A lot has happened since I last blogged including raised beds, asparagus planting, more blueberries, currants, jostaberries, a kiwi/hop tower, a pergola, the whole front and side yards and on and on, so I thought I would try to catch everyone up with some photos and a time-lapse slide show.
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This is a 12' 4x4 with eye-hooks we concreted into the ground. Then we ran wires from the chain link fence up to it as supports for the kiwi vines.
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Here is the early stages of the work we did on the side yard which included killing the grass, adding amendments, tilling, and regrading.
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Here we got a little fence, the path is in, and we have planted ajuga and hostas. The pergola has not yet been put up in this picture.
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Here is the pond as it has developed one year after it was put in.
This is by no means a full update. I will try to do a full blog on the pergola, I want to do an update on the grapevine, and the front yard will be its own blog. Stay tuned!
A utility knife was my primary tool, however, my blade was brand new and sprayed with a bleach/water solution.
A very technical diagram of how I cut the receiving tree and the scion for the graft.
Black electrical tape serves to hold the graft union together and resist moisture loss through the open wound.
The Gala scion grafted to the McIntosh tree as it was in late March.
The graft as it is now in May, about a month and a half later. You can see the buds breaking and new leaves forming.
To scroll through the slideshow click next above the picture.
So… last year we bought a McIntosh apple and promptly filled up the rest of the yard to the point that we didn’t feel like we had enough space for another semi-dwarf tree, nor do we need that many apples. The problem is that apples need a different variety nearby in order to set their best fruit and we aren’t sure if there are any other apples or crab apples that would be close enough to do the job (sweet cherries, pears and others have similar needs).
