Making leaf mulch

Raking up leaves from around the neighborhood and shredding them.

This is what one truck load shreds down to.  This is a 4x4x4 foot box.

Replacing tanglefoot on orange tree

Just now noticed ants in the orange tree. So will replace the tanglefoot. It seemed to work well last time so I will do it the same way this time.  i put the tanglefoot in the same place as last time.


I also cut off one large unproductive branch.

Garden progress update

The beans are hard to harvest because you have to reach your bare legs and bare arms past the zucchini branches which irritate the skin.
The fig tree the back is still looking very wimpy. I have been watering it more and it seems to be responding well.

Fed veggies

Fertilized all vegetable beds in front and back to eating asparagus.

The squash I planted in the bed second from the garage.

Melon patch

These are in plot two from garage

Starting seeds indoors

I used the Burpee 72 cell seed starter kit. I read that this was a good way avoid any damping-off problems.

I am hoping that the fluorescent lights will be just warm enough to keep the seed tray at the right temperature. The seed tray is setup inside the house.

Pruning santa rosa plum

I notched the Santa Rosa plum above two buds and above 1 branch. The intended form is a bush. My intention in the way I notched it was to create 3 strong laterals.

Orange tree pruning

I just cut a large branch off the orange tree. I'd say it was 15 percent of leaf volume from the tree. I cut the branch off because it is 1 of 2 branches that does not seem to fruit well. I have also noticed that on these two benches have leaves that are fairly yellow especially around their edges.

Fig pruning experiment

The objective of the fig training is too create 3 laterals I think that is called a vase structure. The experiment is that I cut the 3 inches from 1 of the 2 laterals on the fig tree. I want to compare the subsequent growth. I am assuming that the branch that I cut will have more growth and branching below it. And that the branch that I did not cut will grow taller with less branching. I also cut a notch just below the crotch above a bud that is in a good position to form the third branch of this they fan structure.

Pruning

First round of printing the to Apple and to pear trees. The final form will be a fan. I've left a few buds above the two top lateral. The pruning book seemed to suggest this would promote the laterals having a wide crotch so long as I notched just above the lateral buds.  I have done this notching by cutting with a hack saw see photo.

10 new fruit trees

Nine fruit trees came last week frim Trees of Antiquity. Building beds around each. Each bed is taking about two hours to get in.