Queering the front yard...

I spent a long, hot Saturday helping my friend Mark transform his front yard into an edible landscape. We have something like a labor cooperative -- everyone shows up for a few hours on a weekend, and pitches in on a project. Company makes the drudgery into a pleasure.

We had some help from Tony, who started it off with a few layers of newspaper to defeat the St. Augustine. Tony minces. The girls have no idea what to make of it.



Then a thick layer of pine bark nuggets in the sunniest part of the yard, for a small fruit grove.


On the east side of the yard, which gets just a bit less harsh Florida afternoon sun, we put a yard of mushroom compost.


A civilized break. Guava pastries, espresso, and lots of cold beer.


We also put up a fence to give the yard some structure. In the grove, we planted Persian Lime, Meyer Lemon, Red Dragonfruit, and a Dwarf Cavendish banana... oh, and some dwarf, weeping mulberries.



Mark loves Caribbean cuisine, so we put in my idea of an island summer garden: Sweet potatoes, lots of hot peppers (Tabasco, Habanero), Sun Gold tomato, some Okinawan Spinach (not very Caribbean, of course, but we needed some greens!), basil, oregano and cassava. It'll take a few weeks to fill in, but with all the sun and water, things will be overgrown by mid-July.




I'm most excited by the Dragonfruit, which I've never grown myself. We got it at Edible Nursery in Daytona, which has a pretty good selection of fruits for our zone.



Since Mark's property is on a hill, the fence took a lot of time to get right. The three of us spent about eight sweaty hours digging holes, cutting posts, spreading mulch and compost, and cleaning up.

This is just the beginning. Mark's yard get a LOT of sun, with west and south exposure. There's a perfect spot for a big avocado tree, and plenty of space for a bit more citrus, a peach tree or two, and maybe a tropical apple or two. We need to add okra and crowder peas to his summer garden.

Mark was inspired at least in part by an article by Michael Pollan in the "Green Issue" of the New York Times Magazine a few weeks ago. Faced with the seemingly overwhelming challenges, and frankly the apocalyptic possibilities, of global climate change, Pollan asks "Why bother?" When the problems are so big, can individual action really make a difference? Isn't it like feeling guilty for the flood downstream because you pissed in the river? Pollan makes a great argument, one that derives much of its worth from something Wendell Berry said about four decades ago in a book I dearly love (and one of the reasons I garden now):

And they have seen that these public absurdities are, and can be, no more than the aggregate result of private absurdities; the corruption of community has its source in the corruption of character. ... Once our personal connection to what is wrong becomes clear, then we have to choose: we can go on as before, recognizing our dishonesty and living with it the best we can, or we can begin the effort to change the way we think and live.

There is something so sensible, so logical -- but at the same time, so humane and patient in the way that Berry writes. We must "begin the effort to change."

Pollan claims that we should bother, we must do something, that our individual choices and stances can ramify through culture -- he cites the example of Vaclev Havel and Adam Michnik, who decided during the deep funk of communism in Eastern Europe, to just act as if they were free. Their personal example "created a tiny space of liberty that, in time, expanded to take in, and then help take down, the whole of the Eastern bloc." It's a bit of an overstatement, but there's truth in it.

But the act I want to talk about is growing some — even just a little — of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don’t — if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade — look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do — to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.

We must "begin the effort to change" somewhere, and where better than in our own front yards?

Persimmon Buds and Blossoms

Very subtle, the flower of a persimmon. They point down.





My tree grows in a container. It's about five feet tall, so probably will drop any fruit that manages to set. But I can hope, right?

Something in the way of vegetables & fruit...

Chard ('Sea Foam' from Pinetree -- an excellent cultivar), carrots, sorrel, tomatoes & coriander. In a bed that I designed in circles.


Granex onions finally starting to bulb up. First time I've grown onions: Found a huge bunch of starts for sale in a hidden corner at Lowe's this winter. I've been thinning them and eating the young ones as scallions. Like most short day onions, these are sweet and therefore keep poorly, so I plan on leaving them in the ground as long as possible, pulling them as I need them. In a bed fmade from leaf mold.





My Rattlesnake Beans have kicked into high production. Last year, I didn't even plant these May, and they continued to produce well all summer, though the late summer beans were really only good as cannelinis (white beans). Very tasty, in any case -- a lot of rich, soya-like umami to them. Stay tender even when large, except in August and September. Grown up wires to an electrical conduit. I have a tomato growing up the conduit.



I was relieved to see this Nesbitt grape finally starting to leaf out. I moved it this past winter. My god, what a root ball! I had read that they are difficult to transplant, but it was harder than I'd expected. I root pruned it severely and cut the vine back dramatically, so I was a bit concerned that it hadn't yet broken dormancy. It's growing on my trellis, and these leaves are almost at the tip, which means that the vine survived well. It, too, has a bit of an aphid problem.



I'm vexed. I have no idea what tomato this is, but I planted the seeds back in January.

Aphids on my fruit trees...

A bit of an aphid invasion of my pear and apple trees. The trees are tough, and the aphids don't last long around here. I gave them a good spray with a mix of neem and peppermint soap. The smell alone should chase them away. Ladybugs, where are you???

On my pear tree:

Backyards, Beware: An Orchard Wants Your Spot - New York Times

Backyards, Beware: An Orchard Wants Your Spot - New York Times:

In the last few years, an increasing number of Americans have turned their yards over to such mini orchards, planting them with dwarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees, even in dense urban areas. Suppliers around the country have seen significant increases in fruit tree sales, like the 12 to 15 percent annual sales growth reported by the Dave Wilson Nursery in Hickman, Calif., which has one of the country’s largest selection of fruit trees (more than 1,300 varieties). [...]

The backyard orchard makes sense, given the growing popularity of the local-food movement. Nothing is more local than the backyard, after all, and home orcharding, as the practice is sometimes called, guarantees freshness and cuts the energy costs for transportation to nil. Anxieties about food safety — sparked by events like last year’s E. coli outbreak in spinach — may also be contributing to the trend. Ed Laivo, the Dave Wilson Nusery’s sales director, is a longtime advocate of dense tree planting, and wrote a how-to pamphlet called “Backyard Orchard Culture” in the early 1990s. He advises customers to choose varieties that will ripen at different times to spread out the harvest, a strategy increasingly being adopted by those wanting to eat fresh. “People are planting so that they have apples for four or five months straight,” he said, “rather than having one tree dump on them in September and then have to quickly make their pies and sauces.”

Fruit census...

My daughter asked me what fruits I had growing in my garden...

• Two peaches (Flordabell, FlordaPrince)
• Nectarine (Sunred)
  
• Six citrus (Honeybell Tangelo, Hamlin Orange, Owari Satsuma (these all on Flying Dragon), Sambokan Lemon, a Kumquat and a Navel Orange)
• Figs: ('Alma,' 'Brown Turkey,' 'Kadota,' 'LSU Purple' and 'Celeste.')
• Brambles: Bababerry, unidentified blackberry, unidentified raspberry (from tony_k), and a 'Brazos' blackberry
• Blueberries: Woodard,Blue Gem, Brightwell, Gulf Coast, Sharpblue, Emerald
• Grapes: Nesbitt, Black Spanish, Bronze Fry
• Strawberries (Chandlers mostly) (these are annuals in Florida)
• Pomegranate (Grenada)
• Pommes (Anna Apple, Dorsett Golden Apple, Hood Pear Tree) (all of these grow on a trellis)
  
• Papaya (Waimanalo)
• Mulberry (Black Beauty Mulberry Tree, unidentified weeping dwarf)
• Carambola ('Sri Kambangum')
• Bananas (four kinds, mostly dwarf, including Oronico & Ice Cream)
• Mango (Cogshall)
  

My espalier system

I built this espalier frame during December, using three-quarter inch electrical conduit and fittings from chainlink fences. I've planted two kinds of tropical apples (Dorsett and two Annas) and one pear tree (Hood). The length of the trellis is about thirty-five feet.

On either end, I have grapes (Black Spanish and Nesbitt). Along the privacy fence behind the trellis, I have planted Bababerry raspberries and a Fry Scuppernong grapes.

That's four trees and two grape vines in a space that's about one-hundred square feet, or the space that's typically recommended for one tree in a commercial orchard.

You can't see it in this picture, but I've started to run heavy wire every couple of feet to trellis the limbs of the fruit trees, starting at one foot from ground level (for the micro-sprinkler irrigation line) and then about two feet, four feet, and six feet. (I've only run the first two wires so far.) The trellis is seven feet high, which is more or less the exact height of my comfortable reach. (I didn't use a tape measurer when building it, instead relying on my body to tell me how high the trellis should be built and how low the first wire should be strung. The first wire for the tree limbs is exactly as high as I can comfortably reach down, about two feet.)

The whole idea is a system of "human-sized" plants: I won't get on my knees nor will I climb a ladder. It's a rejection of the commercial orchard ethos -- I don't want to maximize production: Instead, I want to minimize inputs and maximize long and varied harvest -- the "backyard orchard culture" promoted by Dave Wilson. What's more, all my reading about tropical apples and pears indicates that horizontal growth and aggressive pruning is the way to maximize production.


Here is my inspiration...

More Willis, seeds

Notes to self...

Got my Kadota Fig and Sunred Nectarine from Willis last night. Very impressed -- both much larger than advertised and they appeared in good shape. I put the Mission grape, the Hood Pear, the Pomegranate and Nectarine in the ground, and the Kadota in a big pot.

I also planted all the seeds from Swallowtail, except the Blackberry Lily, which needs to spend some time in the fridge. A lot of seeds!

Need to remember to prick the poppies. Candytuft is up, but Strawflowers are still not germinating. Need to plant more Nasturtiums -- between the Brazilians and the cold, only a couple survived.

My Willis Orchard order has arrived!

My order from Willis arrived yesterday, waiting for me on the front porch when I got back from New York City last night. The plants were well-packed, and as advertised, if not a bit bigger. Those are the Anna apples on the left, mulberry and pomegranate center left and right. Mixed in there are the FlordaPrince peach, Dorsett apples, Hood pear (still need to get another pear for cross-fertilization), and Bababerry raspberries. Let's see... a Fry Scuppernong and a Black Spanish grape.
I'll have to whack a full foot off the pears and apples to put them on my trellis (pictures forthcoming!).
They all look like sticks now, but give them a nine-month growing season (March through mid-November), lots of water, judicious fertilizer... they'll be huge next October.

Double-cropping of apples and peaches in the tropics

This is the stuff I'm thinking of...

DOUBLE CROPPING OF TEMPERATE FRUITS IN THE TROPICS Apples and peaches are also grown in several locations in the tropics where no chilling is received. The culture depends on defoliation to induce the next growth cycle after flower initiation has occurred but before cold-requiring dormancy arises. Extensive commercial apple production occurs in East Java, Indonesia, 8°S latitude and bi-annual cropping of peaches occurs in Venezuela, 10°N. No winter chilling occurs under those conditions. Two crops are harvested each year and cropping is staggered so that fruit may be harvested every day of the year. Success is dependent on relatively uniform temperatures, favourable for tree growth and
fruit development all year round. Successive growth cycles are induced by artificial defoliation after flower initiation occurs but before cold-requiring dormancy develops. There are some important requirements for successful apple culture in the tropics (Notodimedjo et al., 1981). These include: (1) a moderate temperature regime conducive to episodic growth; (2) many growing points on each tree; (3) cessation of shoot growth by terminal bud formation; (4) adequate time for flower initiation to occur; and (5) synchronous bud burst after flower initiation. In Java, the basic system to produce double cropping of apple involves leaf stripping to stimu- late flowering (Janick, 1974). There are regularly two crops per year, typically one in April and the second in October. Notodimedjo et al. (1981) demonstrated that bud burst and flower emergence could be induced at any time of the year by hand defoliation. At the time of defoliation there are high levels of gibberellins and cytokinins in the apices and ABA and other inhibitors in the subtending leaves. Cessation of shoot growth by terminal bud formation depends on competition between a large number of growing points. Flower initiation follows terminal bud for- mation but subsequent flower development is slow until after harvest and defoliation. Physiological dormancy of terminal buds is avoided by defoliation within a month of harvest. No chilling requirement is apparent and no chilling temperatures
occur. Dormancy of most lateral buds is not broken by defoliation. Burst of lateral buds is increased dramatically by bud slicing, partially by branch bending and, under some conditions, by ethephon treatment. There is no evidence for growth control mechanisms that differ from those known in the temperate zone. The requirements for flowering are not met naturally in the tropics but are achieved by manipu- lative treatments notably branch bending and hand defoliation. Although the growth cycle of apples in the tropics is visually quite different from that in the temperate zone, the endogenous mechanisms of growth regulation do not differ appreciably. This has consequences for research. Whereas in the temperate zone each stage of growth occurs only once a year, in the tropics growth control mechanisms may be studied throughout the year as each stage of growth may be found at any time on different trees and bi-annually on any one tree.

And, finally, Bay Laurel

• Desert Delight Nectarine (1-200)
• Apple Pettingill (100)
• Peaches: Eva's Pride (1-200) & Flordaprince (150)
• Apricots: Flavor Delight Aprium (200) and & Gold Kist (300) (the outer edge of chill for me)

Willis Orchard Company order...

Still thinking through the wheres and the whats... Willis is inexpensive and has a great selection -- they have stuff in stock that Just Fruits doesn't.

It bugs me that there's no indication of the rootstock they use on their apple and pear trees... I've written them. I guess I prefer a M111, since its been well-tested.

• Anna Apple Tree
• Dorsett Golden Apple Tree
• Conadria Fig Tree
• Hood Pear Tree
• Black Beauty Mulberry Tree
• Sweet Pomegranate Tree

Fruit garden schematic

Trying to figure out what to do with the roughly forty foot by forty foot space at the top of my garden. Here's what I've come up with. (Click on the pic for a PDF where you can see the detail.)

I've based my planting densities on this very useful site on high-density backyard orchards and some conversations I've had with Brandy, the owner of Just Fruits and Tropicals.

Thinking of fruit... Pears and apples

I'm planning to drop a BUNCH of dough on fruit trees from Just Fruits & Exotics... Here's my list of contenders...
Pears

• Flordahome
• Pineapple

Apples

• TropicSweet

Fruit in the fall...

A FlordaBell peach tree (from the always excellent Just Fruits). I planted in December as a three-foot long stick... I keep expecting it to lose its leaves and go dormant, but it continues to grow and seems happy enough.

Trunk of the peach tree. It was hardly thicker than my thumb when I planted it.

A dwarf, weeping mulberry (NOID) that I got from Tony K on GardenWeb.

Blueberry SharpBlue.

Goings on in the garden...

The dry season is upon us...

Noel's finally blown out of here, though even this afternoon, when I made a run by Flagler Pier, the winds were fierce and the waves topped fifteen feet at times. Baby sea turtles everywhere on the beach, blown in with the Sargasso seaweed mats.

On my way to Flagler, I stopped by the Edible Nursery in Holly Hill. Nice selection of temperate/tropical trees, including avocados, mangoes, Barbados Cherries, loquat, kumquat, loads of citrus, guava, persimmon, and figs.

I got a beautiful seven-gallon Barbados Cherry and a five-gallon Fuyu non-astringent persimmon.

Jene's Tropical Fruit

Jene's Tropical Fruit: "Jene’s Tropicals offers a diverse collection of Florida tropical plants and other tropical fruit trees from around the world. All of these Florida tropical plants are extremely healthy and ready to be shipped to many places within the USA. Jene’s Tropicals take great pleasure in sharing amazing Florida tropical plants and tropical fruit trees with you!"

Berries:
| Blackberries | Blueberries | Mulberries | Raspberries |