Category: Plants/sets/eyes

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Trimming the claws

I trimmed off several branches from both blackberry plants that had leaves with this mystery curl. It looks a lot like online pictures of leaf curl virus damage. It was not a leaf rolling insect, those I leave alone and consider just part of the ecosystem. The raspberry leaf curl virus can kill a whole plant apparently so I wanted to be safe.
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Good, bad, and !!! news

Bad news: something ate the two baby Rudbeckia fulgida I put out yesterday.

Good news: all the fluttermill evening primrose, same size as Rudbeckia, are fine. This includes the three just a few yards away.

!!! News… A yucca may be sprouting???

See the tiny green point in the middle? Definitely not a usual weed! This is in one of the containers I left out all winter.
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Everything is growing!

Spring is really springing today. It’s very humid and warm too though no substantial rain yet despite forecast.

Widow sedum is growing a lot since I put seedlings here in fall.
Possibly dill seedlings.
Blackberry is leafing out.
Red lake currant is budding.
Pink champagne currant budding too. 
Native “Crandall” currant budding.  I just got it this winter.
Native field violet or “johnny jump up” (Viola bicolor I think) is blooming in front yard near non-native chickweed (white flower) and non-native henbit (between the chickweed and the violet).
Spinach is a bit chewed on.
I don’t know when the lettuce grew this size but it feels sudden.
“Rhubarb” Swiss chard (named for red stems).
New Kuroda carrot.  The other two carrot varieties are also up.  I put jars over these first few in case bunnies like them like they like the mizuna and bok choy.  Mustard greens untouched.
Radishes getting adult leaves.
Collard greens from Judy sprouting.
In the plant window, mammolo (green ones) and red rubin (red ones) basil have been up a few days now.

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Seeds and apple tree on a drizzling morning

Paula came over and we planted many things, as well as doing some trimming and raking.

The semi-dwarf Arkansas Black Apple arrived.
We planted it and pruned it to ensure it will have lower main branches for ease of picking fruit. The hose there burst in the freeze (I didn’t drain it) so we’re using the break to water it.
We trimmed up the garlic (this picture), as well as Salvia greggii and mealy blue sage.
The potato experiment results say don’t plant potatoes when there’s about to be a major freeze. There was a lot of rot and slime.
We put the leftover seed potatoes in that I had saved from two weeks ago.
Four varieties of cabbage for Paula’s fermentation needs and Wes’ occasional soup needs. As soon as they sprout, the best seedlings will get covered with a jar to protect from bunnies. They seem to be tasty for bunnies. We also planted assorted other cool weather things (greens and carrots).
Better than nothing, Briar says, but why don’t we do something fun instead?
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More survival reports

I went out to get the kohlrabi and cabbage for Wes and uncovered some more areas.

The tops of most onions seem frost damaged. Not sure about their bases. We’ll see if they grow back this week or if I need to go get more.
Adjacent snow covered onions seem similar.
The chard is definitely frozen. Will be interesting to see if it comes back from its base or if I need to reseed it. Tucked under it is a ragged little cabbage.
I cut the kohlrabi at the base. Most of the leaves are in good shape, too.
The cabbage (left) and kohlrabi (right), harvested and set on the snow.
The Dutch corn salad greens are as hardy yet tiny as ever. I think from reading recently they don’t get much bigger, so I guess you’d need to plant a lot more than I do?
At the edge of the front nook, these strawberries and mealy blue sage were
Another towel and tub protected area. Strawberries look good and so does the oregano in the upper right corner (at the edge of the snow).
I think the sad little standing cypress has survived!! I put a bit of mulch around it after my last visit to it (when it looked very sad). The other front nook one and both backyard ones are still covered by snow.
By the time I got done outside Wes had trimmed up both the kohlrabi and the cabbage for use this evening.
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Spring planting! It’s going to freeze next week!

Paula and I were going to plant things tomorrow, but it’s looking quite chilly. It’s just gorgeous out right now. So we spent a half an hour or so and got two kinds of onions (yellow granex and white granex) from sets in the beds, two kinds of potatoes in containers (experimenting with burlap sacks, potting soil bag, and cardboard boxes to make hilling them easier to get more potatoes), and seeds of French breakfast radish, green wave mustard, and Oregon sugar pod II pea. The peas we already have a few little vines of but I figured another round wouldn’t hurt to replace some since they blanch and freeze well if we get a lot.

White granex onions with some moss curled parsley from last year.
Yellow granex bulb onions with some cabbage and chard from last year.
Paula had the excellent idea to show the Yukon gold potato (burlap sacks/top) and Kennebec white potato (box and plastic bag) with their planters. We’re having a big freeze forecast for next week, so I only used half of the seed potatoes in case these die. (Also, I ran out of containers for now.) I am putting potatoes in containers to make them easier to hill dirt around, and also because crop rotation when all you plant is Solanaceae is very challenging.
Briar says it was good sleepy sunshine to supervise in. She was pleased.