I’m out of school finally and realizing just how much I’ve neglected everything else for 3+ years! The garden is no exception. Luckly, I spent enough time on maintenance to keep it going, but if I had neglected the yard another three months, I’m not sure whether it could have been saved.

The plum tree and two apple trees in the orchard garden are full of fruit. I was late in protecting them but took the time this week to put little nylon bags over about 50 plums and 50 apples. I tied the bags that went over the plums to the branches they are attached to in the hopes that squirrels, who’ve stolen every last plum the last two years, won’t be able to make off with my juicy treasures this year.

If I am able to eat a ripe plum from this tree, it will be my first one ever!

This gorgeous daylily opened today in the driveway bed.

I spent most of the day yesterday cleaning up the orchard garden. I pruned the sweet cherry, pruned roses, tied things up and back out of the pathways. There is more to do, like ripping out all the bindweed and thinning out the raspberries, but at least I can get to all the plants now! The timing worked perfectly for me to harvest some tayberries that were ripe and the very first black raspberry. Some blueberries are ripening on two bushes, as well–they weren’t quite ready to eat.

Some disappointments in that garden that will require some extra thought/work:

1. Pear rust on some cultivars of the grafted Asian pear tree–I need to research and mitigate. This tree isn’t getting enough sun, so it isn’t producing well/at all. I may need to move it.
2. The sweet cherry set quite a few fruits, but then dropped them all. I can’t tell if this has to do with pollination, lack of water, or what?
3. The camellia along the fenceline has overgrown its space by about four times. I need to prune it back to make room for all the things nearby and underneath it, including blackberries and the tree peony.

Leon and I both tackled the front of that garden, as well, that abuts the street. The snow back in winter had bent a few shrubs. Things were simply overgrown, too, having not been pruned in over a year. The toughest customer was a “broom” plant (Cytisus), a hybrid volunteer seedling from a crop I had grown 20 years ago. This one was ten feet tall and had bent over into the street. I took the pruning saw to it, but the wood was extremely hard. It took a lot more time than I imagined, and then I had to cut the severed branches further into four-foot lengths so the yard waste folks will pick them up.

The memory garden continues to shine–it has been attractive features since April and looked especially good mid-June.

This is Kniphofia thompsonii, which is an intersting contrast to the more cushiony plants that predominate in the memory garden.

The Acanthus spinosus in the Douglas fir bed is blooming big-time right now. It has impressive, architectural leaves and the blooms are great, too.

Close up of the scape showing the veined bracts and spines. I am hoping to get seeds this year, but last time it bloomed there weren’t any…

Not in the garden, but noteworthy nonetheless. These live in my office at work. I purchased some seeds off of eBay for Sinningias. I wasn’t too hopeful that the dustlike seeds would make it. I made little greenhouses out of Solo cups, with a decent hole in the top so that they breathe. Three miniscule seedlings came up and grew really quickly after they got going. These are ready to transplant, but it looks like there are fern prothallium in the cups, as well, so I am trying to wait until the ferns get leaves–I’m really curious what kind of ferns they are. The sinningias look a lot like “Gloxinia,” which is Sinningia speciosa. When I was a kid, I always wanted to grow one, so it is fantastic to have the chance now.