The Rock Wall Garden

My rock wall garden is a long thin garden. Just 2.5' wide and maybe 70' long. Mostly it contains espaliered trees along the fence with a row of strawberries in the front. Today I weeded it and then mulched it with salt marsh hay. I don't use mulch in my main vegetable garden as it attracts too many slugs and snails, but I neglect this part of the yard more, so it needs to be mulched to keep the weeds down and the moisture in. And I hope I don't lose too many strawberries to the slugs.

Three of the trees were put in last year. And the above apple tree didn't put out any branches that I could tie to the wire on the left side. So last winter I chopped the top off of the tree a few inches above where I needed the branch and prayed it would put out one in the right spot. It was annoying to have to cut off so much growth, including two nicely placed branches higher up, but I didn't want to be missing a branch in perpetuity. At least now the missing branch is growing if small. And I have two choices for the main stem to go up. I'll have to choose one soon.

The other two trees are growing well. They both have four branches. Maybe this year they will reach the top of the trellis. It would be nice to have the foliage to cover the fence. I keep thinking I should have made one wire even lower to the ground, but too late now.

It looks like at least one branch on my fig trees made it through winter. I haven't seen any growth on the other fig yet. I've got my fingers crossed for them. And the plum tree that has had so many troubles over the year is looking good this year. But then it usual does in the spring. I'll have to watch it before the aphids take over and keep spraying the fish emulsion and insecticidal soap. I just hate spraying, but the dang tree (a Green Gage Plum) attracts so many aphids. At some point I may just rip the plant out and plant something else that doesn't have the troubles it has.

The strawberries in front seem to be doing OK this year. Last year they barely lived through the summer Some disease got into the bed and spread. Right now I'm not seeing any signs of it though. It has been dry recently. Starting tomorrow though we are in for a week of rain and unsettled weather. Hopefully it won't hurt the strawberries.

I did a few more chores before coming in this morning. I weeded a bit around the yard. Raked up some pine needles to mulch two of the blueberries. And planted six creeping phlox where the now defunct cranberries used to be. It turns out that section of the yard is in the house's rain shadow. So they just weren't getting enough water. We decided to just put in some low growing easy to care for plants. We wanted something higher for the area, but the vent for the water heaters comes out here and we can't block the vent.

Weeping Plum

Yesterday a package showed up at my door. It was my Weeping Santa Rosa Plum tree that I ordered last winter. I'm a bit under the weather right now as I have the flu, but that didn't stop me from going out to plant it. I don't have a lot of space in the yard for more trees. But this one is a small plum it only gets 8'-10' tall. It doesn't produce quite as well as a Santa Rosa but most people think the plums are tastier. It isn't supposed to require a pollinator which is good as I don't have another Japanese plum.

The space I'm growing it in is just three feet wide and the first half foot doesn't really have any soil as it is by the brick path. But it has a nice long area it can spread out into. So I put the roots going along the long part. This section used to contain my self seeding sunflowers. But I've grown a little bored by them especially since I don't really eat sunflower seeds all that much. I was really just feeding the annoying squirrels. I probably will have one sunflower growing though near the corner of the house. At least if the transplant takes.

I'm not going to prune it like a normal tree. It really has to grow linearly so it doesn't block the path. I'm going to try to prune it to two side branches that stay over the bed and not in the path. So it will be interesting to see if I can do it. Trees always reach for the sun which would be the direction of the path. I've put in some T-posts that I'll use to train the main branches and keep the tree growing upright. But I'm not putting in a full trellis. Hopefully it will work.

I figured that I wouldn't want to be outside long as I was coughing and the weather was cool. But my lungs seemed to like it so I did another chore that I hadn't gotten around to.

I wrap up my bamboo in the fall to keep it dry and put it on one of the beds for storage. I had to take it apart and put the poles by the shed so I can use them when I need them. This small chore left my muscles aching and me very tired. I really shouldn't be working outside with the flu. So I spend a few minutes exploring the garden before going in.

The good weather earlier really warmed up the soil and my peas are starting to come up. I'll have to take the netting off soon so they don't get tangled.

The radishes came up a few days ago. I'll have to thin them out soon. Though I didn't sow them too thickly so it shouldn't be too much of a chore.

My romaine lettuce has really grown well. If it would warm up again (and it is supposed to), it won't be long before I can steal a little.

And I was ecstatic to see how well this sage was doing. Sage doesn't like to grow here for some reason. So I think I put five plants in the garden last year. I was hoping to find a place that it would be happy. I seem to have found two places where the sage is growing well. Which is good. I ran out of sage the other day and really need to be able to pick more. This seems really healthy and pickable. I was afraid I'd have to go buy it.

And Yet More Fruit

I've been thinking a lot about what to do about next year in several areas. The major two being fruit related. I've slowly added fruits to my garden over the years. The majority came in 2011 when the yard was finished. But last year I looked sadly at my Green Gage plum and wondered if it would ever bloom. It is a poor, sad tree. The aphids like to take it over and it hasn't been healthy. I do spray it with insecticidal soap when it gets bad. But after reading about it I found that the European plums tend to have more trouble. I know I love the Japanese plums as that is what they sell in the farmers markets. I should have taken that as a hint about what grows well around here. I'm not quite at the point of giving up on the Green Gage, but I really wanted to see if a Japanese variety would grow better.

So I thought about what spot I could tuck a tree into. Plums typically are about 20 feet tall and our yard is totally planned and planted. So it had to be in the vegetable garden. I've grown less fond of the sunflowers over the years, but I like to have something tall along the southwest wall of the house. It at least pretends to keep us cooler since we lack shade (the flaw of having a vegetable garden against the southern part of the house). I've thought about growing vines up the wall. But that is bad for the longevity of the house. So maybe a tree would work.

The area in question is only 3' across and right against the foundation. The path goes right next to this. I really don't want a standard sized tree as it wouldn't grow correctly. So I finally decided on a shorter plum. A Weeping Santa Rosa. It doesn't produce the prodigious quantities of fruit a real Santa Rosa can produce, but the fruit is supposed to be even better. And it is self pollinating. It only gets 8'-10' high naturally, so I can probably keep it pruned to 7'-8' easily enough. I thought about pruning it to an espalier, but I honestly think contorting the plum to a linear shape would be easier than that. Instead of 3-4 main branches, I'll have two that go along the line of the house. I might need some support early on to get the main branches to go where they need to go, but once the main branches are set, the tree ought to be easy to keep pruned. At least that is my hope.

Another problem is my strawberries. I have some disease that is killing off my strawberry plants. Earliglow seems much less affected though its production has lowered a lot. Whatever it is doesn't seem to affect the figs, pears, or apples. The plum is a poor sick thing, but doesn't seem to show signs of verticillium (lower branches dying - I tend to have more trouble with the newer growth where the aphids love to be). So maybe it is red stele. Or maybe not. I'm going to replace Sparkle with Surecrop. Not as tasty maybe, but more reliable. I'll probably remove all plants from the plum section just in case it is verticillium as the stone fruits are so susceptible. At my last house I never had disease problems in anything really. The soil was so clean. But it was also clay with its inherent problems. This sandy loam we have here grows things so well, but I swear there are so many diseases. I don't know if it is from the soil itself or the warmer area with everyone and their gardens so close.

And since I had spent yet more money on fruit I decided I needed to update my tally for 2014. It is the new year after all. It really seems every year I spend more and more money on fruit, but still haven't seen the payback. I have in the little fruits. Even the dying strawberries more than paid for themselves. At some point I'm going to have to quit buying fruit trees. Though I'd still love a persimmon. And I so wish I could have two paw paw trees, but there are certainly no spots for two large trees (a very under used tree that is so delicious). The persimmon might happen though. I'm sure there are small persimmons out there. Maybe if my Paradisio fig never ripens any fruit or if I give up on the Green Gage plum a persimmon could go there.

Plum Excited

So yesterday I had a plum delivery. I think I was given about nine pounds of plums. These plums were not just picked, but were picked about a week and a half ago. But they held up really well. I did have to throw a few out and a good handful had parts that needed to be cut out, but by and large they were still very nice. So I did a lot of chopping. I ended up with about 14-15 cups of chopped plums.

Since I already had plum sauce, plum jam, and plum syrup in my pantry, I decided to make some plum chutney. I follow Marisa McClellan's Food In Jars blog. I like that she does a lot of jams without pectin. But I found this recipe by her on another blog. She considers the recipe a small batch recipe, but really, I'm quite capable of doubling a recipe for the large quantities of plums on hand. I always find the concept of specific large or small batch preserving weird. I often double or half recipes. Or even third them depending upon what I have. Small batches are easier since things cook so much faster. Jam can be made quickly.

Large batches require a big pan. I probably should have brought out my biggest. But I used one size down. Someday I swear I'm going to buy a jam pan that has shorter sides and is very wide and has a very thick bottom. I'm thinking the ones they sell for braising would be really nice since they are so large. Anyway I'm off subject. I made chutney as you see above. The recipe gave me 4 1/2 pints. The big pint jar that I did will be for the owner of the plum tree. The rest are for me, though you never know what will end up in my gift baskets this winter. I'm guessing some rhubarb and some plum items. But who knows. I might eat it all by then.

The rest of the plums were made into sorbet. I'm packed them into pint containers for the freezer. My sorbet didn't use a recipe. You really don't need one. Fruit, sugar, maybe a little lemon juice. I used a dash of cinnamon too. Not enough to really taste in the final product, but it does add to the flavor. I would say I used about six to seven cups of plums to 1 1/2 cups of sugar. I haven't a clue how much lemon juice. But not much. Maybe a tablespoon or less. On taste testing the sugar was enough. The plums had sweetened up a lot sitting around for so long. And I did cook this sorbet. Sorbet is usually done with raw fruit. But because of the state of the plums (bird pecks and them sitting around) I figured they ought to be cooked up for safety. And honestly, I like cooked plums as much as raw plums. And the skins get cooked so they puree with the fruit better.

Above are the four canned plum products. From left to right: plum sauce, plum syrup, plum chutney, and plum jam. It is interesting that the jam at the end is the darkest. But the darker it is the more it is set. The most set is the jam, then the chutney, then the sauce, then the syrup. It could just be more liquid boiled off or more maybe plums get darker as you cook them. I guess I'll never know as there are no plums left on my counter.

Two Surprises and Bean Time

Yesterday evening I had a surprise show up on my porch. It was my Bluestone order that I had forgotten about. It was three coreopsis. So today I did have something to do in the garden. I had to plant. Not that it took long. I ripped out the annuals that were holding their place and put them in. The biggest problem with planting is that the ground is bone dry. We ought to be getting into a wetter pattern. At least I hope we do. We really need rain.

I decided since I was outside and we did have wet weather predicted for Saturday thru Monday (though now they are saying Monday-Tuesday), I ought to get the pole dried beans picked. Constant wet weather is bad for them. They will mildew in their pods.

Most of the pinto beans weren't ready but a good handful of them were so I picked them. They dry to a nice beige and are green before they are ripe.

The Trail of Tears beans turn purple as they get older and when they are dry they sometimes turn a bit beige, but often retain their purple color. My Tarbais beans aren't even close to ripe yet. They do take a while. And sadly their production is pretty low this year due to the dry weather. I really needed to water them like the green beans to get them to set pods. At least the Trail of Tears seems to be very productive. Last year I didn't have enough of them, but this year I think I won't be able to eat them all. But we will see.

While I was at the farmers market yesterday I picked up some peaches. I'd been eating melons for dessert, but I broke into the last one today for breakfast. I'm going to make it last by eating just a third of it a day. But for dessert I decided on peach sorbet (1 lb 13 oz peaches and a syrup made from 1 c sugar and 3/4 c water). So I had to peel those peaches. They look neon orange don't they?

And I pureed them to make the sorbet. Yum. The funny thing is that I was going to make some plum sorbet from my friend's plums (they still have tons even after the canning party). But I didn't have a car to pick them up. One of my townhouse mates surprised me with two gallon bags full of plums this afternoon. She had been out for a walk with my plum owning friend, and he sent her back with them so I could make more things. I might just end up with some plum sorbet too. And maybe some plum chutney.

Last Weekened

Saturday was fairly slow. I had tried to water the garden on Friday because it needed it, but when I went out my neighbor's car had the window open. His driveway is right next to the garden. And he loves his car. He is always out washing it and keeping it spotless. He even has a cover for it, but it hasn't been on in a while. Needless to say I wasn't going to water on a windy day with an accident waiting to happen. I did talk to him when he got home to make sure it would be closed for Saturday morning. So early that morning the garden got watered. Luckily the melons were in the circle garden so I could keep the sprinkler from hitting them. I'm not going to water them at all at this point. And the beans in the circle garden are getting hand watered so that garden is taken care of.

The rest of Saturday was spent working in the store. I belong to an artists' co-op and I have to work about three times a month. I've decided to quit after the holiday season this year but it has been good. I've found it very useful to work there and not just to sell my bead work. It is in Porter Square and they are right next to Tags, our hardware store. After work I can just go over and pick up canning supplies. They are extremely well stocked and as cheap as I've found them anywhere.

Sunday was yet another beautiful day. I had thinning to do in the morning. The experimental mustards above were up and getting bigger each day. The Asian greens also needed thinning as they were up. I think at the end of the week I'll have to put in another succession of greens. I'll wait until our heat spell is over though. Asian greens aren't fond of 90F weather.

Doesn't it look peaceful inside the carrot row cover? The monster zucchini is trying to invade, but it keeps them (and the carrot flies) at bay. I swear every plant wants to take over the slow growing carrots. Without help they would be overrun instantly. But the reason I'm showing the carrots is because they were weeded on Sunday. Some of the weeds were bigger than the carrots and that is just not right. The carrots are growing well. I might have to water them again by hand. They are pretty small and the weather is going to be hot and sunny the next several days.

Sunday is a family day for the Goulds. My daughter is in Canada, my son is in Providence, and we are in Boston. So we all get online and play games together for the day. We use Mumble to talk to one another. My daughter always complains when we miss a Sunday (since anyone can cancel if they are busy with something else). We were almost done playing when I got a phone call. I have some friends with some fruit trees and their plum tree fruited for the first time ever.

And boy did it fruit. We estimated that we had about 70lbs. Not all the plums were in the photograph. Plus there were the peaches too, but the peaches were not plentiful, only the plums.

We had six people cutting and peeling at a time. Luckily their kitchen is huge. They have three sinks, two dishwashers, and two ovens, one of which I commandeered for keeping the jars hot. I was the only one canning that night, but one other took a huge pot home with cut plums to can the next day (12 pounds of plums in her jam pot). I wish I had brought some half pint jars, but with so many plums I brought three cases of pint jars.

Personally I made 2 1/4 pints of jam. And 9 pints of syrup. I had no recipes with me so I just tossed them together. No pectin jam works well with 2 cups of fruit to 1 cup of sugar with a little bit of lemon juice. So I went with that. It set up perfectly.

I did a little more sugar for the syrup. A real syrup would be strained through a cheese cloth, but I like the fruit in my syrup. I did strain out the peels with a colander though. My immersion blender will puree the peels, but the one we had was old and not as sharp. If I could have I would have left the peels in too. I figure that has a lot of the plum goodness in them like fiber and minerals. Syrup is bad enough for you with all the sugar, I hate taking out the few good parts.

In addition to what I made, there was some peach ice cream with plum sauce to put over the top. It was divine. And some plum tarts, which I didn't stay for. Some peach Popsicles and some plum sauce that was made to be like apple sauce. We started with seven buckets of fruit. In the end there were two left I think. Jan our hostess was going to make some plum chutney. I left a box of jars and lids with her. I also left my canner and jar lifter. They have always used tongs as a lifter. They loved the jar lifter though and said they needed to get one. And they just use regular pots to can, but my canner is perfect and fits 7 pint jars with no wasted space (or wasted water to heat up). I'm going to go over today to pick up some of my jam and syrup. I didn't want to bring it home in a car while it was cooling. It probably wouldn't stay sealed that way.

I've never been to a canning party before. It is much more fun than doing it alone. I never have the produce myself to invite anyone over though. I think those are my only friends with fruit trees and usually they don't get all that much fruit. They said that happened with their peach trees too. The first year the tree went wild and produced a lot. But since then they don't produce nearly as much. I hope that doesn't hold true for my peach tree. I want lots of peaches every year. I know they don't prune or thin like I do though. Hopefully that will be what keeps them producing.

Canning

I spent the morning and a small bit of the afternoon canning today. The pickles were made with pickle crisp for the first time. I really do hate the mushiness of canned pickles. I've tried all the typical tricks like ice, salting, and starting just after you pick those cukes. And yes I always cut off the blossom end and leaves a bit of stem. But nothing ever works. I haven't yet done the low temperature canning. But if this doesn't work, it will be my next experiment. The thought of standing over the canning pot for 30 minutes and making sure the water stays at the appropriate temperature doesn't sound like a lot of fun though.

The other jars are barbeque sauce. Since I can't eat the tomato variety, I figured I'd experiment. I made peach BBQ sauce mostly following the Ball recipe. I did take out all the peppers. I also added some bourbon and made half the fruit plums. It does taste more like barbeque sauce than the other experiments, but I don't like it all that much. It is OK. I'll see what it tastes like on meat though to make sure. I really don't like the honey in the recipe. I want brown sugar. But honey is acidic (it varies but about a pH of 4), so I'm afraid to just replace it.

The browner sauce is Ball's Victorian Barbeque Sauce. Granny sent me the recipe. It is made from rhubarb and raisins. I used an immersion blender to break up the raisins and make it into a thick sauce. It doesn't taste much like barbeque sauce, but oh my gosh is it tasty. I just want to sit down and eat it straight. It reminds me more of apple butter than anything else. If I end up not liking it on meat, I think I'll bring out the ice cream and put it on top of that. Or just use it as a butter and put it on bread. In fact I think it would be to die for if I put it with some sharp cheddar. I'll have to try that too.

Tonight I'm going to do a test. I'm going to use the above sauces and some Chinese plum sauce that I made earlier to coat some chicken breast. I'll grill it. Then we will do a taste test to see which ones we like the best.