Peach harvest, with a not-so-delicious surprise

It's peach harvesting time here at Poppy Corners, and so far this year we've got a bumper crop. We've processed them for freezing, for icebox pie, for jam, and of course we've been eating them at every meal.  They're delicious and we realize our trees must have had plenty of chill-hours this past winter to get such a good crop. (We don't know the variety of this peach tree, since it was here when we moved in, and is probably at least 25 years old. It's a wonder it's still alive, let alone producing. With global warming, who knows if it's getting the requirements it needs at this point.)

This morning, Adam made breakfast for Tom (our homemade sourdough toast, topped with thick-cut bacon, sautéed greens, and a crispy fried egg freshly laid from our chickens) and it included a cut-up peach. As Tom got down to the bottom of the dish of peaches, he noticed a bit of extra protein - a small white worm. This grossed us out so badly that we took it out to the chickens before we had a chance to take a picture of it or look more closely. 

Further research reveals it was probably a Plum Curculio larvae. 

This insect is apparently the 'Achilles Heel' of the orcharding community. I had no idea and have never seen it before. But now that I have, I need to deal with it.

Every university extension seems to recommend pesticides. We are committed to avoiding pesticides at all costs. Time and experience have shown us that there is always an organic way to deal with pests, usually some kind of predator. Research shows that ants are the primary predator of plum curculio, and we have plenty of those. But we need some sort of deterrent, and that is where a product called Surround comes in.

Surround is made primarily of kaolin clay, and with repeated applications can completely coat the fruit so that insects cannot access it. This apparently works for all kinds of terrible orchard insects, including the coddling moth, which we have also had in our apple tree in the past. Here is a great blog post about this product. The problem is, it needs to be applied as soon as the flowers drop, just before fruit begins to set. So I've missed the window this year. I've put a calendar reminder in to order this (not cheap) product in January. Arbico Organics has it for a good price. 

I also need to remember to spray copper as a fungicide for the peach tree, as it had minor peach leaf curl this year. 

Many people think fruit trees are kind of a 'plant-it and forget-it' sort of thing. I'm finding that they take a little bit more work than that. Pruning is something that needs to be done yearly, if not twice a year; the trees need adequate organic matter (compost or worm castings seem to be best); and now this issue of pests.

For now, we'll just enjoy the fruit while looking a bit more closely at its contents!

We noticed this good predator on the hops the other day...

ladybug larvae

... and while birds can be pests, they can also be helpers. We've had some territorial California Towhees mating in our yard. They can eat a lot of insects. Mourning Doves are often scratching and pecking around the chicken coop, picking up seeds the chickens have flung out with their back feet, helping me avoid unwanted germination. I've noticed Robins in our vegetable beds, probably looking for worms (we have plenty) but hopefully also eating some sow bugs and cutworms as well.

In other news, we've all had one cherry tomato each (Mexico Midget wins the prize for first ripe tomato) and there are some plum tomatoes ripening quite quickly.

The peppers are coming along almost as quickly.

Sheepnose Pimento

And some junior sunflowers are recovering from the Reign of Turkey Terror and getting closer to blooming.

Our Father's Day plans including making more jam, fixing a ripped sprinkler line, and opening the beehive for a check. The bees have been very busy and may need more room.

One of our honeybees foraging on a Scarlet Scabiosa

We're also taking in a Blues show later. Should be fun!

June Garden Overview

Now that the turkey is gone (and apparently she is loving her new 15 acre home and is even laying eggs for her new keepers), all my plants can start growing again. Luckily we have a long growing season here in Zone 9b in the Northern California interior, and we'll have plenty of time for catch up. 

So as I show you these pictures of the garden, keep that in mind - we have turkey damage we're overcoming, especially when it comes to winter squash, cucumbers, and peppers. Also the pollinator gardens are in a bit of a lull since I cleared out the spring flower debris and we're now waiting on summer flowers to grow up and bloom (things like cosmos, zinnias, tithonia, coreopsis). But I thought you'd like to have a more vegetable-heavy post, as I've been so in love with flowers lately and only seem to take pictures of those.

Anyway, here's the North Garden. North Garden is full hot sun all day until dinnertime - and here we have our peach, apple, fig, quince, cherry, plum, and new orange tree, as well as alpine strawberries as a ground cover, tomatoes, peppers, corn, winter squash, sweet potatoes, newly planted basil, cilantro, pumpkins, gourds, potatoes, and hops. Also some containers of basil, lettuces, and cucumbers. Oh, and one huckleberry bush. Plus a plethora of flowers, a chicken coop, and two compost piles.

Scarlet Scabiosa

Hop cones

My friend and coworker gave me a gift certificate on my last day of work, and with that I bought a Robertson Naval Orange. We'll see how it fares. I had to clear out a volunteer flowering pomegranate and severely cut back a flowering currant to make it happen here. Gosh, the orange flowers smell unbelievable.

Here's the South Garden. This side gets early morning sun till midday, then sun again in the late afternoon/early evening. There is an exception and that's the back area where we get full sun, and there we have the strawberry pallet wall, plus watermelons and cantaloupe. In the other raised beds we have succession plantings of romaine, collards, cucumbers (both slicing and pickling), and pole beans. Here is also our new herb Understory Garden, with an Asian Pear in the middle, and every kind of herb you could want, as well as rhubarb, lemon verbena, and fennel. Artichokes (still very small) are in each small triangle bed and they are surrounded by basil and cilantro seedlings. We have blueberry bushes next to a warm wall, and lots of both annual and perennial flowers here. 

Cantaloupe blossoms

I didn't take any pictures of the Fountain Garden, but that's where we keep our asparagus bed, a strawberry bed, two more blueberry bushes, and several native flowering bushes, as well as the top bar bee hive (which by the way has been extremely busy), and our bubbling fountain.

I also didn't take any pictures of the Woodland Garden, since that's mainly native flowers this is not a flower post!

Then there's the Parking Strip Garden, which has an herb mound (slowly being taken over by mint), lots of salvias and lavenders, our raspberry canes (which aren't doing so well) and our thornless blackberry vines, plus a smaller worm/compost bin. The best part of this garden is our new addition - the Little Free Library! It's finally registered, and shortly will be on the world map.

Next to our neighbor's grape vines and lemon tree, and the herb mound I need to do something about

Yesterday I spent several hours touring several Berkeley Urban Farms, which was organized by the Institute of Urban Homesteading. It was enlightening, as always, and I came away with several new ideas. 

How about this cool vertical planter?

Serious rainwater collection. We need these.

an ingenious way of protecting a raised strawberry bed from critters

and nearly every garden I toured had these - tree collards - a perennial green. I think I must try them.

Fun to see so many people of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, income levels, enjoying beautiful and fruitful urban gardens. Inspiring!

Tomato and Turkey Update

I thought you might like to know what I'm doing differently about the tomatoes this year, and how the new systems are working.

As you know, last year, though we had a fairly big yield, we also had a lot of issues with diseases, especially with the paste tomatoes. This meant that though we had plenty for fresh eating, we didn't have nearly enough to preserve for the winter. This year, I did several things differently to try and increase our harvest.

Copper River

The first thing I did was to start most of the tomatoes from seed, which was about 60% successful. Starting them from seed allowed me to rule out outside inputs, since I didn't know if the seedlings came in with diseases or if they acquired them once they were here. 

The second thing was to add many amendments to the soil. I added compost as usual, but to each hole I also added a dozen crushed eggshells from our own chickens, some bone meal, and some organic tomato fertilizer. 

Third, I decided to try the Florida Weave system of trellising. This consists of pounding stakes in on either side of the raised bed and running twine in between them at intervals, weaving it front and back around the vines. I am very happy with the way this is working. Every time the tomatoes grow six inches or so, I add another line of twine. It's keeping the vines contained and neat. Ostensibly we can go all the way up to 8-9 feet this way. It is a little more trouble than just sticking a cage around them and letting them go, but really not much more. In the evenings when I'm doing my garden checks, I just add one more check - do I need to add another line? And if I do, it takes 15 minutes, some scissors, and some twine. No big deal.

Here, you can see the lines of Florida Weave in and around the plants (this tomato in front is Cherokee Purple. You can also see where Joe the dog has been digging between the rows, damn him.

Lastly, I decided to trim the bottoms of all my tomato plants of extra foliage. As one gardener I know said, "we're growing fruit, not leaves!" and that made a lot of sense to me. The plants need a certain amount of leaves for photosynthesis, but there are plenty, and trimming the bottom sections off allows more light and air to get to the lower-hanging fruit, which is good. It also allows you to keep leaves off the soil, even though most of the soil is covered with mulch. When tomato leaves touch the soil, there are infinitely more chances for the plants to catch soil-borne diseases. And I think it looks pretty, like ornaments on a tree.

Two varieties of plum tomatoes, one a determinate vine (La Roma) and one indeterminate (Rocky).

The other advantage to seeing what's happening down below is if a leaf goes yellow for some unknown reason, it's easy to see, and I can snip it off immediately before whatever-problem-it-is spreads. 

Cilantro in front, peaches in the back

So far I am really pleased with the way the tomatoes are growing. We even had some Mexico Midgets nearly ready to eat yesterday, until the turkey ate them. Sigh.

Which brings me to my turkey update. I had made up my mind to build some sort of coop to house her because I couldn't bear to have her keep coming through my yard and eating stuff, and I wasn't ready to try and make her into dinner. As I was asking around my neighborhood for scrap wood and donations, my next-door neighbor solved the problem entirely. Her son has a farmer friend, and they came and caught the turkey last night. Now she has a new home. 

Here she is two nights ago, hanging out on our porch and pooping.

I can't tell you what a relief it's been to not chase her out of the yard ten times this morning, and waking up early because I knew she was out there about 5 am eating up all my winter squashes and sweet potatoes. I'm home today, and I keep looking for her out there. Oh well, maybe I miss her a little, or maybe I'm just still on alert. Turkey PTSD. I took down the row covers so the peppers and basil can breathe again, and the chickens are pecking around their coop without that jittery look on their faces. I guess the turkey reign of terror is over. 

In other news, we've picked our first peaches and already frozen a batch. I might make some jam today too. We also picked the first plums from our one-year-old tree.

The hops are starting to 'cone.'

And our home is full of transitions, with our son graduating from 8th grade and heading to High School next year, and our daughter finishing up 7th grade and looking forward to beginning at a new charter school for Performing Arts, next year. My last day of work at Wellspring was Wednesday, so I've got to start figuring out my next gig. Summer looms, with all its sunscreen and swimming and harvesting and fun!

My new Freshman

Turkey Damage (or, why I don't let my chickens free-range)

Do you remember in the Little House on the Prairie book (this might be the one on Plum Creek), when Pa planted a huge field of wheat? He planted the wheat, it came up beautifully, he knew he was going to get a huge sum of money when he sold it, so he borrowed against the wheat crop to buy the lumber to build the family a new house. He buys fancy milled lumber on credit and builds this huge (by their terms) two-story house and everyone is happy and then....

... the locusts come.

The locusts descend on the wheat field and they eat it down to the ground. There's not a speck left. The family is devastated. Pa has to leave home to go find work in order to pay off the debt, leaving Ma with a farm, livestock, and three children (and maybe a baby? I can't remember) to take care of all by herself. It's horrible.

I must have read this book 25 times when I was young, and I read it aloud to both my kids, but the thing that I remember most about this part is how Pa would just stand at the window of the house looking out. No expression on his face, just looking out at the millions of locusts, eating up all his hard work and all his profits, leaving him in debt. Total despair.

Now, the good news is, our turkey damage is absolutely NOTHING like this! But I actually thought of this scene when I went out yesterday and found the turkey in the peppers for the twentieth time and I couldn't do anything but stand there and look at the damage. Peppers that I've nurtured from seed since January, getting torn apart by this damn bird who doesn't belong in our yard. A bird that was likely being raised by someone, who for some reason couldn't take care of it anymore and released it in to the wild to fend for itself.

This sort of helpless feeling is the same one I had when I'd walk out and see deer damage, before we fixed the fence. And I've been oh so smug. And the turkey doesn't care a whit for our fence. Turkeys in the wild like to roost 40 feet up in a tree. A domesticated turkey like this one likes to roost 20 feet up. Our little seven foot fence is nothing to her. 

She comes in to our yard from all angles. She flies over from the neighbors yards. She flies over from the street. She comes in at the South side and at the North side, though she definitely prefers the North side since that's where the chickens are. Easy pickings, those bits of seed that the chickens have flung out of their coop with their scratching. Or maybe it's that she's looking for her kin. Turkeys don't like to be alone, and this one is very alone. Which used to make me feel sorry for it. 

But I don't anymore. I'm done with this turkey. I want to catch this turkey and turn it in to dinner. This turkey is decimating squash, corn, potatoes. She has denuded the sunflowers and torn out pepper leaves. I've had it.

Sunflowers

A pepper, half the size it used to be

potatoes

Tom and I got out the PVC arches and the row covers last night, and covered up the peppers so that as least that's a bit of a deterrant. I have burgeoning basil in those beds too, so I didn't want the turkey to get in there again as she also digs and scratches, of course, and finds and eats the seeds.

This is working fine, at least today, but it's not a long-term solution. It's the wrong time for row covers, the peppers want the sun and heat, and it reduces airflow inside which isn't great in the summer. But hopefully it will keep her out for now. 

This, my friends, is why I don't let my chickens free-range. They would do this damage all over my garden. I can't tell you how much I agonize, keeping the chickens inside their coop, wanting to let them go free free free. But it just wouldn't work, unless I totally caged off all my raised beds. And side beds. And containers. You see the issue.

Meanwhile, that turkey is not long for this world. I'm allowed by law to take it by bow and arrow (I don't have one of those lying around. Does anyone?) or net. Net is the answer. Then I just have to screw up my courage and kill her. I've never done this before. I'm not sure I can. 

I've posted notes on our neighborhood website, I've called animal control and the wildlife museum, there's no help out there. We don't have room for the kind of coop a turkey would need, plus she wouldn't like to be alone, so we'd have to get more turkeys. We can't put her in with the chickens because chickens can give turkeys diseases. Plus the coop is the wrong size. Plus the chickens are terrified of the turkey and press themselves in a clump in the corner anytime she is around. 

Which is ALL THE TIME. Mostly early and late in the day, she always comes looking. Every 15 minutes, we are chasing her out the yard and down the street. Why isn't our neighborhood coyote getting her? What about the bobcat someone spotted two blocks down? I just keep hoping one day she won't show up and the problem will be solved.

And she's a beautiful bird. This is just unfortunate all around.

Seedpods, Fruit, and a Shaker Peg Rail

I've been on a seed saving spree. (Say that five times fast!) I've always tried to save some seed from our annual flowers, but this year I'm really enjoying finding new seeds to save. If I can put a dent in our yearly seed budget, that would be delightful! And of course it is a more sustainable practice than buying every year, and it has the benefit of a zero carbon footprint. 

Today I cut, dried, and saved Love-in-a-Mist (or Nigella). (I must say something about these photos. I used, as always, my phone (iPhone 6). I zoomed in quite a lot. Please please please forgive all the detail of my very dirty, work-hardened hands. Please concentrate on the seedpods, not my yucky fingers. Next time I will figure out a way to photograph with a piece of construction paper behind the desired item.)

a slightly squashed seed pod

From the top looking in, you can see the seeds. Isn't this seedpod lovely?

With the top pulled off

The seeds inside

Here's a California Poppy. Not quite so lovely. But then this is a hardscrabble flower, meant to survive severe drought and still bloom. It can't afford to have a nice balloon shape. It makes me think of the word 'sere.' 

Here's one still closed, not dry enough to pop open yet

and here's one sprung open, the seeds all in a row

I also collected quite a few nasturtium seeds. I use nasturtium everywhere in both the flower and vegetable beds, as it attracts beneficial insects (and hummingbirds) and repels the ones I don't want anywhere near my delicious veg. Saving these seeds will help me an awful lot in future.

They tend to grow in a group of three

These will dry and harden further, then they'll be ready to plant. 

And this year we finally have enough Forget-me-Nots to collect some seed. These seeds are the annoying kind that inspired the inventor of Velcro.

sticky, but beautiful

Today (and this whole week) has been enormously hot, so the routine has been: go out to the garden for an hour, then come inside and drink a gallon of hibiscus iced tea, then go outside for an hour, then come inside and have a little lie-down under a fan. I have to say the fruit just loves the heat and is bursting out everywhere. The plums are just a couple of days from eating, as are the peaches, and the tomatoes are clustered all along the stems of the plants.

This is a Santa Rosa plum we planted a year ago, last Spring. We have three plums on the tree this year, which I call a success. They are gorgeous and I can't wait to eat them.

The peaches are numerous and glorious. We have dreams of frozen peaches for smoothies, peaches for pie, peaches to eat out-of-hand, and of course peach jam. About three times a day we go out and squeeze them, or see if they come off easily in our hand. That will be our cue to start eating. We must stay ahead of the squirrels and birds, though we have so many, we can share.

Tomatoes. Can't wait.

We have slicers, paste, and cherry tomatoes all rivaling to be the first ones ready to eat. I'm trying new things with growing tomatoes this year, and I'll write about that in a different post. So far, I really like where things are headed.

Something else hot weather brings out, and they're not as welcome as the fruit, are flies. Gosh they are annoying. But today I noticed flies pollinating both a yarrow and the cilantro, so they're not all bad.

And oh my goodness the cilantro is just a hotbed of activity, I noticed 8 different kinds of pollinators on it at one time today. This is absolutely one of those crops you should let bolt and go to seed. Pollinators really seem to love this kind of flower - an umbel - and cilantro is another one of those flowers that attracts the good guys and repels the bad guys. 

Our garlic harvest was so robust this year that I asked my father to make us another hanging rail for the braids. We have four pegs on our canning shelf, and those are occupied by two garlic braids, a mesh bag of shallots, and a mesh bag of fingerling potatoes. I had six more braids of garlic, and we really don't want to try to fit everything on those four pegs because we need to increase the airflow around the produce if we want it to last longer. So Dad made us a Shaker Peg Rail, and it looks nice in a dark corner by the piano.

Two more pictures to share. I bought a Humboldt Lily at the Watershed Nursery back on Mother's Day, and it's blooming. Spectacular. Why didn't I get more of these?

This is California's drought-tolerant answer to the Leopard Lily

And I just love the way this Scabiosa atropurpurea 'Scarlet' (pincushion flower) looks as it builds up to bloom.

Isn't that something?

Hope you're all having a marvelous weekend!