2019 orders for the orchard

Here are the details of my spring orders for the orchard:

One Green World 2019 order:

• Autumn  Beauty Jujube Tree 
• Black Sea Jujube Tree
• Crandall Black Currant
• Flowercloud Male Hardy Kiwi
• Anna Hardy Kiwi
• Marron Medlar Fruit Tree
• Pasha Male Arctic Beauty Kiwi
• September Sun Arctic Beauty Kiwi

Stark Brothers 2019 order: 

• Starking® Hardy GiantTM Asian Pear Dwarf 
•  New Century Asian Pear Dwarf
• Pennsylvania Golden PawPaw (Grafted)
• Sunflower Pawpaw (Grafted)
• Carmine JewelTM Bush Cherry Dwarf (2)
• Prok American Persimmon (Grafted)

Fruit and nuts and perennial food crops, oh my!

We bought our house and the surrounding acre of property in September, 1992. 

The following April I was delighted  to see hundreds of daffodils blooming in the overgrown beds that flanked the  backyard stone patio. Later emerging gifts from the past  included peonies, iris, and two mature dogwoods flanking the front of the house. Other remnants of the original garden  were not as welcome, including dying ornamental cherry trees and a scruffy forsythia hedge.

Over time I created a hybrid ornamental garden featuring the best of the existing  plants, trees and shrubs  with my own choices- mostly native shrubs and perennials. A new septic system mound became a mass planting of grasses and blueberries where the cherry trees had been.  And every year I either divided old clumps of daffodils or added more varieties. 

I have always planted a few vegetables, but did not become a vegetable gardener on a larger scale until the economic downturn of the early 2000’s, when growing food became something of a necessity — perhaps more of a psychological than economic one. I soon discovered that I enjoy the idea of having control over my food, but I also love the calm oasis of a well designed ornamental garden.

For the last ten years or so, I’ve been working to integrate those two needs by creating a kitchen garden full of vegetables and colorful, often self-seeding annual flowers.

It’s been wonderful, but entails a lot of physical work each season. Although I am  currently fortunate to be healthy and fit, I can’t stop time and the aging of my body. 

So now my garden is evolving again, into something less physically taxing but still food productive. 

 I already had a mature peach tree, two pears, blueberries, blackberries and a large bed of raspberries. 

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Last year I added a mulberry, dwarf self-fertile cherry, persimmon and paw-paw, and even some nuts -- American hazelnuts!

This spring I'll be adding much more. Pics and details to come.

I’ve chosen species that don’t have a lot of insect or disease problems, but are not commercially grown because they aren’t easy to harvest with machines or do not ship well. I’m also expanding my plantings of other perennial crops, including asparagus, rhubarb, fiddleheads, Egyptian onions, ramps and shitake mushrooms.

Eventually I hope to have a garden that will showcase a wide range of wonderful but less commonly grown fruits, nuts and perennial crops, produce food that I can eat fresh and process for winter use, and require less heavy lifting and digging.  I’m looking forward to the journey to that goal!

August 3, 2018 Video Tour

Sorry I didn't do a July video-- I hope to do 2 in August!

June 2018 Video tour

So many peas!

Check out the latest video tour:

Mother's day (May 13, 2018) video tour of my Bay State kitchen garden

Here's a video I shot a couple of weeks ago-- sorry it took so long to post!

Planting my American Hazelnut trees

 The Latin name of the American Hazelnut is Corylus americana. It's a long lived tree or shrub (depending on how you prune it) that will produce  lots of tasty nuts (a bit smaller than the European Hazelnut) for up to 80 years once established! So why aren't they in more gardens?
The answer is Eastern Filbert Blight,  a disease similar to the blight that destroyed most Chestnut trees in the US. While no European Hazelnuts have been bred that can resist this native disease, a breeding program with americana has produced resistant cultivars. I bought two of these, 'Yamhill' and 'Jefferson' from Territorial Seed Company last fall, and my plants arrived a couple of weeks ago.
I was really impressed by the roots on the plants! Here's a pic:

I soaked the roots in water for 4 hours, then planted them eight feet apart (they need to be close enough for cross-pollination) in the bed by the back fence, then gave them each about five gallons of water. The next day I mulched with the pile of hardwood mulch next to them.

It's been two weeks of wild weather, with temps down to zero, and lots of snow and rain, but the buds on the Hazelnuts are getting bigger and they are definitely alive! If all goes well I'll be fighting the squirrels for nuts in two or three years.
More on other tree plantings soon.

Expanding my home orchard

When we moved here 25 years ago one of the selling points of the property was the hayfield visible from our back deck. Now a house is to be built there this spring. Because we did not own the  field I always know this might happen some day. I'm sad, but also appreciate the years of memories of deer, coyotes and turkeys we watched in the grassy space out back.
But I'm not one to mope around and decry my loss. I'm putting up a six foot fence along the property line and planting fruit trees in front of it. I'll soon have a new view of flowers, fruit, and dancing leaves. The trees will also draw more birds for me to watch as they sip nectar, hunt insects, and share the fruit.
So what will be in my orchard? Well, not apples, for several reasons. Apples are tough fruits that travel well and are grown in large numbers in New England and nearby New York. That means I can buy lots of local apples at good prices all fall and winter. Apples are also not a prime fruit for preserving, one of the chief ways I intend to save my crops.
Peaches, apricots, persimmons and cherries all make delicious jam or preserves, and I hope to eventually have a pantry full of jars to feed us through the winter. They also freeze and dehydrate well. Finally, they are all more popular with the birds I enjoy sharing the garden with, especially the cherries! My plan is to keep my dwarf trees covered  (and or sprayed with grape koolaid) until I harvest about three quarters of the crops, and then to let the birds have the rest. This strategy has worked well with my blueberry crop. I already have a five year old Redhaven peach, and two pears planted last fall. The cherry, persimmon and apricot trees are coming in the mail shortly.
Now I have to plant the new  trees and keep them healthy until they fruit. This should take between 2 and 5 years. But that's ok- one of the things I love about gardening is that it takes time, that the gardener grows and learns as the crop grows. This orchard will be a new adventure, and I'm ready for it, up and downs and all.
Like the branch that broke on my peach tree last summer because I was greedy and did not thin the fruit:

Sigh-- one lesson learned. I'm now signed up to take a monthly class on home orchard care from April to October.