Garden 2024

Winter last year, I had removed a lot of wire nets around established fruit trees, in order to clean up the weeds rising around them. This turned out to be a bad idea, as rabbits eat the bark especially on apples, which can stunt or even kill trees pretty quickly, even those that are fairly established.

So this past winter, I added a many nets back around damaged trees, which has helped to protect them.

This year I didn't have much pruning to do. I mainly have focused efforts on cleaning up our tayberry bushes, continuing to remove rotting wood from our apple tree.

Next year I hope to focus more on honing in the structure of many of our pears, apples and peach trees to promote health, and a smaller size.

We ordered 25 hazelnut bushes from https://www.forestag.com. They're establishing well, planted along a shallow swale on a mound.

Additionally, we're planted a couple magnolia trees, which are also establishing well.

We're seeing a number of trees affected by peach leaf curl, as we've had an especially wet early spring.

Thankfully the pruning we've done in past years has opened the structure of much of these trees, letting in more air and sunshine. As the season progresses, the disease naturally becomes less prevalent, depending on severity.

We're looking forward to some great harvests this year!

Our old apple tree has lots of fruit on it for it's bi-annual fruiting habit. (last year we didn't get much)

Many of our peaches, nectarines and apricots flowered prolifically, and are putting on fruit now. We're looking forward to good harvests in August through October.

Bamboo, in Wisconsin!

Tayberries, our first ever harvest

Nanking cherries, really tasty and abundant!

Unsure what this is, but the leaves smell like winter green when crushed.

Another picture prior to blooming

June 7: 3 lbs of cherries

June 22: Early berry season I'm not weighing as they're more for a snack

• Nanking cherries: A good 40 handfuls
• Black raspberries: 40 handfuls, ripening over time
• Goji berries: 20 handfuls, ripening over time
• Tayberries: 1 handful, still ripening
• Silver berries: 2 handfuls

July 23

• 2 handfuls of blackberries
• 4.5 lbs of potatoes harvested from the garden