Hard to oppose California’s almond bloom! ❤️ Our apricot will bloom mid March and the cherry late March (but it’s nearly girdled by boring beetles).
Posts in: Orchard
One of two Valencia oranges from the backyard tree 😋
Mid-February 2020 Update: Home Orchard and Native Plants
It has been 19 days since it last rained here. The outdoor temperatures have been in the mid-70s. The area’s almond orchards are blooming in waves about a week earlier than last year. Our deciduous plants are waking up! We planted a nectarine this winter and it is beginning to grow. Our California Roses, which are in the same family as nectarines — Rosaceae — are also beginning to grow back.
Sweet mandarins reflecting a whole lot of red showing just how ripe they are. Picked last Saturday to share at work. They were gone shortly after lunch.
No sight distance through the evergreen toyon. It’s very happy. So is our manzanita — getting ready to flower. 🐝🌳
My attempt at an open vase pruned apricot tree 🌳 📷
Backyard Relaxation
Relaxing can mean accomplishing things. The backyard always offers things to accomplish! Accomplishing things makes me feel good. Today I: braved a ladder and pruned the apricot cut up pieces of bug ridden wood for disposal (remnant of last occupant of the property that used untreated non-cedar wood for planters) weeded to avoid herbicide found a Chorus frog! turned the entire compost pile Here’s the Chorus frog (Pseudacris) I discovered:
Tree Chilling Hours and a Bad Bug
We’re around 770 chilling hours this season — almost 100 more than last year at this time. We hope this means we get a good crop off our ~800 chilll hour apricot (it was our first fruit tree and we had no concept of chill hours; with the usual climate and especially with climate change we’re now focusing on <500 chill hour trees). I put compost around the new nectarine, the new asparagus bed, and on the edible garden in advance of last night's rain; the clay loam soil needs some organic matter.
The beetles really tore up our Lapins cherry tree this last year. It is almost girdled. If we’re lucky maybe one more season of fruit.
Yesterday’s planted nectarine began life here in a rather peculiar way:
