What a spring! In this video I talk about two ongoing wildflower meadow experiments, a new herb garden going in, and all of the growth in our wonderful gardens and orchard.
hello it’s Friday the 31st of May 2024 welcome back to my many different Gardens I’m going to show you a new project we’re going to go into the orchard talk about two experiments I’m running and show you updates on all the different perennial flow and fruit Gardens so lots to talk about today here we have the beginning of our next project this is going to be our herb garden it’s right next to our back door that window leads into our kitchen so it’s in a terrific spot it’s partial sun but artificially warmer because it’s next to the house so what we have here is just a mixture of things this is oak tree that’s starting you know just from acorns from the squirrels we have some kind of lovely flowering Sedum down there which I’ll probably keep or transplant and then this is a daisy plant that flowers very late and quite short in October we have another section of it over here this whole area will be redoing as the year goes on but this part is going to be for the herbs now we’re in cold hardiness Zone 5B but because of this being right next to the house we could probably stand to be considered uh 6A or 6B and we’re going with perennials that are good for our zone so you know time Rosemary oregano Etc and uh I got a couple plants of each and I will be spreading them out appropriately here we are in the Orchard and it feels like a meadow all the dandelion are done so those long stalks are just gone and you got these lovely tassels of grass and we haven’t had a spring this perfect in years for example all the moisture has given us tons of fruit this pear tree is Laden down I’d venture to guess it’s well over a 100 same with the partner over there in fact we’ll just walk through bit by bit Macintosh Apple you can see same thing the Reliant Peach loaded down as it has been for years I really like going through my little path that I’ve cut out here I think I will leave this go until it’s fruit harvesting season and then I’ll cut it down right I forget exactly what kind of pair this is but it’s a noted Pop um a noted cross pollinator for bartletts my neighbor has taken a little little bit of my yard she’s not tooo happy with the meow but I I just I just think it looks spectacular this is one of two experiments this year you know to see how this metal works and also I’m testing over here also in full sunlight which we’ll get to in a little bit uh wild flowers H this is the Granny Smith I’ll venture to walk in and the Granny Smith does have have plenty well not plenty it has enough and they’re small so this I think might be more of a just for the benefit of cross-pollinating what is this this is the honey crisp nothing on it but we saw plenty on the Mac here’s one of the cherries and you can see plenty of cherries probably 200 or so on this one this is the contender Peach nice and full it’s just beautiful what a beautiful shapely cherry tree and this is even more loaded down than his partner the orchard is in good shape folks I’d also like to note for perspective I’m 6’5 and all my trees are much taller than I am feels so good to be standing in this maturing Grove let’s take a walk through Lyn and Jerry’s Garden as we’ve come to call it our aunt and uncle who helped design it and planted of course Cletus is climbing up nicely all the geraniums had the beautiful pink flowers now they’re starting to close the bush peony was also vibrant for all of 3 days and then a storm blew everything away but I got a terrific picture of a little little Hummer right little little Hummel just like that going around pollinating it it’s beautiful I’m glad that the bushes have come back so nicely I think this is the what sweet Autumn Cletus it’s about 5T tall from its base the grasses have come back I think last video I was concerned that the grasses were dead dead no they’re not they’re just late showers one two three sections of it there’s behind the Japanese Iris things about to bloom look at these lovely quaint little blue flowers ah I don’t remember if the Coline and the iris were open of course the Lambs here is just beautiful so silver I had forgotten that these were yellow look at that Nifty and it goes so well in frame with a purple Coline that I picked up I think when I went and bought these all they had was purple and I’m so happy because to tell you the truth I’ve never seen purple and we’re the only people in the neighborhood with it the still be down here by the time we get another video that should be up the uh chopis looks so lovely the Tulips are finished along the bench and little Free Library here but I was fortunate enough to get 25 red canaly bulbs from an neighbor and I’m going to plant them in a row behind Canales get 5 to 7 ft in full sun which this is dark red and uh I got to dig them out every year in the fall and plant them in the spring so that’ll be an experiment but can you imagine right if if these come in that 5 foot is you know pretty much as tall as the little Free Library it should be quite the site my second experiment is right here and this is is a wild flower seed mix that I put on our Terrace and it’s gone just wonderfully every single color you can imagine is coming up all different kinds of flowers it’s really quite special and nobody else in the neighborhood is anything like this right now I’m eager to see it grow and I’m giving it 2 years you know wild flowers take some time to establish and uh if this is a success perhaps the end of next year you know end of two years or maybe the end of three if this is a success nice and full and drought tolerant in particular that I’m going to rip up the grass over here sorry there’s a giant semi going by as I was saying I’m going to rip up the grass in the meadow over here and recat it with the same short natural wildf flower mix over there wouldn’t that be pretty think in 2 or 3 years ahead I don’t recall whether the window boxes were planted in the front pots last time but they are now flags are out from Memorial day onward what has come up since last time of course these dark purple bearded Ires and my yellow loose strife is about to open up over the years all of these plants have gotten shorter because the shade from this massive tree has encroached upon them so we’ll see if we don’t make this a shade garden as the years go on these are the last Japanese Iris to open up they’re open up everywhere else this is my favorite Bearded Iris I just love this white and purple and I don’t remember the name of this species I call them my yellow button flowers random Japanese Iris just popping up among the flocks this same species of flocks is 2 and 1 half times as tall in spots in my backyard and open and as we continue around the bend we get to phyllis’s garden and things just look spectacular right everything’s growing lovely all the Lupine it’s beautiful had to talk to my dear neighbor Phyllis she’s on her way but finishing it off we had some flocks that was done massive Japanese Iris the Cletus is climbing so that’s good La laender is In Bloom I just planted a sedum and uh the hostas right look how special they look they filled it in all sorts of different varieties so very pleased with phyllis’s Garden o and more window boxes and at last we get to the vegetable garden I’m so happy to bring you in here I’m glad that I trimmed these when I did because the raspberries are all quite heavy laden if I lift you up over the top here I I had a a plenty of space Oh camera cut out I was saying I had plenty of space there and uh now they’ve all grown together into the currents so let’s go on into the garden these first small beds we’ve got the climbing beans they germinated just fine got some weeds to pick out in between them ditto with the sugar snap peas should have planted them so much earlier they could have been 3 ft tall but they’re 6 in ah gosh just look at these currents look at how heavy laden they are with berries these this is the red current the black is in the middle this is this is what mature currents look like guys they’re massive I could have even spaced them another foot or 2 F feet apart and here are the black Jewels they look like fireworks when they’re ready my wife doesn’t like them my kids don’t Daddy does and of course look at how heavy the Gooseberry is the perspective is difficult right I really got to back up for you to see just how massive everything is this Gooseberry was probably you know 3 ft taller and then it just flopped all to the side these are pickable well I can pick them any time now within the next 2 three weeks and then these are the base for jams and they make excellent pies cuz they’re loaded with pectin in the next couple weeks I got to take out the rhubarb to here are the blueberries that I transplanted and they’re coming along just fine they’re like in the sunshine compost is breaking down in here the seeds that I planted were so old that they just didn’t work I think I had maybe two plants that popped out and then they got eaten by slugs so I got to do something else here and nothing happened with the old um cucumbers they were a 2016 seed packet I shouldn’t be surprised ground cherries doing just fine the catnip I’ve got some annual herbs that I’ll plant later today I’m harvesting strawberries now uh every couple of days like I picked a pint this morning again and gosh I’m so glad I didn’t rip them out in in haste but they’re just they’re just beautiful made a nice Instagram post about it you can find me on Instagram Christopher rrick but there are tons of strawberries I’m keeping this mint in check I’m keeping this mint in check never plant mint in a raised bed guys learn from my mistake spaghetti squash plenty of germination here I’ll thin that out and then we’ve got two different zucchinis you know I don’t know why this hill is so much less than this hill maybe I’ll give it another week and then I’ll thin that out and add one over here if need be the lettuces kale and Shard are just fine and the tomatoes are growing as well a little over a foot tall each of them that’s a hedge of blackberry on both sides of the fence yeah so there you have it I know I’m in the sun it’s kind of hard to see me I really enjoy showing you my perennial flowers and all of my fruits and vegetables thank you so much for taking the time to watch it’s good to be back at YouTube again after such a long Hiatus how’s your garden growing what do you think of mine let me know anything about the fruit trees the vegetable garden any of the interesting Meadows and perennial flowers that I’m doing a lot of fun experiments a lot of cool gardening this year so wish me luck in this next project I’m about to start with the herbs and I’ll catch you next time happy gardening bye