Espalier in the early spring

After weed whacking the yard with my string trimmer in preparation for the first lawn mowing of the season, I moved into a second garden task which was spraying the fruit tree espalier with copper oil to prevent diseases.  It was a little late for copper spray, as it should have been done a couple of weeks ago, but I did get to it today.
This espalier, created 12 years ago consists of 9 apple trees and 6 pear trees (3 European pears, 3 Asian pears).  The apples do very well, the pears not so much as the climate does not favor them here.  In fact we have been talking about replacing the pear trees with apples.  We will see.  This espalier is shaped in the losange variation of the Belgian Fence pattern.  The basic idea is to criss-cross branches of the trees and to keep them within a defined width.  Each year in winter I cut back the espalier, especially at the top and on each side to keep it in a defined space.

This espalier runs east-west(see hint of Pacific Ocean in the background of the pic on the left).

One of the trees is already in bloom but there aren't many pollinators out yet.  I may do the brush technique later this week to assist pollination.  Here is a pic of the flower. Click to enlarge.

apple blossom (Anna apple)

The earliest of the early

Living up to the implication of its name (fast out of the gate), Derby Day cabbage sprouted today in the 6 packs they were planted in.  Here is a photo of the earliest sprout.

Another of the earliest of the early is asparagus.  Today was the day of the appearance of the earliest spear of asparagus.  Here is what it looked like.

Seeding and seedlings in the greenhouse

I tend to follow the "Gardening by the Moon" calendar when the timing makes sense to me, and today the moon was in the earth sign Taurus, and the moon is waxing (going towards full), so my calendar mentioned it as a good day to plant above ground annuals, especially cabbages and leafy greens, so that is what I did.  I planted seeds for the cabbages 'Derby Day', 'Blue Lagoon', 'Kaitlin', and 'Primero' in 6 packs filled with Happy Frog potting soil.  I also planted seeds for 'Bright Lights' Swiss Chard which is a combination of varied colors of chard and is quite pretty in the garden (besides tasting great).
I also planted tomatoes today, varieties 'Black Russian', 'Sungold', 'Sweet Million', 'Legend', 'Gold Nugget', 'Stupice', 'Defiant', 'Siletz', 'Nova', and 'Silvery Fir Tree'.  Most of these are old favorites but several are new to me.  We will see how they go.  This is a picture of the 6 packs in the greenhouse on the heatmat which keeps the soil warm until they germinate.

On the right is a picture of some wild garden kales, a selection of Siberian kale of different shapes and hues which I planted a few weeks ago.

Hawk

The hawk mentioned yesterday seems to be hanging around.  Here is a picture from this morning in our backyard.  Please click the pic to enlarge.  All the birds just disappear when this bird appears (except for the hummingbirds who don't seem to be bothered surprisingly.)

Small day in the garden world

I didn't have much time to spend on the garden today.  I did manage to get coffee grounds from Starbucks to add to my compost tumblers, purchase bags of potting soil for the upcoming seed planting marathon ( I like Happy Frog potting soil by Foxfarm), water the transplants from a few days ago, and marvel as I watched a young hawk in our backyard go after a quail.  Moon in Taurus waxing on Sunday and Monday I think equals time to plant tomatoes!

Preparation

One of the more fun activities of the spring is the preparation I do for the growing season.  Today, I washed out old 6 packs and trays to get ready for planting seeds.  I use an anti-fungal/anti-bacterial soap called physan-20 which is used in hospitals to get the used containers into cleaned up condition.  I then put them in the greenhouse to keep them dry until use.  Here is a photo of some of the containers.

After working on the cleaning for awhile I decided to transplant some of the seedlings that I had planted on Feb. 6th.  I did this because I usually plant 2 seeds per cell in each 6 pack, and this year germination was quite good. I transplanted broccoli of three types, lettuce, and kale into other 6 packs.  Here are pics of the transplanted seedlings and the original pacs after the transplant.

transplants

originals

Finally, I thought I'd share a few more daffodils with you.  This is a naturalized bunch on the east side of one of our greenhouses.  Happy Yellow!

"And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden"

I spent some time today planting out seedlings from a January planting in the greenhouse.  We have been eating garden salad through the winter, and I wanted to plant more lettuce and other greens to take advantage of the spring.  Here is what our main winter bed looked like today after planting out the seedlings.  Note the white remay cloth covering the beets and carrot seeds planted last week.

Winter/Spring veggies

Another wonder of the spring is the rush of daffodils spreading their yellow joy everywhere.  Here are a few from one of our beds.

2012 daffodils