The blackberries are going great. More than enough for eating now and extra for the freezer.
The snow peas and snap peas are prolific this year. Way more than we can use, even if we freeze some.
The green beans are flowering like crazy. It won’t be long before we can start harvesting them.
The Flavorosa pluot is one of the first tree fruits to ripen. This one should have been thinned more heavily since it ripens so early. Must remember that for next year to get fewer but larger fruits.
Tomatoes appear to be doing well. Initially they showed signs of nutrient deficiencies. Fish bone meal was added to the beds and they got a more appropriate shade of green. Regular miracle grow feedings are planned to keep the veggies fed through the summer months.
The first crop of corn is a bit behind where it was same time last year due to being planted later.
The view down the bottom orchard row. The pear trees at the start of the row are loaded with small pears.
orchard
One of the pluots, Flavorosa, is already turning colors. It is a really dark purple skin when ripe with a delicious, slightly purplish red interior.
The dwarf mulberry has finally started producing berries this year. So far, we harvested enough to make a pint of jam.
At this point it appears that we will have a lot of blackberries soon.
Limes, lemons, mandarins and tangerines from the citrus trees along the driveway.
There is still a fair amount of fruit left on the trees after bringing in the batch on the kitchen counter.
One of the mandarin trees (which is currently more like a bush) still has more to harvest. Fortunately, citrus lasts on the trees much better than many other kinds of fruit.
For the first time in a very long time, we received abundant rain during the winter months. The garden responded accordingly. The rain did make it hard to get the winter pruning and dormant spraying completed. The veggies also had a late start as a result.
The state of things in the veggie garden after the winter is pretty sad.
Rain found the gopher tunnels and created a number of washouts in the garden included a couple like this one that ran under the raised bed.
Another bed with the gopher tunnel issue. Plus, the corner of the garden which was not so good before, is seriously missing after the rains.
A group of peach trees, one of which is covered in spectacular double flowers.
Pear trees at one end of the orchard row produced a lot of blooms. There is a danger of fire blight because they bloom while things are still quite damp (heavy morning fog is typical.)
One of the four-in-one pluots still has a lot of flowers despite heavy dormant pruning. Many of the trees were cut back quite a lot in an effort to get them into a good shape. As a result a lot of branches that would have produced flowers and fruit were removed, but for the most part, it looks like enough remain to provide fruit this year.
This group of four plum trees has a good number of blooms.
Two of the four sweet cherries in bloom.
The forecast indicates that more rain should be here again shortly. It was nice to have a week to dry out with several days getting out in the sunshine to do some of the winter garden tasks. According to our weather station, in all of 2015 we had less than 7 inches of rain and last year, not quite 17 inches fell despite “el nino”. The total for January 2017 has been just shy of 13 inches of rain. After years of drought in this area, no one has been complaining about getting wet.
Most of the garden is inactive. However, several of the citrus trees (actually closer to bushes because they are probably no more than four feet in height at this point) are loaded with fruit. Mandarins seem to like our climate and so I harvested some of the Clementines to enjoy over the next few days.
I also found that the daffodils were starting to bloom and brought a handful of those in to brighten up the kitchen. The bulbs were planted within the “drip line” of the fruit tree groups so they add some color to the “orchard” before the trees come into bloom. As it turns out, daffodil bulbs are not bothered by gophers, so we should be able to look forward to more daffodils with each year.