We’ve had one or two hot days this season so far. My early spring plants are usually fried by late May, but the foliage on my Virginia Bluebells is still happily green and perky. The peppers and tomatoes are tapping their feet, so to speak, waiting for warmer temperatures, but I don’t mind waiting. The lettuce is having a party and doing very well.
Last year I tried a few different things to battle the aphids that came to bother my apple trees. The leaves were curling and I panicked. This year, I am going to wait and see how they take it. I’ve spread flowers and flowering herbs throughout the area and hope to attract beneficials to fight them for me. Yesterday, I saw a ladybug on the apple tree too. there are some aphids on the hugelkultur beach plum in the front and 2 ladybugs were feasting on them. I hope they have babies and decide to hang around.
I just planted the bonfire peach last year and there are already 2 or 3 peaches on it! That tells me that the neighbor’s peach tree is a close enough pollinator. Score! I’m also getting my first fruits on the Asian pear tree this year.
The garlic looks incredible and it’s in a bed I haven’t tilled at all. Right before this, I had corn there last season. The 2 seasons before, the chard lived there. I just kept mulching and cut the plants down when they were done (didn’t pull them out). I tucked the garlic cloves down into the mulch and roots last fall and the garlic plants are HUGE and happy.
Jerusalem artichokes are hilarious and scary. I SWEAR I dug them all out when I gathered that 5 gallon bucket from an earlier post. I’ve read other people say the SAME thing, but until you see a thick patch growing up from the same spot in the spring when you SWEAR you got them all… it’s still hard to believe. I mean there are a LOT of them. I will never be without them. Whether I like it or not. Good thing they are pretty. I’m going to start pruning them at around shoulder height so they don’t become giants this year. I’m going to see how they do with pruning. Maybe they won’t fall over.