It was supposed to be cloudy and "maybe" reach 59, but instead it was sunny all day and reached 68, so . . . .I looked at my yard schematic and pretty much decided what fruit trees I want and where they could go. I went to Bedford Fields after lunch and bought 1 Cortland and 1 McIntosh apple trees, my two favorite apples in the world. I went with the dwarf variety which only get around 15' tall.
I also bought a dwarf peach tree, self-pollinating. I wanted a pear tree, but the only ones they carried needed two pears of different varieties for pollinating. Dad says his pear tree on Lowder Road was self-pollinating and grew pears by the bushel barrel, so I'm going to keep looking.
I also bought 2 thornless blackberry bushes which will get 6' tall, and 3 highbush blueberry bushes that will get 4' tall. I would like to find some lowbush blueberries as well, maybe while I'm looking for the pear tree I'll get lucky.
I also bought 7 strawberry plants; 4 Ever bearing and 3 June bearing.
Something else I'm going to try this year are tomatoes; 1 Red Beafsteak and 1 Big Boy, this ought to be interesting.
Last but not least I'm going to try getting Asparagus going. I've heard its not all that easy, and I'll have to wait for the 3rd year to really have a harvest, but it's soooooo good, I think it will be worth it.
Now, going from my new fruit and vegetable exploits to the flower gardener side of things . . . the Korean Poukahense Azaleas opened today. They are finally starting to get big. T
his year marks their 4th year in the yard, and they are almost 3' x 3' with solid blooms, quite the show stopper. They were bigger, but heavy snow two years ago broke the centers out of 3 of them. I need to figure out a "cheap" way of protecting them, or I'm sure it will happen again.
