All of the older fruit producing plants are coming back from dormancy and have flowers and fruit forming. Last year was pretty hard on them due to some major droughts, but hoping this year they do better and so far spring has had numerous showers. Hopefully going into summer will get consistent rains, if not I will be watering them myself. Much of these plants are in their first year, but others are much older such as the apple tree. The perennials are different from the annuals as they come back every year, I have apple, cherry, blackberry, blueberry both shortbush and longbush, goji, mulberry, elderberry and strawberry plants/trees forming.
Shortbush blueberry
Above are some wild shortbush blueberry plants that I moved closer to the homestead. While clearing out the forest for roads we dug up those that were in the way and brought them over to where my other blueberry plants are.
The apple and cherry trees are doing pretty good. The japanese beetles really went after them last year, going to be better about putting out traps for them this time around.
Its hard to see them all in one shot but I have about three apple trees and three cherry trees here.
Wondering when we will finally get cherries. I see them form, but then they drop off. I guess they are not quite ready yet.
This one has a cage around it as deer were rubbing against it hurting the bark. Seems they like to rub their antlers against the wood, and that will hurt the tree and open it up to possible infection.
I plant confrey around the base of the trees, hopefully it will grow throughout this whole area and keep the grass at bay.
No signs of apples on these trees yet, though I do have one large apple tree that does produce fruit. Will show that later in the post.
Some of these apple trees are small compared to the cherry trees.
Maybe I should be topping these trees, otherwise those cherries are going to be 15 feet up in the air..lol
We just planted strawberries again this year, hoping they do better in good soil this time.
Got two of them in this bed, hopefully they will spread out when they are ready.
I had some bosenberry and raspberry, but due to how root bound the roots were and me breaking them apart it appears it put them into shock and killed them. I got more on order so hopefully I can replace them soon.
The elderberry plants seem to be forming large leaves at the base, hopefully they will go more vertical soon.
Out of the four I planted two are really happy and two are not doing much at the moment.
One of the two goji's are flowering too.
The mullberry plants are waking up too.. Leafing out.
You can see them a little better in this picture, I got two of them.
Not much is happening with them yet, but this is their first year so I do not expect them to grow all that much yet.
We have more than one bed of strawberries. Some are junebearing and others are everbearing.
If one bed does really well and starts getting crowded we will move them to another bed.
I see some growth coming up, along with flower buds.. probably a good sign.
Planting them is very touchy, too deep and they are unhappy.. too shallow and they are unhappy. So I planted a lot of them and hope just enough survive to reproduce and fill the beds.
The thornless blackberry vines I moved are still adjusting, luckily I have a whole other fence full of them very happy at this time.
This one is ready to pop, and in a month we should have lots of berries.
I see lots of flowers forming, now its time for the pollinators to do their job.
So many plants on this fence.. I am always training them back into it.
Last year we did not water the blueberries enough during the drought and lost most of the fruit. This year we will not let that happen.
I see lots of fruit forming, so just a matter of time.
Hard to see but I have four longbush blueberry plants there.
The shortbush wild variety are also near by.
We got two of them, one is quite happy and the other is not as happy. There were a bunch of wild blackberry vines trying to grow up around it. I cut those back so hopefully that will help it out.
The quince bush is coming back too. It has a fungal disease so we cut it back to the ground. Will see if that issue comes back.
Lastly the giant apple tree on the property, looking forward to its tasty fruit. It was such a nice surprise discovering it.
Hard to see the fruits now, but it was full of flowers just a few weeks ago.. So I am sure they are forming now if all is good with the tree. I gave it a good delimbing of dead branches, so every year it seems to do a little better.
We used these videos this year for pruning:
Peaches:
Plums: https://www.wilsonbrosgardens.com/how-to-prune-a-plum-tree.html
And these pictures:
Peach:
We'd not pruned them since the year after planting and the older peach especially was very bad last year. I wouldn't just top them, but use the guides to promote healthy growth.
I cleaned the grass away from the bases for quite a ways then put down wood chips pretty thickly, making sure the chips didn't touch the trunks. The comfrey won't do much for the grass, in my experience. I have it around many of my trees.
The leaves around the base of the elderberries looks more like brassica leaves than elderberry...
I think with pruning, and maybe feeding the little trees would do well. But pruning is usually only done in the winter when the trees are dormant.
Yeah I think I really need to start doing that.. they are semi dwarfs but I guess they will still get very tall. When I used to have a peach tree I would bowl it out. So probably time to start doing it to mine as well.
Ah damn, I used to grow comfrey on the side of my house and after 3-4 years it completely pushed out everything around. Well I guess I will just keep mowing and using wood chips like you said.
Hah! So I was suspicious of that too. I was thinking, "those sure look like something different than elderberry leaves" when I looked them up I was very confused.. Well there is an elderberry plant in each of those holes.. I guess the nursery I bought from had cabbage seeds get into their other plants some how. I think I should just leave them and hopefully both grow together.. And eventually the cabbage will die and the elderberry plant will live on.
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Hello Mr. @solominer
I hope the spring rains continue throughout the summer and that your fruit trees are doing well.
It would be great to see the apple trees bearing lots of fruit.
Have a beautiful day.
Me too, having the rains is sure nice.. hoping for many more.
Loving the apples I get now.. gonna make some apple sauce with my next harvest.
Those beatles really are a pain. They get all over the place. We don't have too much of an issue with them and the vegetation, but my wife hates finding them in the house. I'm trying to find some tall plants to put in our planter that can handle the cold temps.
Ah yeah, I got some traps for them. Just need to take the time and set them up..
They are pretty crazy looking, I would hate to get them in the house.. none yet though...lol
I like to use davesgarden to search for plants that are in my hardiness zone.
https://davesgarden.com/zone/
Once you know your zone, you can just look up that zone in the search database and find many plants to pick from.
Thanks for the tip! I will definitely check that out!
ohh wow its good to see you've started using the beddings what type of soil did you use for it,... ?
Yep they are all coming along.. for the beds its mostly just topsoil, but the scoop or two of good dirt for where the plant roots are.
ohhh i see more like a mixture of soils right ?
I love gardening and gardening related content. Through this, one can learn about farming in different regions and learn new methods. Thank you.
Ah glad you enjoyed the post.
Very awesome update, the land is quite good and surely the plants will grow very well my friend 🙏❤️
Ah thanks much.. it is all coming along.
It is really interesting how your garden is developing and hopefully this year will be kinder and produce more than last year my friend.
We are hoping for the best this year.. indeed always something new going on there.
Very nice, lots of trees and bushes! In a few years you will be enjoying a lot of blueberries, apples and cherries :) Were those about to flower plants blackberries? Also, it is too late for the giant apple tree, but other trees you should start pruning now to form and optimize for fruit production :)
Indeed, this is a long term plan for some good fruiting plants.. But hopefully sooner rather than later.
Those are blueberry plants, they are pretty old already. But many of the other plants in the post are on their first year.
Yeah I should, will think about doing that over the winter.
How I wish to have those everbearing strawberries! You have a lot of different kinds of berries there and I can't wait to see them abundantly bearing fruits in your next update of your perennial garden. Thanks for giving us a peek. These fruit-bearing plants are really resilient - waking up after the winter. Glad we don't have winter here, so plants are lush throughout the year, except when there is drought or El Nino. Happy planting! 💚
So true, we are going to have so many kinds if they all make it.. Hoping the best.
Nice, yeah we only have about half the year to grow here.. but I am okay with that, its more fun to be outside during the winter I think anyways.. with all the bugs gone. lol
thanks!
I see new plants in your garden. I also planted strawberries this year after a long time. It has already bloomed.
Much appreciated, oh nice.. some of ours are flowering and forming fruit.. Just hoping they spread out more soon.
Wao thants great
yeah man
Everything looks like it is coming along. Good job!
Ah thanks very much, it has a been a work in progress.
Sorry about the bosenberry and raspberry... but gosh... cherries, apples, elderberries, goji, mulberries, strawberries, thornless blackberries, blueberries, longbush blueberries, wild blackberries, and quince... what a paradise, @solominer!
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No worries... Just not going to buy plants during the winter that are big and try to keep them going.
Hah yeah, so many berries and fruits soon to come.. should be interesting.
Most fruit-bearing trees take up to 5 years to have fruit. I am not sure how old yours are, but some can even take longer than that.
I think they are getting up to about that age.. so any year now I hope.
You're doing a fantastic job with your homestead! The progress is amazing! 🙂
Much appreciated, really glad to be out here and working on it all the time. And glad to be a part of a community to share all the progress with.
You have good variety of fruits 😋 I think I like them all, plus the trees can be observed healthy and that's too fantastic.
Indeed I do, I think long term they should be all nice to have around.
Have you ever had that anxious look in spring - you see your mirabelle plums in full bloom and from that moment on you wish you could predict the weather. No more night frost, please. But the weather gods aren't always fair!
I try to guide the cherry trees (whether sweet or sour) into a broad crown as early as possible, as climbing these trees can be a dangerous business. (My own painful experience.) I usually use the cherry wildling to increase the stock of sour cherries. I can still graft in the 4th year (if I'm not happy with the fruit).
With blackberries, I rely entirely on the ‘wild growth’ in nature, as the fruit is much more flavoursome than the grafted varieties.
I know exactly what you mean, we used to have a peach tree that would always flower early.. we would get these "fake springs" that would follow up with more freezes.. needless to say we lost many harvests.
Ah yeah I think I am going to do that this winter.. dont want to have to climb up ladders to reach them and risk getting hurt.
Good luck to you. Have a great day 🍀
ah thanks very much
Where I live, the temperature goes up to 45 to 48 degrees Celsius in summer. Can I plant strawberry plants in my garden? I need your guidance.
Truly, a lot goes on in your garden. I mean, that’s full fruit and food production going on there.
Do you and your family do everything alone or do you have a lot of staff who help out in the garden?
Your work in the garden looks wonderful!
Everything looks so healthy and well cared for. It is clear that you put a lot of thought and effort in every detail. It was so nice! I hope to have a beautiful garden like that of my own someday! Your post is truly an inspiring one.Have a great day! 🤗
Great update! It’s inspiring to see how your garden is bouncing back—what’s your secret to keeping the perennials thriving year after year?
thanks! I just have to make sure they get enough water, and sometimes a little fertilizer.. otherwise they just do their thing.