American Orchards Are Ugly

Dear Reader,

As you know, I love planting multi-grapht espalier fruit trees in my backyard. I plant them first and foremost to produce the kind of fruit our family likes to eat. If one is not interested in growing a certain fruit, or baking with it - I suggest growing something else.

My backyard currently has six trees, including a special Nadia cherry/plumb hybrid. I have a four graft pear tree growing in another part of my years. Graphing, cloning and cross breeding stone fruit trees have far-reaching implications for my tree sculptures, such as biodiversity, food culture, and most importantly the symbiosis of human kind's relation to nature.

ugly non-existant underplanting

In the past, stone fruit is grown for one purpose: what the masses want to buy. That's it. Fruit are picked too early, placed in a dark cool spot to ripen, then put on the shelves. Wrap your minds around this: there are hundreds of varieties of peach, your local supermarket will sell four, maybe five if you are lucky. Wouldn't it be great if we could have one peach tree with six, seven, eight or more varieties of peach on one tree? Wouldn't it be nice if each backyard had at least one multi-graft tree in your backyard?

I love multi-graph espalier fruit trees. An espalier is any tree which has been trained to grow in two dimensions. Espaliers can be pruned to grow first branches low, then grow level by level, to a great height but next to no depth. This mean it it will not shade out other trees, particularly grown on a
fence. As grafted stone fruit

My trees are my art, multigraph espalier trees are a way to express my art. The structure is beautiful, they flower at different times in various shades of white, blue, pink and beige.

For the backyard orchardist (non-commercial) why are American people so hell bent on making their backyard orchards look as ugly as possible? What is so hard about planting small fields of lavender under fruit trees? What is so difficult about planting Dalias, Roses, Azalias or some other beautiful underplanting? The purpose of this blog is to shift common paradigm that space under a fruit tree should be kept clean because many plants grown under a tree will not survive. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many plants benefit the tree for many years to come.

I hope we start considering making our little orchards a little more beautiful this spring and summer.

Euonymus - multi-graft bushes

I love the burning bush shrub, it offers the garden a beautiful bold color during the fall. Today, my Frankinstein mind pondered, "what Euonymus plants can I bud graft onto a Burning Bush?" Eunonymus plants are known by their common name, "spindle trees."

The color is great, but the tree has seen better days

pink charm spindle tree

compact winged spindle tree

The first two images are called Eunonymus grandiflorus, or "red wine". Grandiflorus simply means they produce a lot of flowers. The color is dark purple. In some images, this plant turns bright red, just like the burning bush. But I would want more contrasting colors. I love the dark purple but wouldn't want it to turn bright red. 

Today I found a beautiful orange tree, also known as olympic flame. I do not know if it is a spindle tree, I sure wish it was one. I can only imagine the colorful grafts I could make with these trees. They bloom at different times of the year, the effect would be magnificent. I believe it is the Euibyniys Alatus.

We do have one evergreen tree, that will balance the grafted colors - if - and that is a big if I can successfully graft each species of tree together.

Japonicus

Euonymus americanus

orange pods

Above is a very cute, simple video explaining why growing apples from seed isn't a good idea if you have a small plot of land.

I however, do grow apple and pear from seed, then I try grafting different kinds of apples onto that tree where I can plant it in a public space (secretly of course) Mwaaa haa haaa. Call me, NaomiAppleSeed. I am the real one - not the legend.

First Attempt at Cloning Rose Bushes

Two days ago I took a trip up to a local rose garden. Washington State is famous for being the rhodadendron State. Finding rose gardens is not an easy task. This one in particular was designed in 1922.

Fall is the perfect time to start taking rose cuttings. I searched reletlessly for Hotel Savoy rose. I swear I saw it in that garden. After 30 minutes of looking at one bush after another, alas I could not find it. Although I was disappointed, I didn't leave empty handed. I left with four bundles of cuttings. I made sure there were buds on each cutting, and that the cuttings were at least the size of a number two pencil. I wrapped them in a warm towlet, and stored them in a plastic bag for one day. 

Later the next day, I cut, and rooted my rose cuttings. Right now I have four medium size pots with about six cutting each. Apparently it takes about 6 weeks for the plants to root and two years before we get a successful plant. Sure it takes a lot of patience, but the payoff is one gets exactly the rose the want....(unless it is Hotel Savoy). In two years the roses will be transplanted to either a larger pot or directly in the garden. 

I am a firm believer that flowers must be seen in groups to get the full effect. At least three of the same kind of rose bush should be planted together to appreciate the colors. However, I don't like boarders with only one kind of garden. 

I think I will take another trip to the garden and take at least four more plant cuttings. For all the roses I don't plant, I will either sell or give away.

Liverpool Remembers

Burgandy Iceberg

Crimson Bouquet

sunsprite floribunda

Needless to say, I am very happy my Nadia finally arrived. This was a great birthday present from my father. There are three lavender plants under the tree, but today I planted about ten more. The strings are tied down with bricks and large stones, which I covered with soil. Nothing is more unsightly than string tied to bricks structuring branches. I hope the lavender will detract from that. Hopefully the string will only be here a year or so.

Nadia Cherry/Plum Hybrid

How the Nadia Arrived

Two Van Cherry Tree's from Carpinitos

                                                             

The seedlings

tomato, basil, pepper, and zinnia. Weather is a little go cold to put them out yet.

potato planted finished

White potatoes are planted. We are having three batches this season. 

1 french fingerling

2 red potato

3 white potato

I also planted some gladiolus plants around the potatoe garden so it wouldn't look do ugly Potato patches are not the most attractive thing to look at.

Potato patches are not the most attractive part of a garden, so I planted a line of gladiolus in the front blocking the view to some degree.

Angelieque tulips are in bloom

Seeking Savoy Hotel Rose

I am looking for the Savoy Hotel Rose to plant with the Myrtle Gentry peony that I recently purchased.

Mr Lincoln Rose

Yesterday I planted a Mr. Lincoln Rose fairly close to my house. I wasn't planning on planting a red rose bush in the front yard, but I've been so excited about my Myrtle Gentry Peonies that I started thinking about companion planting.

Savoy Hotel Rose looks like it would be a great addition to my garden. (BTW: the whole red and pink clash only applies to clothing - not gardens). It should be planted with Iris and lavender.

Savoy Hotel Rose

When to plant vegetables in Kent Washington