Posted by wilde on May 6th, 2009 — Posted in Food, Vegetable
Early this afternoon we dug up several white raspberries from a neighbor’s patch. The plants were going to be mowed down and we were lucky enough to know about this ahead of time. Since we’d been having lots of rain for the past week or so, the digging went fairly easy. Plants that we pulled out of the ground were placed in plastic grocery bags for easy handling and containment of loose dirt.
We planted the raspberries in three different places. The first area was a spot on the southwest side of the farmer’s lane in a partially open spot in the woods where the plants will get sun at mid-day and filtered sun for the rest of the day. This spot has several wild blackberries and elderberries so it seemed a likely place to dig in some raspberry canes. The second place was at the edge of the woods in the back yard and these plants will get late morning to early afternoon sun. The third spot was at the edge of the woods on the east side of the backyard and these plants will get sunlight from about noon to late afternoon. By planting in several locations we’re ensuring that at least some of the plants will grow to provide fruit.
Each raspberry plant had stiff canes from last year and some even had their flower buds developing on new growth. It will be interesting to note whether the flowers will continue to develop. Since they were dug up and re-planted within a few hours, perhaps they were not stressed too badly. It’s supposed to rain again tonight so the raspberries will be watered well.
The everlasting varieties of raspberry will bloom and set fruit more than once a year. In the fall all the canes will be cut down and fruit will arise the next year on the new year’s growth.
Now that we have about two dozen new raspberry plants, it will be interesting to see how they develop…and, eventually, how they taste!
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Posted by wilde on May 3rd, 2009 — Posted in Animal, Vegetable
Rainy days of spring – we’ve had a few in a row and the grass is getting too tall too fast. Even though it makes my last last mowing session seem like a waste of time, I do like seeing the garden lettuce getting bigger.
Trees are really growing their leaves quickly now. Scanning across the mountain ridges you can see shades of green replacing the drab and lifeless grays and browns. It’s like a wave of color change going up the mountain. The dark evergreens contrast nicely with the light greens of the new deciduous leaves.
Yesterday, we took a drive west into the heart of the Pennsylvania mountains, south of State College. All along Route 22 were beautiful redbud trees in full bloom. The lavender, lilac and light purple flowers were magnificent. In a few places these small trees lined both sides of the highway to provide a burst of colorful energy on that cool Spring day. Perhaps the redbud blossoms will last a week, but when the leaves start expanding the blooms will die back.
Dogwood trees are blooming near the edges of the forests. Even though they started blooming about a week ago, the white and ornamental pink flowers still look bright.
All the blueberry bushes are blooming now and the gaywings are smiling pinkly on the forest floor.
With all this Spring activity of growth we can’t forget our feathered friends as they have been quite active, too. A pair of bluebirds are nesting in the bluebird box – they’ve been busy for a couple weeks inspecting and cleaning house, and making a new nest.
This morning I heard an unusual bird song coming from the tree tops, so I ran to get the binoculars and then ran upstairs to get a better view. At the top of a tall oak tree was a male Scarlet Tanager singing loudly. I got to see him for only a few minutes before he flitted out of sight. Peterson tells us these birds are common, but you rarely see them unless you look up to the canopy. It’s pretty amazing how the bright, scarlet red color disappears in the shade of the leaves.
This afternoon I was treated to another bird song. This time the sounds came from a different direction, but also from the top of an oak tree. The binoculars verified that a Baltimore Oriole, or Northern Oriole, was looking for his mate. The bird’s head was distinctly all black and his chest and back shined a bright orange.
The oak leaves are probably 50% developed on average. The white oaks are a little behind the red oaks and chestnut oaks in their development.
The gypsy moths should be hatching very soon, so I hope the tanager and oriole will stick around for many free meals. I’ve heard that these two birds will eat the gypsy moth caterpillars, but can anyone verify that? I’ve also heard that no native bird here in the U.S. will eat the nasty little defoliators, so I’m crossing my fingers that the former is true.
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Posted by wilde on April 27th, 2009 — Posted in Vegetable
The unseasonably warm weather, about 20 degrees above normal, has probably pushed the development of some plants a little faster than more typical blustery cool weather of spring. The last four days have been very hot in the afternoons, like 90 degrees or more, and the nights only down to 60 degrees. The cherry tree leaves developed quickly and the petals of the white cherry blossoms have mostly fallen away. The weather has been very warm, and windy, too.
Dogwood trees started blooming today. Pictures to come.
Rue anenome showing more individual plants than previous years down along the right side of the lane across from the raspberries by the pond. Violets out in large numbers at the pond and all along the lane. Most trees at least starting to bud out, the woods are getting greener now.
Moss peony has four blooms that have not yet opened. I’ve watered it in the evenings as after the first real hot day it was quite wilted by the afternoon sun. A rhododendron that gets morning sun is in full bloom, while a large one in the filtered shade of the trees has no blooms to show.
The purple tulips are open now for a couple days, but the white tulips (they’re planted together) are just now reaching their flowers buds higher, but not yet opening them.
A couple blooming wild weeds that I found in a neighbor’s lawn include the blue and white common speedwell and the purple gill-over-the-ground, which were both flowering profusely.
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