Another loss.

More bad news about the Persimmon Trees.
As I mentioned earlier I discovered that one seems to have been killed by a lightning strike. Well, during the inspection of the strickened tree I noticed this........................

....at the bottom of one of the two remaining trees. Some kind of rot, similar to that which has affected two of the Redbud trees in other parts of the garden. I don't know whether it's caused by termites, the fact that the land is particularly wet, lawnmower damage from past years allowing disease to penetrate or a combination of all three. All I know is , at that point I had a feeling that this tree too would soon be lost.

But, I didn't know just how soon that awful moment would come.


Last Wednesday evening around 5-30pm we had a particularly bad thunderstorm, preceded by about 10 minutes of "Straight Line Winds" blasting from the South. I stood in the doorway and watched as every tree in the area took a terrible thrashing from this frightening blast and sadly after around 5 minutes the Persimmon could no longer stand the force and fell.

It was heartbreaking to see all those years of growth swept down before my eyes. These trees with their majestic canopy were a delight for us to view from our dining table and gave shelter and a regular supply of food to the birds during the harsh winter months.

Perhaps the strain from the ice storm of December 2007 shown here................

......was a contributing factor. We will never know.

We ended the year 2008 with 3 of these delightful additions to the garden and now we are down to one.

Lets move on.......................................................

Plot 6 is slowly coming to life.

The Yolo Bell Pepper plants are quite away behind this year and have suffered a lot of leaf loss in the thunderstorms and high wind. But they seem to be finding their feet now. I mulched them in an effort to keep the soils temperature more even and to retain moisture in the coming hot months. From left to right at the front the Dill, Basil and Curly Parsley plants look great.

In Plot 1 my "Cup runneth over" with Egyptian Onions.................

....so I gathered a jug full of the bulbits and made some...............

Pickled Onions.

I also got a roasting from my wife for forgetting to turn on the extractor fan and stinking the whole house out with the strong aroma of boiled Rice Vinegar. Eeeeek!

But I must have been forgiven because she made us a super Potato Salad using some of the Red Potatoes from Plot 5, Onions from Plot 1 and fresh eggs from our neighbours hens.

What a colourful and tasty feast!!
Enough.

Some losses

It's been a hot day here in Oklahomegrownvegland. A constant 90F (32C)
Not a good day to be working on repairing the shed floor...........................

But it's done! Another job crossed off from the "to do" list.
Yesterday was a little cooler so I managed to get some gardening done.
My wife got the flower beds knocked into shape.......................

Front flower beds..................

....now have colour added......................

.....and are mulched.

The Mosquito plant is another new arrival, an impulse buy on my part from our local Garden Center.
I've been in tree planting mode and added another 3 yesterday......

.....including this Washington Hawthorn.......

......and Sargent Crab apple.
That's a total of 16 so far this year. Up with trees!
Sadly there's bad news about one of the three Persimmon trees, it appears to have been struck by lightning.

Where last year there was ample growth this year the whole tree is dead.
Examination of the lower truck reveals...................

....huge cracks...............

.....in various places. This is a sad loss indeed as the 3 trees all make one nicely shaped canopy and give the appearance of one large tree. This is one of the reasons that the problem went unseen for so long because, when viewed from the house you only notice a couple of dead branches. It was only when I approached the trees from the creek that I saw the extent of the devastation.
On a more positive note..............

..the Fuji Apples bountiful harvest. .

Well, if I can get to them before the birds that is.
Moving around the back of the house the Tomato plants in the containers..............

.....have doubled in height and are flowering. I'm tending to give these a little extra Fish Emulsion as they have limited growing medium and dry out quickly. Constant watering will probably flush out most of the nutrients from the soil.
Plot 2

Tomato plants look good and are in flower. The parsnip seed aren't doing a thing. I'll check again when I water tonight.
Plot 3

So far so good with the potatoes. These plants have flowered heavily and I've kept up the watering as this is the time of tuber development.
Plot 4

I've harvested one Kohlrabi which came in at around 3 inch diameter, and two small batches of radish. These went in with the Mesclun which is STILL providing and could turn out to be the best new discovery of the season.
Plot 5
Now here's more bad news.................
In two weeks the batch of red potatoes has gone.........................

...........from this...........................

.....to this.
It look suspiciously like Verticillium Wilt to me...................

I dig up one row, which is half the plot, and get 5lb of potatoes. So my hopes for a good harvest of Reds are shattered for this year. Funnily enough, my spell checker wanted to change the word "Verticillium" to "Voodooism". Now there's a thought, maybe I have a Potato Curse?
Plot 6

Sparkler Radishes look good, Yolo Bell peppers are struggling to get off the ground this year in direct contrast to the rapid growth last year. Of the Parsnip seeds I planted there looks to be about 6 or 8 showing through. Oh well, maybe Wal Mart will do better.
The determinate Tomato plants, which is situated in one of the ends of the path...............

....set it's first fruit last weekend and now has quite a few showing. This is the only tomato plant with fruit on to date.
At the opposite end of the path the Cherry tomato plant I grew from organic seed.......

....has taken off after a slow start.
Many things in the garden seem to have been affected by the swings in temperature combined with floods and steaming hot days. But hey, when has it ever been easy?
On a lighter note, I've been combing the Internet these last 2 weeks and asking people in the area where I could get a "Food Grade" 55 gallon plastic drum for an up coming project. My fruitless search comes up in a conversation with our local veterinarian while Alvin is having his shots.
Turns out that Oklahomegrownland, population 1200, has it's very own "Food grade" plastic drum emporium right next to the Garden Centre. I call in and see Gene, the proprietor and............

.....snap one up for $11.00. A bargain.
Ok, enough. It's beer thirty!!

Catching up.

With this being Memorial Day weekend I get Monday off from work. A great chance to attempt to catch up on all those jobs I've been unable to do due to the constant rain.

It seems the waters have abated for the time being so.....................


I mow.

Around the back......................


............................

.....and I mow around the side................

..........................

....and I mow around the front until everything is neat and tidy again.
Well, around the house at least. The rest can wait for now as I have trees to plant.

Sargent Crabapple

Crape Myrtle


Washington Hawthorn

I also put in some more Conifers down by the creek and my extra Tomato plants have been scattered around here and there but more about those another time.
The Tomato plants in Plot 2................

.....have been treated to new cages this year. I'm using a lot of my old ones to protect some of the small trees that I've set out. No, the white you see isn't frost, it's Diatomaceous Earth. I sprinkled a little around as there seemed to be quite a few ants emerging from somewhere.
Plot 3

And the potatoes are all in bloom.
Plot 4

The carrots have finally made an appearance in amongst the Radishes
.....and the Kohlrabi

....are starting to develop their bulbs.

Plot 6

No sign of the Parsnip seeds yet but the Sparkler Radishes are up.

The Mesclun is looking great.................

...especially on the dinner table.
Around the front of the house we have a great development.

The Fuji Apple Tree.....................

....has got it's first tiny apples.

The toads are back too.

It's great to see these bug eating friends back again.

Indoors I've put the first batch of dried Catnip..................

.....into a storage jar. Tommy got the left over sticks to play with........

....and had a great time rubbing chewing and rolling all over them.

I cut back the plants for the second time................

.....and hung them in the kitchen to dry out.
Tomorrow I hope to get my second Sargent Crabapple tree out and perhaps get to the Garden Centre to pick up some bedding plants as the flower beds at the front need some colour.

But Enough for today!