Tomatoes are a ways off, but Fruit and Berries are BOOMING!

[bvar22]

So far, this Spring has been fantastic.
Just the right amount of rain and sunshine, no late April frost, everything growing like crazy.
This is our 4th season here, and the best one yet so far (fingers still crossed).

Fruits and Berries are off the dial.
It seems like every single Peach Blossom on our 4 year old trees is trying to make a Peach.
We have already culled hundreds, and need to cull hundreds more.


The disappointing Strawberry harvest last year prompted an increase in the size of the patch (4X), and some experimenting with spacing and mulching.
They've gone crazy this year.

Already eating the front runners.
The crows like them too.
The streamers, and pans were effective this morning, but the crows learn fast.
We have some netting ready, and are working on another scarecrow.
(Upper right corner is 2nd year Asparagus.)


This is the overcrowded original raised bed. Scary.
I've thinned and thinned this bed, and it just explodes back.
This should be way too crowded for good berry production, but decided to let it go after it started making berries.
I can't bring myself to pull up plants with green fruit on them.

The young Blueberries are doing their part too, thick with fruit.


Looks like we are even going to get some Boysenberries.

I've never seen or eaten a Boysenberry, but it looks like this 2-1/2 year old plant is trying to make some for us this year.

The wild Blackberries and Dewberries are covered in blossoms look promising too.

We're excited!
We have most of the garden planted. and things look promising.

Peace, Good Fortune, and Fertility to All.

bvar22 & Strakraven
Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas



Last Year
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x2601

[elleng]

1. Health, Peace, and Happiness!

O8)

[sandnsea]

2. Spring photo contest time

That third picture would be a terrific entry.

Strawberries do that. I think some of them will die off if you don't do the runners correctly. It's been too many years since I've grown them. But there's nothing like a fresh picked strawberry for sure!

[pnorman]

3. K & R!

I'll be spending a few hours on this and the connected links, in full DROOL!

[Warpy]

4. It snowed here Friday morning

It snowed above 7000 feet today.

We're still in winter in NM.

I'm sick of it.

[mikelgb]

5. I live about 5 mins from Knott's Berry Farm; I have boysenberries all the time

nom

[roguevalley]

6. wonderful. reminds me of my hometown in spring in oregon.

[Suich]

7. I love looking at pics of your garden, bvar22!

I'm drooling over your berries and peaches! I didn't know that many blueberries were on one branch! Yum!



:hi:

[glowing]

8. Netting, you need netting over the berries... Use sticks and netting..

keeps bugs and birds off, lets sun and rain in. Its a small enough patch that its do-able.. and you want to probably eat what's in the patch... LOL.

[Dover]

9. A cornucopia!

And your photos are a feast for the eyes as well.

I so agree about this spring! And nothing brings that feeling of abundance, hope and oneness with the natural world like plants bursting with plump sweet fruit and berries.
sigh....all is well.

[LWolf]

10. Our trees are just thinking about budding and blooming.

We had an unusually warm (relatively speaking) January and February, followed by a frozen March and inconsistent April. I'm not expecting a crop this year from the fruit trees.

We had snow and hail just this last Wednesday, followed by a low of 20 degrees the next morning.

[Dover]

11. I hate when that happens. It just throws me off to have weird weather in spring.

It's like having one of those long unsettling nights when it's difficult to sleep and then waking up and feeling 'off' for the whole day. A messed up inner clock or compass.

This morning, I stood beneath a mulberry tree like a happy bear cub gorging myself on the plump ripe fruit...like receiving sweet, unconditional love being offered in such abundance. I felt so grateful and connected - like I was fulfilling my part of the relationship by bearing witness and receiving this delicious gift, to appreciate and feel all of it. Well...me AND the birds.
I don't get that rich exchange in the produce section of the grocery store.

One of the things I'm learning as I experience growing my own food is how it seems the most natural thing in the world to eat just what's in season. I've always understood and supported that in theory, but now I really get it. You plant and sow each season, anticipate and harvest, so grateful when things become ripe and sad when they are finished until the following year, actively participating in life's cycles....everything in its own time. Lovely. How did we get so far away from that essential rhythmic relationship with nature?

[LWolf]

12. I have to say

that some of my best meals have been in the garden, before anything I picked every made it into the house. ;)

The disconnect from the land, where food is just automatically available (as long as you've got the money) leaves much of the population with never having grown food, never really thinking about seasons and the actual living things that provide the food. Greenhouses, modern shipping methods, have some version of a crop available mostly year-round. Not anything that resembles something actually grown and picked in season, though.

[humus]

13. way of life

"A few years ago, in the mail-order catalog Seeds of Change, Peter
Bahouth provided an ecological accounting of the typical North
American supermarket-bought tomato. Here's an abbreviated version:
The tomato was grown in Mexico from a hybrid seed patented by a
genetic-engineering firm. The farm was fumigated with methyl-
bromide, one of the most ozone-depleting chemicals in existence, the
doused with toxic pesticides; the toxic byproducts of manufacturing
the pesticide ended up in the world's largest toxic waste dump, in
Alabama. The tomato was packaged in a plastic tray covered with
plastic wrap, and placed on a cardboard box. The plastic was
manufactured with chlorine, a process that produces extremely toxic
byproducts, in Point Comfort, Texas, while the cardboard originated
in an old-growth forest in British Columbia, was manufactured in the
Great Lakes, and was then shipped to the Mexican farm. The entire
process was fueled by oil from the Gulf of Campeche, Mexico. The
packed tomatoes were artificially ripened through the application of
ethylene, then transported in refrigerated trucks cooled by ozone-
depleting hydrochlorofluorocarbons to consumers throughout North
America. At several points in the process, workers and nearby
residents risked potentially harmful health effects through exposure
to various toxins. And needless to say, a tomato thus produced
doesn't offer much in the way of flavor, especially when compared to
a mouth-watering `Brandywine' tomato grown organically in the
backyard."

[LWolf]

14. I'm jealous of the peaches.

An unseasonably warm February, followed by an Arctic March and April, means no fruit on the trees this year.

It froze hard enough that I lost one peach tree. At least, I think that's what it was; I can't find any other source of trouble.

You have never seen nor eaten a boysenberry? You are in for a huge treat.

Boysenberries are a life-long favorite of mine.