Apricot 'Moorpark' in Bloom AND BOOMS!

Last three years my apricot 'Moorpark' has bloomed April 24. It is in bloom, now. Today is March 21.

Hmmm.

Something is up. Or down. Nearby, the town of Clintonville, WI has been experiencing a series of "booming noises" in the night. A seismograph in nearby Shiocton is recording some type of "activity". It even made the news on CNN. Next we'll have bird falling from the skies in the hundreds, all of the same sort. And then an earthquake.

Except that in WI we don't have earthquakes.

I heard the Clintonville townfolks are having a meeting tonight at the school to "discuss". It almost makes me want to hop in the car and check it out. Talk to the townsfolk first hand, like something out of the town meeting in "Dantes' Peak" or "Jaws"... right before the natural disaster ensues.

Hmmm.

Handsome son and I have been theorizing on what the noises might be. We're both voting on pre-earthquake tremors. That will be interesting.

Meanwhile, whichever scientist was talking about the seismic activity actually mentioned it might be connected to a farm. A farm? What sore of farm would that be? And the thing is, the noises have been heard at night, like shortly after 8 Pm, 10 PM, midnight, and 2 PM. Last night after all the ruckus in the news and hundreds of 911 calls, no tremors, until about 5:30 AM this morning

So here's my alternative theory. Sound is caused by waves. I think it is basic physics, something is moving into something else. Something close to the surface of the ground. If you look at the locations of the 911 calls(The city of Clintonville is plotting them.), they seem to be appearing in waves type lines running SW to NE. Notice the big blank area along Main Street? So people do things because A) it makes them money, or B) it's fun.

So a couple local yokels have discovered something profitable. Something they could mine, maybe. Probably something in a cave, most likely not on their property. Now I know their are geologists saying this is an area of granite, and that's true enough. But a little ways to the east are caves of dolomite, or limestone, in Calumet county. Say these locals got hold of some explosives because whatever they have been removing from these hidden caves is getting harder to remove. And some of us are more into relaxing, eating cheese, and drinking beer, and think it would be a good old-time to blow something up rather than dig it out.

I also know the Clintonville City Manager has had a search done of mining permits. Come on, does she really think they filed a permit?

It just seems sort of curious that this is going on at night. After dark. Someone knows whats going on, and it's profitable not to say what it is.

So unless you believe cows belching out methane or those tractors with those phallic spikes out front are dropping 800 pound round bales on the feedlot so hard that the neighbors are calling 911... in Wisconsin, no less; it's either earthquakes, aliens, or mole men.

Take your pick.

I think I vote for the locals strapping flashlights to their cheddar wedge cheese hat looking for gold or diamonds(or whatever they think they have found, before I go with aliens or mole men.


In the garden, the garlic scapes are coming up, as is the salad blend.

I finally seeded my first tray of assorted tomatoes, tomatillos, and sage. I made these wonderful laminated tags a couple weeks ago. Do you think I can find them?

Fruit Trees in Early Spring

Ill-fated peach tree in 2007. I did get about a dozen peaches each fall.

Anything that I can have as a perennial and ornamental foodstuff in my home garden, what I refer to as my potager, is all good. If it is sweet, all the better.

Over the last ten years as I have developed my landscape around my tiny home I have added a strawberry bed (that central Wisconsin sand is good for something!), a cherry tree, an apple tree, grape vines, rhubarb, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, a pear tree, herbs, asparagus, and an apricot tree.

I even grew a short-lived peach, as pictured above.

In addition to ornamental, perennial, fruiting, self-pollinating when possible, dwarf stock in my .15 acre lot is highly preferable.

As often as possible, I have planted dwarf varieties or cultivars grafted to dwarfing root stock. For some fruits, dwarf is not part of the vocabulary. Enter my saw and handy pruner. So yesterday, with beautiful weather (in the mid-60s), I began my regular "winter pruning" (yes, I am behind!) of some of my fruit trees that are not so dwarf.

One of the mistakes I made with the peach tree was attempting to bend it to my will, particularly to the shape of a flat fan against the wall of my tiny home. Peach trees grow best if trained in an open vase-like structure. Attempting to grow them flat gives up over half of your possible fruiting spurs. The other mistake was planting against my house at the exact spot kept warm by a standing gas pilot on my stove.

At first thought, this may seem like a good idea to all of your adventurous fruit growers trying to hack your zone. Not. What happens is the tree thinking about blooming a few days ahead of when it should given possible freezing night time temperatures. My advice to you is to plant on a south slope or in the open, but in a location where the north or northwest winds will not cause unduly harm, and not to plant in a swale.

Because peaches are not grown here in central Wisconsin, it didn't help that I started out with a far less than perfect specimen bought on fall clearance for ten bucks. The structure, to begin with, was bad. In even the best of situations, peaches are a short lived tree and begin bearing fruit much too young, before they have the structure to support it. When my peach blossomed and started showing swelling fruit the next spring on a poorly branched whip. I felt much like the Mormon mother of a pregnant 10-year-old daughter must feel. Part of me wanted to pluck off the swelling fruit, the rest of me could not bear to do so. Fruit growing is not for the weak of heart. Even on mature fruiting trees, it is a good idea to thin out your fruit, especially the clusters of three or four to just one every 3" to 6" or even a foot.

So after my experience with the peach, I decided to try a self-pollinating apricot instead. Yesterday, pruners in hand, I cut back my apricot to just one bud above the beginning of last year's growth. This is placing my apricot at about six feet high. The space I have allotted for my apricot 'Moorpark' is about six feet wide. I can see the numerous fruiting spurs running very close along all the branches of the older wood. Apricots bloom on 2-year old or older wood.

Over the next couple days I will be pruning other fruit trees and caring for the other small fruits in my potager. The family garden also has a lot of small fruits and cherries so I have lots to tell. I recently picked up this book, Growing Fruit . Although not specific to central Wisconsin, when choosing cultivars for fruit trees and small fruits, this can be a great resource. It also has a great deal of information on diseases and growing tips for first-time growers. Between marketing hype and poor selection by buyers that also stock boards, nails, and lamps at your local big box store where they are also selling fruit trees, this book might be a good first stop on selecting appropriate cultivars for your own growing conditions.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I have actually bought this book. And, if you click on the link to Amazon.com and buy it there I probably make like ten cents. Are we all good, now?)

The Family Garden and Potager Update

Well, over in the family garden we had some frost. It nailed the tomatillos we had planted there. I'm pretty sure they are goners, but we'll wait and see as we do have some space. It also nipped the very top leaves of the basil, not a big deal. We have more basil, but only one tomatillo plant growing in the potager.

The asparagus bed is sending up its first tiny purple spears. That is pretty exciting. Where I see top growth, I know the roots are making themselves at home as well.

The 'Reliance' seedless table grapes are opening leaf buds. Pretty exciting to see growth on something that is just twisty dry sticks!

And my brother scared up the first rat snake, of what my sister-in-law informs me is an infestation, but so far I have not seen. Sister-in-law says the snake was four feet long and a bit bigger in diameter than a garden hose. That's a good sized snake! I hope it works on the rodent problem of which I have seen more than a bit of evidence.

The weeds are starting to come, mostly grassy weeds, as are the potatoes! The radishes are up, The 'Early Sunglow' sweetcorn has sprouted. This is a type that does well in cooler wetter ground. It looks like a good germination level. So far, with its reported early ripening it looks like the easy winner for our future plantings as well.

We planted the the blueberries in an area that will be enclosed from rodents and birds. We amended the bed with donkey dung, compost, shredded paper, and peat moss. My two-year-old nephews found the spreading of the bags of confetti-like paper definitely the garden chore they have excelled at to-date.

On each edge of what will be an enclosed area for the blueberries and hazelnuts, we laid down black landscape fabric. Sister-in-law cut holes into it and planted tomatoes. The plan is to use the blueberry caging to tie up our tomatoes, saving us the effort and expense of caging them.

In another 500 square foot area that has been covered by black landscape fabric, we planted the first of our peppers: sweet red 'Carmen', jalapeno, and some Cayenne.

Finally, the sweet potato 'Georgia Jet' slips arrived from Jung's. They looked wilted and dead on arrival. I got home at 8 P.M. last evening to be greeted by these dead things standing upright in a bowl of water. My son had gotten the mail and was intrigued by the the small box labeled 'Georgia Jet.' Not sure what he thought they were, he did do the right thing, I believe, by giving them plant CPR. I, in turn, potted them in 3" x 3" x 6" deep pots of compost and watered them and set them on my heat mat. Knowing they like completely warm soil, a week in nice, fluffy compost on my heat mats and under the lights will be like old home week, compared to the cool nights and indifferent daytime temps we have been blessed with here in central Wisconsin.

On the fruit tree scene in my potager, the apricot 'Moorpark' has several half a dime size apricots. I did not hand pollinate this year. The tree was loaded with buds, but I would guess at this time less than a quarter were polinated. That will probably save me thinning fruit. My 'Seckl' pear is boasting handfuls of rust-colored pre-pears at this point, all the petals having dropped last week. My 'Honeycrisp' is in full bloom, or I should say 1/3 bloom; as it appears that cold snap got some of my buds on the north side where it was not protected as it was on the south side by my massive 'Diablo' ninebark. When 75% of its petals have dropped I will spray both it and the pear with Malathion to deter coddling moth. There is literature out there stating a dormant oil in the winter and two well-timed application of Malathion might be a preferred method of preventing the pests most apt to get my apples.

Blooming Potential!

Pear 'Seckl' flower buds, maybe hundreds of buds!

Where there are flowers, there is the potential for fruit! My mini-orchard is starting to bear up to its promise.





















Apricot 'Moorpark'

Cherry 'Lapin'


Grape buds! Finally!


My 'Honeycrisp' apple, for the first time looks to have buds of some sort. Some are flower and some leaves, until today, I had very little to tell me the tree was anything other than dead.

Not all the flower buds will be pollinated and not all will bear fruit. There is always the possibility of a killing frost this spring, and pests.