State of the Garden, Early June

Things are plugging away in the garden. We had a frost followed by some 90 degree days, but everything seems to be fine and a few very tiny bell peppers and tomatoes are starting to pop on the vine. The fruit trees we planted in a small orchard last year are growing like crazy and full of healthy leaves, so I think we've done well there too.

When we first got the trees, we wrapped the bases with protective plastic and wire, mulched with hay, then watered them like crazy all summer. We hung Irish Spring soap from the branches to discourage deer from eating them, then left them alone all winter. Once spring rolled around they came to life quickly, and we may just get a few apples from the Honey Crisp trees this year. The peach and plum will take a few more years.

Over the past month Josh has been planting additional fruit trees in the orchard and various places around the garden, including:

1 Kieffer pear tree
1 Bartlett pear tree
1 Morepark apricot tree
1 Early Golden apricot tree
4 Autumn Olive bushes (these put nitrogen back into the soil and have a super healthy edible berry that is supposedly similar in taste to a pomegranate seed and extremely high in lycopene, keratin, vitamins A, C, E, and a number of other minerals)
1 Damson plum tree
2 hazelnut bushes
2 Chinese chestnut trees
2 Downy service berry trees for birds to eat
2 Hawthorne trees
1 Black Walnut tree

They are all very tiny and don't look like much at this point, but in about five years our yard will look completely different. I'm looking forward to watching it all mature. For now, here are a few photos of how things are looking:

↓ Bell pepper

↓ Brussel sprouts

 

↓ Sun Gold tomato

↓ Basil from our neighbor up the road

↓ Red cabbage

↓ Fruit trees in the orchard

↓ And our new trees look like this right now:

We also planted a few magnolia and dogwood trees along our driveway, and though they were dormant and looked like scraggly sicks when they arrived from Arbor Day (bare root trees), after being in the ground for a few weeks the leaves are starting to pop. Arbor Day tells us this tree will grow 1-2' a year and will eventually reach 20-30' tall. Lots of patience involved in growing young bare root trees :)