Beauty

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Espalier Haircut Event

This is another story about our espalier apple grove…all two of our trees.  Earlier this week, we wrote that we noticed that our Malus ‘Liberty’ was looking a little overgrown compared to its new cousin Malus ‘Gravenstein’.  In other words, we noticed that ‘Liberty’ needed a little haircut.  So a good pruning was in order.  Our research had said that the espaliers should be pruned when dormant.  However, since we are new to the pruning process, we decided to wait to see what was growing in a crazy manner and then cut it off.  We just didn’t want to take a risk of cutting something out and realizing later that we had made a bad mistake.  You can see the finished job in the picture above….haircut complete.

When we started our pruning job, we paid close attention to ‘Gravenstein’, which was pruned already, and compared it to ‘Liberty’, which was not.  Notice in these pictures below that ‘Gravenstein’ has leaves that are close to the branch and spurs on the branch and there are no long vertical growths coming out.  If you are asking what a spur is, the best way to describe it is a very short piece of branch where the apple tree flowers and sets fruit.  Pruning encourages the tree to grow more of these fruiting spurs by removing competing suckers and unproductive wood.  A sign of  a well-trimmed espalier is the close-growing leaves without any vertical growth.  ‘Gravenstein’ looked like this.  However, ‘Liberty’ was not in such good shape.  You can see it better in these pictures.

See the growth coming out of the ‘Gravenstein’ spur and main branch?  The leaves are close to the spur and branch and never more than about two inches long.

Here’s crazy cousin ‘Liberty’.  See the vertical growth coming out of the branch.  We pruned all of these vertical baby branches out and only kept close growing leaves near the spurs and branches to promote fruit growing.

Another close up of the foliage on ‘Gravenstein’.  See how tight and close the leaves are?

Another shot of ‘Liberty’.  It doesn’t take much of an expert to see the long growth that needs to be cut off.  Fortunately, none of the growth that needed to be cut off had any baby apples attached.

After pruning all the vertical growth off of ‘Liberty’, both espaliers looked pretty much the same with some beautiful leaves growing not more than two inches off of the main branch or growing spurs.  All it took was some patience, some pruning shears and a barber-like mentality.  No blow dry was necessary.  Are you in the process of pruning any trees in your yard? 

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News From The Garden

This is the progress in the vegetable garden this weekend.  Not much went on, but with all the rain we have been experiencing, a little bit of work is a lot.  We had laid a tray of vegetable plants out last week that were grown under our grow light in the basement, but the rain stopped us from putting them in the ground.  This was probably a good thing as it gave the young plants some time to get used to the weather outside and begin to adapt to the new environment.  Little did the young plants know that they were acclimating to a monsoon-type environment given all the precipitation that occurred last week.  Finally, there was a small break in the weather and we rushed out to put the plants into the soil.  Here is a little taste of what went into the ground.

First, a little cabbage.  We love cabbage and have a great soup recipe that is simple and delicious.

Let’s not forget our cauliflower.  Lots of cauliflower macaroni for our Brooklyn Italian Grandmother to cook.

Are we the only ones that like brussels sprouts?  Boiled and then mixed with salt, pepper and butter.  Simple heaven!

Last, but not least, a spindly looking eggplant.  Hope it makes it!!  We have so many eggplant recipes it is crazy.

The rest of the garden is doing well.  We couldn’t believe that some seeds that we planted last week were already sprouting.  Here are the turnips peeking their heads out of the dirt.

Here are some beets that shot up too.  These are the golden variety.  Does this mean they are tougher than their dark red cousins?

Our lettuce is almost ready for some picking.  If we get a little hot weather, it should grow quickly and be in a salad bowl in no time.  Doesn’t it look good with the raindrops stuck on the leaves?  A little vinegar, some oil and a fork….that’s all we need when the lettuce is ready.

So not a great week for gardening-flowers or vegetables, but we guess Spring is known for lots of wet weather, right?  The only thing that really benefited from all this rain was our newly seeded front lawn.  So there you have it…we’ve found at least one benefit from all this crazy weather.  For all of you gardeners out there, isn’t it a great feeling to see all your hard work finally grow into something edible?  To see our seeds sprout or our grow light plants get put into dirt is a very proud and satisfying feeling.  It makes all the hard work seem worth it.  How is your garden growing and did you have crazy weather that set you back a bit? 

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Espalier Support Group

This is the new support system for the espalier apple trees.  Remember the first time you met the espalier apple trees?  A lot has happened since that time.  First off, we noticed that one of the apple trees, Malus ‘Spartan’, did not fully come back this year from the hard winter we experienced.  Although one side of the tree grew leaves, the other side had died.  We then made the painful decision to take the tree out and replace it with a new one.  However, when we went back to the nursery to buy a replacement, the nursery said the tree was guaranteed for a year and we received a free replacement.  How cool!!  So meet our new tree, Malus ‘Gravenstein’.

Gravenstein is a variety of apple native to Gråsten in South Jutland, Denmark.  The variety was discovered in 1669 as a chance seedling, although there is some evidence that the variety originated in Italy and traveled north.  The Gravenstein was introduced to western North America in the early 19th century, perhaps by Russian fur traders, who are said to have planted a tree at Fort Ross in 1811.  The Gravenstein apple has a sweet, tart flavor.  It is picked in July and August and is heavily used as a cooking apple, especially for apple sauce and apple cider.  It does not keep well, so it is available only in season.  In addition, their short stems and variable ripening times make harvesting and selling difficult.  The skin is a delicately waxy yellow-green with crimson spots and reddish lines, but the apple may also occur in a classically red variation.  Our older tree, Malus ‘Liberty’, is proud to meet its younger cousin.

The other change in the espalier apple tree grove is that we began to realize that Malus ‘Liberty’ had branches that were beginning to bend.  If you look at the picture above, you will see the bottom limb is bent or crooked.  In order to fix this, we worked with a landscaper to embed two granite posts on either side of the trees.  Although not completed yet, we will be running wire from one post to the other in three separate rows and tie each of the limbs to the wires for support.  During the summer, we will tighten the ties that will move the limbs closer and closer to the wire and therefore making each limb straighter and straighter.  The granite posts also give the area quite an architectural look and feel.

So a lot has been happening in the espalier apple tree grove….if you can call two trees a grove.  We noticed that Malus ‘Liberty’ needed a little leaf trim so that will need to be done.  After that, we will wait it out and hopefully get a few apples from the trees later in the Fall.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.  Do you have any fruit trees in your garden and how do you care for them? 

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Luna Moth Or Not – You Be The Judge

This is what we saw out of the upstairs window.  Stuck to a piece of the house facing North.  It appears to be a Luna Moth.  Does it look like a Luna Moth to you?  It was also one of those full circle moments as well.  First a little about luna moths.  Actias luna, commonly known as the Luna Moth, is a lime-green moth in the subfamily Saturniinae.  It has a wingspan of up to four and a half inches,  making it one of the largest moths in North America.

Based on the climate in which they live, the Luna Moths produce differing numbers of generations.  In Canada and northern regions, they can live up to 7 days and will produce only one generation per year. These reach adulthood from early June to early July.  In the northeastern United States around Connecticut, the moths produce two generations each year.  The first of these appear in April and May and the second group can be seen approximately nine to eleven weeks later.  In the southern United States, there can be as many as three generations.  These are spaced every eight to ten weeks beginning in March.

When my brother and I were little boys in Iowa, my parents used to take us camping every weekend.  We had a nice fold-down camper and used to rent a space at a place called Roberts Creek.  Lots of families in their campers meant lots of fun for us over the weekend.  There was boating, there were bonfires, there was fishing and then there were the Mason boys.  The Mason boys were older and obsessed with butterfly and moth collecting.  My brother and I helped them catch butterflies and moths so they could mount them in shadow boxes.  They had quite a collection.  To this day, I remember my parents letting us stay up late so that we could rub sugar water all over walnut trees and return the next morning hoping that the area would be infested by Luna Moths.  To our dismay, there wasn’t a Luna Moth in site, but I never forgot the Mason brothers stories and pictures of these magnificent moths.  In fact, their stories made the moths sound so big that we were a little afraid of what we might see if they had come that sugary and cold morning.  I never saw one then or ever…until today.  It’s taken 40 years for one to show itself to me.

This is another example of when Nature does something that you never saw coming.  You have to really be in the moment to catch something so spectacular sitting on your house siding.  The Mason brothers would be proud.  I’m glad I can finally say I have seen such a magnificent moth.  Do you think this is a Luna Moth and, if not, what is it? 

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New Additions In The Garden

This has been a terrible week for gardening.  We have had a solid week’s worth of rain.  Sometimes, we feel the best time to plant and garden is on days when there is no direct sun and a little drizzle.  This wasn’t the case the entire week.  Most times, the rain came down in a torrential downpour.  Crazy rain is tough for a gardener here in Connecticut at the end of May.  The end of May is when it is time to get most things planted in the soil.  We were getting nervous.  Finally, there was a small break and so it was time to run out and plant.

There are two new plants that we added into our garden that we would like to introduce.  The first is Dicentra spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’ seen above in its new home on the far left.

The old-fashioned bleeding heart has been one of our garden favorites for years.  They are substantial plants that bear long, arching racemes of pink flowers.  ‘Gold Heart’ is the same classic beauty, but with one marvelous variation:  it has metallic gold leaves and peach-colored stems instead of the usual green.  Blooms start here in Connecticut in May and last several weeks, finally subsiding with the arrival of the summer heat.  They are long-lived, reliable and they will self sow.  We planted ‘Gold Heart’ beside its cousins.  Dicentra spectabilis ‘Alba’ is in the middle.  ‘Alba’ produces white versus the more common pink flowers.  A regular Dicentra spectabilis finishes out the row to the right and is already giving us a show of beautiful pink flowers.

The next new member of the garden is Uvularia grandiflora.

Also known as large-flowered bellwort, Uvularia grandiflora is a plant in the family Colchicaceae, native to eastern North America.  It blooms in May, producing large yellow flowers.  The top parts of the plant tend to bend downward due to the weight of the leaves and flowers.  The light green stems are round and the leaves are perfoliate, meaning the stem appears to come through the leaves at the base.

We love planting new plants into our garden.  We especially like plants that are more on the rare and unique side, like the plants we just added.  There wasn’t much time for us to plant more than these two new additions into our garden.  Unfortunately, the rain returned.  We are going back to building our ark in the meantime.  Do you have any rare or unique plants that you like that you could share with us on Acorns On Glen?

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Bird Thoughts By A Bird Brain

 

This is a sad fact…I am not a fan of birds.  Spring is the time to confess as birds seem to be everywhere now that the temperatures are warmer.  It’s not that I hate birds…it’s more the fact that they scare me to death.  This is not a new fear.  I have been scared to death of birds since I was a little boy.  If I can sit and watch them parade around by looking through a window, than I am fine.  If you remove the window and I see one, I go cold.  God forbid that a bird flies at or near me.  I involuntarily scream, sweat, run and have even been known to cry.  In fact, I remember my first bad experience with a bird. 

Mrs. Curtain lived behind one of our first houses in Iowa.  At the time we moved there, I was 3 and she had to be at least 83.  I have to be honest.  Women at 83 in those days did not look that great.  We say today that 60 is the new 40 for a woman.  That was not the case in the ’60s.  83 looked 83 or older.  Mrs. Curtain wore long dresses, had unkempt gray hair, wore black horn-rimmed glasses and not a stitch of makeup covered her face (not at 83 and probably ever).  To this day, here is how I remember her.  

However, the strange part is that I was attracted to her.  She didn’t scare me.  She was my friend.  Mrs Curtain was a widow, her children had moved away ages ago and she did what a woman of her age did in those days in a small farming town in Iowa.  She lived in a small house, tended to a large garden of flowers and vegetables and kept chickens in her fenced-in back yard.  Who came over every day to bother help her?  Yes, it was me.  I would watch her garden, watch her mow, watch her do laundry, watch her do most anything.  However, I was not allowed to help with the chickens.  She repeatedly told me that they were off-limits because I was too young to be around them inside their fence.  So I sort of obeyed her command.  That means that I would not go inside the fence but I would make sure that I found various ways to make the chickens crazy.  I would yell at them, throw rocks at them, poke them with sticks.  Anything to taunt them because they were off-limits to me.  One day, they had had enough.  A rooster broke loose and came at me.  There were claws, feathers, clucking, screaming and then the rooster laid a hard, sharp peck with its beak on my forehead before Mrs. Curtain came to the rescue.  I have never enjoyed a bird since that day.

I have done well in my life staying away from birds.  I’ve lived most of my life in the concrete jungle.  I have warned friends with free flying birds in their homes to lock them up or risk harm to them (I wouldn’t kill a bird, but if a parrot flew at me, I’m not sure what I would do in my panic).  Any event that I am at where there are also birds means that I either leave or sit in a secure, inside area.  All this changed when I moved to Glen Road.  Here in the country, birds are everywhere.  They literally are your neighbors.  I can tell you who lives in what nest.  I can tell you which birds are meaner than others.  I have even been able to shyly look at a few birds without running (remember the cardinals).  However, I would like to give them a few pieces of advice so that I can expand my love even further.

  • Do not begin to sing until 10:30 AM and cease your songs at 8 PM.  Oh, and all birds must sing the same song….just in different harmonies so they can distinguish themselves between species.  Cardinals can be like the sopranos, blue jays the baritones and sparrows the altos.  You see, at 5:30 AM, your loud and non-coordinated singing is just annoying.  You wake me up and it is not a pretty sound.  Get an alarm clock and a chorale director and let me sleep.

  • Get a pair of sensible shoes.  Your claws are sickening.  There isn’t a pedicure invented that will make your claws look better, so cover them up.  If you can find stockings, buy them and put them on as well.  There is just something about seeing a bird claw that makes me shudder.  Is it the scaly part?  The long toenails?  The way it moves?  Whatever it is, cover them up and don’t show them.  Admit they’re ugly and you are embarrassed by them and put some shoes and socks on them.  You’ll be a step ahead.

  • Install a toilet in your nests.  I don’t want to see it, clean it or worry about it.  More than this, I don’t want to feel it on me…EVER.  Get some class and install a little toilet to do your business.  You’ll get more dates.  Enough said on this one.

I’ll try to like birds better this year.  I’m taking little steps though.  I would like a hummingbird to come live on Glen Road.  That’s a good step forward, right?  Honestly, I am scared about the long beak thing.  Has anyone ever heard of someone losing an eye because they got too close to a hummingbird?

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What’s Blooming On Glen Road?

 

 This is Spring in full bloom.  It doesn’t take long to go from snow to full throttle Spring in the garden.  There is so much going on in the garden right now it is hard to keep up.  Look at the beauty (above) of an allium almost ready to explode into full bloom.  Soon, this bud will be a total sphere of purple blooms.  There are so many plants and flowers blooming and growing in the garden right now, here is a little tour for you to see the progress.  Come take a look with us.  Feel free to click on any picture in the gallery to get a better view.

Things change so fast in the garden.  I wish there was something that you could invent that would make these beautiful flowers and plants last longer.  What plants and flowers are blooming in your garden right now?

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JoJo’s Journal – I Hate Bath Time!

 Who, me?  I’m not dirty!

This is another edition of JoJo’s Journal here on Acorns On Glen….bark!  Hello, my loves, it has been so long since the last time I wrote to you.  Spring has been so busy for me given that I can actually leave the house now and run around the back yard and investigate everything.  All of this running around leads me to my post today.  When you are an inquisitive young pup like I am, it comes with a cost.  The cost is that you get dirty a lot more often.  It only makes sense.  There are sheds to crawl under.  Grass and mud to run through.  Gardens to jump into.  Here I am after a long and hard (and dirty) weekend.  If only I could play outside and not get dirty.  Why you ask?  Because I hate to take a bath.

On Glen Road, which answer below let’s you know that it is time for me to take a bath? 

  1. I stink.
  2. I don’t smell very good.
  3. My roommates on Glen Road pick me up and then put me down and say P. U.
  4. Everyone on Glen Road keeps saying ‘what’s that smell?’ and it turns out to be me!
  5. My roommates let a skunk come into the house last night and left me out in the yard.
  6. All of the above.

If you guessed number six, you would be correct.  So this weekend, it was off to the tub for me.  Never a pretty picture.  So you can understand what it takes to make me so glamorous, I have authorized the release of these bath pics to the general public.  Here I am after my initial spray….I am trying to flee by running up the side of the tub and out of the room.

  I’m so humiliated, I can’t even show my face!

Finally, I just surrender and let nature (and soap and water) takes its course.  When I’m wet, I look about 10 pounds lighter.  See how sad my little face looks in this one.

 Don’t get any soap into my eyes!  I don’t want to have to attack!

Then it’s a towel dry and under the hair dryer.  I guess it is worth it because here is how I turn out.

 Who can resist such a hot young thing?  Bark!

I’m so happy to be done with my bath.  I am also glad that you got to see that beauty is a lot of work.  It is worth it in my opinion.  As I’ve always said, “Beauty may only be skin deep, but ugly is all the way to the bone”.  Take care my lovelies and I’ll talk to you again soon.  I’m off to play in the back yard some more.  Do you have a favorite pet that can talk to me here on Acorns On Glen?