goat.  Somehow I've been married all these years to a closet hillbilly...who knew?  Does living in the country do that to folks?)  (No offense intended to y'all that are hillbillies, by the way.  It's just surprising that after a decade or so this has surfaced so strongly.)

The established yard and orchard here has figs, two pecans, three nectarines, five apples, three pears, a cherry or two and I think an apricot.  There are a couple of stumps where I'm told peaches were before their demise from neglect (overladen with fruit and they split).  We've also got a small vineyard of white table grapes....and 55 rose bushes.  The previous elderly owners of the property vacated the premises in early 2012, so the yard(s) and orchard were a horrid mess to prune and dethatch, which was my late summer and Fall project.  I got a lot of sun.  They had a gardener come in before we purchased the place, but he was just a mow-n-go guy for the lawns.   (Winter was spent rehabbing and repainting the interior... For some reason I didn't notice the abundance of yellow which -- surprise, surprise -- doesn't cover in one coat of paint+primer).   Spring has found hundreds of yellow daffodils all over the place.   The previous owner was involved at one time in several community gardening projects, but knew very little about proper pruning and fruit production.  Sigh.....   It has kept me busy and has me stretching for my long-lapsed Master Gardener brain RAM which probably dumped about 15 years ago.  

But I'm LOVIN' the country life (again) and looking forward to putting in a veggie garden as time permits.  We'll have chickens, too, so hopefully lots of compost.  Looking forward to reading how all the gardens grow on this thread if/when winter ends for y'all east of the Rockies. 

I've always wanted to grow Baldwin, but have never found it in Canada and am too timid to smuggle it across the border. It was the main commercial apple in upstate New York until an ice storm in the thirties? I think wiped out whole orchards. Then they went to Macintosh which survived the ice storms.

We moved to this property four years ago and put in an orchard straight away. Bing Stella and Montmorency cherries, Bartlett, Bosc, Anjou and Flemish Beauty pears, and for apples Cortland, Yellow Transparent, Northern Spy, Tolman Sweet, Golden Russett, and Ambrosia, which I'm told is an offspring of Keepsake. Still want Cox's Orange Pippin and am saving the sunniest spot for it!

 

[Peep_Show]

The local store had some Ambrosia apples. DIVINE!!!!

Just curious: I have five apple trees that I have no idea what they are as they were on the property when purchased. No fruit last year, so this year will be the first time I see what they produce (I hope, climate willing). How do I go about identifying what these trees are? I know they're probably several different types because they're blossoming at staggered times.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Here is a handy dandy website to help you identify your variety. http://www.applename.com/id.aspx

 

[Peep_Show]

Thank you!

Will file this away until Fall and then the fun begins!

 

[marktoo]

Well, I can finally see the ground, so I'm starting to lay compost and redo the drip system and start seeds. Finally.

And my bee hives are flying today.

You should keep your bees grounded till they're able to maintain their airspeed & altitude. I find it very annoying, to have them lil dudes buzzing around landing on me, tools & the like cause the temps are too low to for em flying in the first place. The queen should bee more safety conscience in her decision as to whether or not the hive should fly.

Happy gardening!

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Thank you!

Will file this away until Fall and then the fun begins!

Share your apple pics with us! That could make a fun thread.