What's Blooming and Sprouting?

One of the best ways to keep track of your garden is to keep a journal. In my case, it's this blog, so here are some notes on what the garden is doing right now...

Almond Trees
This is the first year that my Hall's Hardy Almonds have bloomed for me. They're about 4 feet tall at the moment. (They can get up to 8 feet tall.) There aren't too many blooms this year. I may or may not end up with some almonds off of these trees. If not this year, then next year, I should have some.

The blossoms are surprisingly large and showy. They are easily bigger than most cherry and plum blossoms - a little over twice as wide as my thumb.

The weather is supposed to get close to freezing this weekend. It's something I need to keep an eye on. I may end up covering these trees with some floating row cover to protect the blossoms if it looks like it's going to freeze.

Blueberry Bushes
Buds are swelling on the early blueberry bushes. I have some late varieties that aren't close to blooming yet, but this is a shot of my Pink Lemonade blueberry.

Pink lemonade blueberries have an intense blueberry flavor, so I'm really happy to see that this one is finally blooming.

Nanking Bush Cherry
The nanking red bush cherries are blooming for the first time this year. I've had them in the ground for a little over 2 full years now. They were both about a foot tall when I planted them from a 4" pot. This one was composted with 7-year-old horse manure this year and is almost twice the size as its sister plant. (They were both the same size last year.) The younger one is also blooming, though not as profusely. Once they are done blooming, I am going to transplant the smaller one to a better location.

Wild Cherry

I had to get a shot of this. I love how the branches are criss-crossing through this shot. The flowers are really similar in size and color to the bush cherry.

Daffodils
My front entrance has a very warm, west-facing micro-climate. These bi-colored daffodils ("Monal") have been blooming for some time. In fact, they're already starting to fate, but they're an early season variety. I have some mid-season daffodils that are just starting to bloom, which are all yellow, and some late-season daffodils in my orchard that still aren't close to blooming. (Placing daffodils in an orchard helps to deter 4-legged pests like rodents and deer.)

'Monal' daffodils are one of the earliest to bloom each year.

The miniature daffodils get a bit more shade than the bi-colored ones. I can't remember the cultivar of these little guys. They might be "Little Gem", but I can't seem to find the receipt listing the exact variety. (Little Gem and Monal are both available from Brent & Becky's Bulbs here in Virginia.)

Mini daffodils are still going strong.

Pawpaw Tree

I only had a total of about 4 to 6 flower buds in my pawpaw patch last year. I'm pleased to see that I've gotten a LOT more flower buds this year. At the moment, the trees are mostly bare, with the leaves just starting to sprout on a few of the trees. The buds are well-developed and should start blooming soon. Keep watching for a post with more information about this type of native fruit tree.

Peach Tree

The flower buds are going to start blooming any day now. I had to prune a couple of branches a week or so ago. I think I did it early enough as the plant was still pretty dormant. Now is probably too late to prune peaches due to the warm weather. (Peach tree borer is a wasp and is attracted to the smell of fresh peach sap. I've already seen paper wasps flying about.)

Peas
The peas I planted at the beginning of the month are already an inch or two out of the ground. I've added some cages to trellis them and some rhizobium inoculant to ensure they are able to make plenty of their own nitrogen. ("Pea and bean booster" is often found in the seed section at the garden center. It contains the rhizobium species that forms a symbiotic bond with members of the legume family and allows the plant to pull nitrogen from the air. Nitrogen is one of the major building blocks of amino acids, which is why members of the pea and bean family are so high in protein.)

Radishes
They're sprouting.You can see I've mulched them with a light layer of straw to protect them from heavy rain (much like grass seed).

Tree of Heaven
I keep trying to get rid of this tree, but it's very persistent. Here's a shot of a newly forming bud. The leaf scars are really big, as are the young twigs. You never find slender, delicate growth on this tree.

Black Walnut
The new flower buds aren't quite as far along as the tree of heaven, but it's relatively similar. Note the different twig color.

Wineberry
This is a Japanese species of raspberry. The twigs are covered with a very fine fuzz of prickles. The twigs are usually a deep red color as well (though a have found a few specimens that aren't.) This week, the leaves are just barely starting to sprout. Some of my canes are going to be two-years-old this season, so I expect to get flowers and fruit sometime this summer.