Garden Report: January 28

This week, a nice big package arrived from Oregon.

I'm kind of perilously close to getting into some serious trouble ordering fruit trees. There are still a few spots in the yard where I could squeeze one in, but it's getting awfully tight back there.

So this weekend was slotted out for planting these trees, and doing some other transplanting I wanted to get done.

First I needed to move the pluot (Flavour Supreme, for those keeping track). This is the only surviving tree from the four I got at the scion exchange a couple of years ago, either through general mismanagement or accident. I still need to get a pollinator to graft onto it, since I think there is a limit to how many plum or plummy trees I want to have.

I also wanted to transplant the potted irises there. I got those from a neighbor ages ago and they have well outgrown the pot and stopped blooming, so I decided to put them in the ground. I'm not sure I'm the right person to grow irises -- I find them excessively fussy about their living conditions -- but if they do well in the ground they can stay there.

The front walk is looking a little overgrown. That's actually only about 10 percent weeds, though; the rest are plants I planted or the California poppies.

In the upper part of the front garden I dug out the pluot, planted a quince in the center of the area (this is Ekmek, another Turkish quince), and transplanted all those irises, dividing them at the same time. The irises seemed quite put out, but maybe they will enjoy having room to grow and fertile soil.

And the front, after planting three trees. You can hardly tell the extents of my madness.

The pluot gets the spot by the driveway. I pruned it heavily, but I'm still not sure it has a good shape. I love my trees but am not overly sentimental about them: if a tree has a bad shape I'm willing to dig it out and get a different one. This pluot is under observation to see how it does here.

The two plums I bought this year are on the other side, next to the crabapple a friend gave me before moving out of state.

The order of the trees is: Whitney crabapple, Parfumé de Septembre plum, and Golden Transparent plum. All are on dwarfing rootstock.

This has been one crazy winter, really. Not nearly enough rain, bitterly cold (for here) and alternating with warm weather. No wonder the plants are confused.

Here comes a daffodil from the two dozen or so I planted in the swath of yard between our front yard and the neighbors'. Only one of those is coming up this early, but still.

And this ribes has little leaf buds opening.

As does this lonicera.

After planting my trees I planted the free gifts I got with my purchase. I always forget the free gifts, so it's this fun surprise in the box. I got a red raspberry which I planted by the yellow raspberry, and a package of strawberry starts that I just could not find enough room for; I left them on the neighbors' front porch.

posted by ayse on 01/28/12