The nectarine is about to start shedding its flowers. Leaves are growing. Since it is pretty young starting its second year in the ground, I’ll be super impressed if it successfully fruits. 🌳🌱
Orchard
A slow, rolling bloom for the apricot this year. It didn’t fruit at all last year. Here’s hoping for a fruitful year. (it has fruited before so we know it is possible) 🌳🌱
Took a Potensic D58 drone photo today of the backyard (bottom photo) to compare against January 2020 (top photo). Looking real nice. Fun to have unusual views of the yard.
We’re finally eating our backyard Valencia oranges. Sooo good. 🍊🌳🌱
Our “Bacon” Avocado flower buds are developing nicely. Also, the fig is waking up. 🌱🌳
First apricot bloom. Hopefully, as in past years, far more will follow. Figure this flower puts pollinators on notice. 🌳🌱
This should be my last nectarine flower photo. This year. 🌳🌱
Easiest way to deal with (perhaps) hundreds of mandarins once ripe: juice them. These have brightened to very red-orange I wonder if they are closer to tangerines?
The nectarine is up and at ‘em with many glorious blooms. 🌱🌳
Pompasetting nectarine.
First bloom today of our nectarine! 🌳 🌱
Got a warm spell in California so now I expect the nectarine to bloom any day now. The local almond trees already have.🌳🌱
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 →
The Fantasia nectarine (planted Jan 2020) is still in swollen bud stage. Has been for days. It’s sooo close to blooming. Here’s hoping it’ll produce fruit for the first time this year!
Someday we’ll figure out how to make rice noodles right. Did a bunch of experiments today and almost got there. We just want perfect Drunken Noodles and Pad See Ew.
Got to make the rock rings around the citrus trees larger so drip emitters can be moved back for better root growth. Also may help with frost as the ground can now radiate heat up into the trees rather than be insulated by wood chips. Here’s before and after.
Close up of a Meyer Lemon still on the tree. 😋
Lemon grass is overwintering nicely. This time we dug up the plant to include roots. Last year we rooted a few stalks in water; here’s its progeny 👌 There’s another bunch of lemon grass outdoors. If it survives, that’ll be the second year overwintering outside in native soil. 🌱
We have a lot of citrus in the backyard: mandarins, Meyer lemons, and Valencias. This means it is time for Alton Brown’s Acid Jellies! We don’t coat them with sugar at the end of the cook as we’ve found the sugar is too hydrophilic in humid winters & the jellies get… damp. 🌱
Dutch baby for breakfast. It is really great with Meyer lemons (from the backyard tree; which is great as we can’t get Meyers in town).
Pruned the apricot today. I only kind of know what I’m doing. It looks about right to me. Every year I open it up a bit more and reduce its height. I let it get too big. Before and after.
House Sparrows frenetically bathing under the mandarin this morning.
Mandarins and Meyer Lemons are ripening nicely. Maybe one more month until the Mandarins are sweet enough.
The Results of the 2020 Home Orchard Fixed Daily Watering Experiment
Sunday, November 15, 2020
This last orchard growing season, Iwatered using daily fixed schedules that took into account average daily evapotranspiration and estimated daily plant water use. I set up schedules for each month in the summer, since evapotranspiration and water usage changes significantly month to month. Previous years I had used a dynamic schedule determined by Rachio’s Flex Daily algorithm and Advanced Zone settings. The Flex algorithm greatly favors deep waterings and the interval is guided by daily estimated evapotranspiration.Planted a New Cherry Tree Today
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
I planted a replacement Lapins Cherry today. Bought it from Stark Bro’s and it has a great unblemished, no prune cut trunk. That is never the case if I buy locally, even from a family operated nursery. As planted, it’s a 42” tall stick. It’ll develop branches next spring. I finally got to use our homemade compost that’s been over a year in the making!The rainy season in California is right around the corner, so I just cleaned the rain gage & other weather station components of summer’s dust and ash. Meanwhile, the mandarins are slowly ripening.
Tore out the bark beetle infested Lapins Cherry today. It was half dead by beetles girdling it. In November we’ll put in a new Lapins Cherry from Stark Bros.. The old tree was from a big box store and while it provided prodigious fruit it was oddly pruned and I couldn’t fix it.
Lemongrass came back this year after dying back over winter (we also took cuttings over winter and one managed to take). So here’s homemade lemongrass ice cream topped with praline. 😋
Been a few years since we first wanted to mulch the backyard. Weather got nice so here we go with 10 cu yd of chips!
Metallic ribbon and a fake bird of prey truly keeps the birds away from our figs.
This western milkweed bug stuffing itself into the eye of the Brown Turkey Fig is decidedly not cuddly and I do not like them ruining my figs! We actually cut into a fig the other day, decapitating a milkweed bug that got inside.
