Starting Cuttings - Two Ways

I first was introduced to the Vitex tree (also called the chaste tree) on a trip to Dallas, Texas to visit my Aunt Cheryl and cousin Patrick.  Chaste trees lined the streets near their home, and the purple flowers were beautiful.  I immediately asked what the name of this tree was and was told the Chaste Tree.  The name behind it has an interesting history.  The chaste tree makes seeds that are like peppercorns.  

Ages ago, it was said that this tree quelled romantic and amorous urges.  European monks who took vows of poverty sprinkled the seeds on their food and slept on the leaves of the chaste tree to rid themselves of fleshly urges.  I'm not sure of the efficacy of this, but who's to judge?  Modern pharmaceuticals are touted to do this, that, or the other, and have been found wanting, no?

We purchased a chaste tree at the local nursery in town and it has thrived in our yard.  It attracts butterflies and bumblebees every single day.

The blooms are beautiful.  I wish they had a wonderful fragrance, but I don't smell anything.  My sniffer doesn't work too good, so that's not to say it doesn't smell nice.  

I began to think that it would be nice to have a few more of these growing, perhaps in a row, lining the driveway.  We need to go buy some more.  But as I thought about that, it reminded me of an item on my To Do List:  *Learn to start trees from cuttings.  I had done that successfully a couple of times, but not for trees.  We had success with starting a Bleeding Heart vine and Confederate Jasmine.

Now is a good time to try starting a chaste tree from cuttings.  I bought some rooting hormone.  I wanted to experiment two ways, though.  With some cuttings, I would put directly in a cup of water.  With some cuttings, I would put the rooting hormone on and put directly in moistened soil.

So about two months ago, I did just that.  I put three cuttings off of our chaste tree directly in a cup of water.  Two months later, and look what we have!:

Healthy vitex - successful cuttings

The quality of this photo is so poor, but if you look at the bottom of the cutting, you can see long roots.  Success!!

Out of the three cuttings I put in water, two had leaves and roots, and today I transplanted them into pots with soil.  I'll raise them for maybe a year in pots before transplanting in row to line the driveway.  The third cutting was a dud, but like Meatloaf sang, "Two out of three ain't bad."  (Now you'll have that song stuck in your head, won't you?)

No leaves, no roots

Let's go check on the ones that I put rooting hormone on and planted in soil.  As you can see, there are three that are healthy with leaves and certainly a good root system beneath it.  I planted 7 in total with rooting hormone into the soil and 3 of them made it.  Either method seems to be pretty doggone good!

Next thing I'm going to try to grow from cutting is:  BLUEBERRIES from cuttings.  I'm going to try them both ways - with rooting hormone and in water.  Our blueberry bushes are big and productive, but I'd like to have more to make up for the ones we lost last year in the drought.  Tricia makes me a fresh blueberry smoothie every single morning.  If we had more, oh, the things we could do!  Blueberry muffins and pancakes, Blueberry coffeecake, blueberry ice cream, blueberry scones, blueberry jelly!  The list is endless.  

In addition to tasting good, blueberries are good for you.  They're said to reduce blood pressure, prevent heart disease and increase memory.  Probably better health benefits than the chaste tree, too!

Nearing the End of the Blueberry Harvest of 2024

In the past we've enjoyed a little grove of blueberry bushes in the back hard.  There were three lines of four bushes.  The boys, Tricia, and I would carry out empty Daisy Sour Cream containers and encircle the bushes, picking the blueberries.  At first, we'd only pick the ones that were dark blue.  However, we learned that blueberries will ripen after being picked.  That left some 'wiggle room' in picking.  If you accidently picked one that was still red, well, no big deal.  Once you wash them and left them in the sink in the colander, the red ones would turn blue overnight.

Over time, we lost blueberry bushes for whatever reason.  Last year we suffered a drought.  Despite watering the best we could, we watched with sadness as the blueberry bushes' leaves turned red and died.  Out of the 12 original bushes we started with, in 2024 we only have four remaining.  Fortunately, those four bushes have grown bigger and essentially make up in production for the bushes we lost.  We're nearing the end of the harvest now.  Each day we pick so that the birds don't steal the crop.  It looks like we'll put up a little better than 4 gallons of blueberries.  That's not too shabby.  We eat a lot of them as we pick, too.

We generally go out in the late afternoon to pick.  The brutal sun has relented somewhat and the sun filters through the live oak leaves with muted sunlight.  The nosy goats come around to curiously look at the blueberry picking activity, hoping that they'll be the beneficiaries of some treat.  We've spoiled them in that regard, giving them the ends of cucumbers and other vegetable peelings.

Due to the generous rainfall this year, the berries are plump.  Despite our best efforts, the birds do eat their fair share.  That's okay.  They have to make a living, too.  

Toward the latter part of June, we reach the peak of the bell curve on blueberry yield.  The amount harvested gets smaller and smaller by the day.  Soon it won't be worth the time to go pick.  At that point, we'll let the cardinals and the mockingbirds and the bluejays harvest the rest of them for us.

Once the season is done, I'll re-mulch around the base of the bushes.  Some of our chickens get out of the pasture and into the yard from time to time.  When they do, they like to scratch the mulch at the base of the blueberry bushes to find bugs and worms.  It's better for the bushes to keep them mulched, so I'll work hard to fix the hen's scratching.  Later, we'll prune the blueberry bushes.  Russ will help me in that endeavor.  I'm not an experienced pruner.

Finally, I'd like to replenish our blueberry grove to make up for those that died.  The most inexpensive way to do that is to take some cuttings.  That's my new project before next spring.  I'll try to get some cuttings off of some of the existing bushes and get them rooted.  I'll keep you posted with our progress.

Joy Comes in the Morning

For several mornings, we'd hear "beep, beep, beep" and that would alert us that bright and early, the workers on the right-of-way crews were unhooking the wood chipper and backing down our driveway to dump another load of wood chips.  We filled up all of our available space and had to tell them that we couldn't take any more.  That's too bad.  But we have all we need for now.

I zoomed in on the photo above to show you what is going on.  Can you see the steam rising from the wood chip pile?  It wasn't even cool outside, but the piles are heating up.  The chips are decomposing and bacteria growth is starting to work.  Pretty soon we'll see mushrooms growing on the piles.  Some will be edible and some not.  Eventually, all this stuff will make some rich compost.  I move it wagon-load at a time to the back of the garden and layer wood chips and cow manure, wood chips and more cow manure.

We did lose a couple blueberry bushes in the drought, but the ones that survived are loaded up with blooms.  Tricia made homemade blueberry muffins this weekend and they were absolutely delicious.  I asked her how many blueberries we had left in the freezer, hoping we'd not run out before this year's crop comes in.

The bushes are a-buzz with honeybees.  In our beekeeping class, they told us that honeybees can boost crop productivity by 30%.  I hope that is true.  Our bees are certainly working the bushes hard.  Hopefully, we'll have a great blueberry crop.

One thing we haven't had for the last two years is citrus.  The intense freezes we've had for the past two years have decimated our trees.  I spent the last two days burning the dead citrus branches that our neighbors cut off of their trees.  They even lost some.  The only citrus tree we lost was a lemon tree.  The navel orange tree was damaged, BUT, I'm seeing blooms on it!

Same thing with the 1 year old Owari satsuma tree.  We bought another satsuma tree at the nursery in town that is supposed to be more cold hardy (down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit).

This tangerine tree has very minimal growth on it, but it's a fighter.  It has some blooms on it.

My stroll through the yard was a joyful one.  We may have citrus once again!

Hunters and Gatherers

I have been listening to a podcast about Davy Crockett.  So interesting!  The podcast is one that my uncle shared with me.  It's called "Bear Grease."  I'm hooked.  It's some fellas from Arkansas that are talking all things country - from squirrel dogs to catfishing on trot lines.  But my favorite, so far, a series on Davy Crockett!  It's an in-depth look at his life and the time that he grew up in, back when men were men.  The series, up to the latest posted, talk about his childhood, and his bear hunting exploits and it will get into his political career and the Alamo in upcoming segments.  

Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, Greenest state in the land of the free,
Raised in the woods so he knew every tree
Kilt him a b'ar when he was only three
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier

In thinking about Davy Crockett, I remember being a kid and me (or my brother) getting a coonskin cap as a souvenir on family vacation.  I tell you what, when I put that thing on my head, I felt like I was a woodsman.  Who needed grocery stores or clean clothes, or baths, for that matter?  With a coonskin cap on my head, I was King of the wild frontier.  As it turns out, stores are mighty helpful (and I think my wife decrees that baths are mandatory).

I will say this, though.  Last month, our grocery bill was only $150.  The Good Lord has blessed us with a productive garden.  We've been eating lots of fresh stuff from the "Farmacy" out back.  It is warming up and I want to share a refreshing, cool salad we gather and throw together for lunch.  Come with me and we'll do a little hunting and gathering.

The blueberry bushes are yielding berries, and if we can beat the mockingbirds and blue jays to them, we can pick a couple of pints each day.

They are big, plump and sweet!

Now, let's meander by the herb garden and pick a handful of fresh dill.

Let's grab a basket and head out to the garden and pick some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.

We'll chop up the cukes and dill, crumble some feta cheese, sprinkle some blueberries, and sea salt and black pepper and then drizzle balsamic vinegar and olive oil and toss it up.

That's a cool, refreshing, crisp salad, right there.  Right from the back yard.  I'm not so sure Davy Crockett would have enjoyed this, though.  He'd have bear backstrap and taters for lunch instead, I'm sure, but he would still approve of trying to live off the land.

The Buzz This Spring

It is still chilly at night.  We have a fire burning in our fireplace most every night to keep us warm and cozy.  However, spring is right around the corner.  There are telltale signs everywhere.  The first is our column of bees.  As soon as the sun comes out and it warms up just a tad, the honeybees become very active.  They exit the column and fly off to find flowers.  They return with a large yellow bag on their back legs.  The bag is full of pollen that has a bit of nectar to make it sticky.

Normally the bees leave during the hot summer.  It must get really hot with all of them packed into the hollow fiberglass column.  This year, however, they stayed all year.  We enjoy having them here to provide pollination in the garden and for our fruit trees.

The blueberries are blooming like crazy right now.  Looking forward to another big year of blueberry production.  I do notice that one of our bushes looks like it might have died, though.  If so, we'll need to replace it.

But the blueberries aren't the only things blooming.  The navel oranges are, too!  This past fall we got ZERO oranges.  The very hard freeze that we got last March knocked the citrus back.  It killed some trees.  What trees didn't die were severely injured.  No blooms and no fruit last year.  This year the navels are blooming.  However, the tangerines and grapefruit have no bloomed yet.  We'll see what happens this year.

A beautiful day gave us the opportunity to go to the church and do a little weed-eating around the flower beds.  We recently did some work there and spread some fresh dirt that apparently had rye grass seed in it.  The rye grass is tall and green.  We raked up all the grass and put it in tubs and dumped it over the fence for the cows to eat.  Boy, were they happy!

I stood by the navel orange tree and marveled at the cows' ability to devour all of the grass we brought them.  They are eating machines.  While I watched, I noticed the honeybees had located the blooms on the orange tree.  The bee was busy as... a bee.

Ten feet to the south and east another bee was busy gathering pollen from the flowers of a gigantic turnip that we are allowing to go to seed.

Spring is on the way, and we can't wait to get in the garden and start planting all of the spring crops!

The Berry Best

It is peak berry time around here.  The are producing and require picking every single day.  We are in a race against our adversaries - Mockingbirds, Blue Jays, and Cardinals.  They all like picking berries, too.  I don't know what it is about this year, but there are tons of birds!  We noticed them loudly singing all spring in the backyard.  At first we thought it was nice, now we know they were calling their friends to partake of the blueberries.  Their friends arrived and they told their family members.   

Now, I don't mind sharing, but they are taking more than their fair share.  Not nice.  Next year I will buy nets to put over the bushes.  One year I hung rubber snakes from the branches.  I'll look for some of those too.  For now, we will continue picking.  We still come away with some nice blueberries.  They are at all different stages of ripeness.  We still have gallons of blueberries frozen from last year, so my wife has encouraged me (and I've obliged) to eat plenty while I am picking each afternoon.

Some are hard and green, but each day they ripen.  Others are blue, plump, and sweet as candy.

Some years they are smaller, harder, and more tart.  My theory is that all the rain we have had has resulted in more H2O uptake, making the berries plumper and juicier.

On normal years, we pick between a pint and a quart of berries each day.  This year, not near that much, although the birds may be getting that much, doggonit!

When we are done with the blueberries, we mosey over to the thornless blackberry bushes.  We have two of them and they produce well.

These are not ripe yet.  They turn black when they are ripe.  Hence, the name blackberries...

They ripen quickly, turning from red to burgundy to black in merely a day or two.

The size is bigger than that of the dewberries that grow in the wild.  Russ got some cuttings off of these canes and will try to propagate some of these on his own to get more coming.

These are good to snack on.  Sweet.  Juicy.  They are also delicious to put on top of homemade ice cream!

Time to head to bed.  I'm berry tired.

Checking in on the Garden After the Big Freeze

The Winter Garden is almost done.  We'll still be harvesting a lot of cabbage, chard, beets, and carrots, but other than that, the focus is on getting the spring garden planned and planted.  We'll show you a few photos of activities in the garden.  First, here is a nice shot of a head of Romanesco Broccoli.

Notice the swirls, spirals, and designs of the Romanesco.  It tastes like a normal broccoli, with a 'nuttier' taste.  We like them!  Along with this Romanesco, we've been picking broccoli florets almost every day and, along with cut up fresh carrots and beets, oven roasting them with oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper.  Delicious!

The carrots, slow to start in the fall, came on like gangbusters.  In fact, they are probably too thick.  They are healthy, however and are producing well.  Some are still small, but we're walking the rows, harvesting those carrots that are ripe.

We wash them up and eat them raw and crisp or oven roast them.  Today, they perfectly accompanied a pot roast for lunch after Morning Services at church.  Each day we need to be very disciplined about picking the ripe ones out so that the smaller ones have room to go ahead and mature.  Anything that we don't eat, we'll blanch and freeze so that we'll stretch the harvest out and eat all year.

One thing I want to show you is not really in the garden, but in our little food forest orchard of blueberries.  Right before the big freeze came, the blueberry bushes were blooming.  Those blooms eventually put on delicious berries.  Except, the freeze finished off the blooms.  See below.  The blooms are brown and dead.  There will be no berries following these blooms.

However, we've been on trails way up the mountain the the Great Smokey Mountain National Park and have feasted on blueberries along the path.  I just knew our blueberries would be okay.  Sure enough, fresh green growth is coming out on the bushes.  

In an even better sign, fresh blooms are filling the bushes where the brown blooms were and there will soon be blueberries.  That's a great sign!

The jury is still out on all of our citrus.  The leaves have all turned brown and died on our navel orange, tangerine, and grapefruit trees.  There is no fresh green growth on any of the trees.  The only positive sign is that if you scratch the tree, there is a layer of green just beneath the bark.  We will keep our eyes on the trees for fresh signs of life.

So hopeful that the dangers of freeze has passed, this afternoon, we transplanted the seedlings of many of the tomatoes we planted back in January.  We planted: Black Krim, Black Vernissage, Big Rainbow, and Pink Brandywine tomatoes.  Each afternoon this week, I will try to put more varieties out in the garden soil.  The warming days should get them growing.

The plants were about six inches tall, but I planted them deep - right up to the base of the bottom leaves.  The buried stem will become part of the root system.  The tomatoes are happy and healthy.  With temperatures reaching the upper 70's all this week, these tomatoes should really begin growing.

With longer days and warmer weather, everything should green up and really start growing.  Can't wait for Spring!

Preparing the Blueberry Bushes for the Spring

 As we continue to harvest fruit from our citrus trees, our attention turns to taking care of our other fruit-bearing bushes nearby - Blueberries!  The first thing we've begun to do is dump coffee grounds around the base of all of our blueberry bushes.  Blueberries love acidic soil.  We've read that coffee is acidic and adding the grounds around the bushes will make the blueberries happy.  I've been bringing a bunch of used coffee grounds home from work for this purpose.  We'll see if this experiment is successful.

Our oldest son, Russ, has a degree in Horticulture.  He knows the name of every plant anywhere around and how to care for them too.  So we count on him for assisting in and providing knowledge toward care for our plants.  When he was here last Sunday, we asked him if he would help us prune the blueberries.  He showed us how to remove parts of the bush with pruning shears.

He removed some of the older growth, growth that crosses over other branches, as well as branches that don't look healthy.  I've never been a confident pruner.  The result of pruning the blueberry bushes was a cleaner-looking plant which should result in bigger berries.  Again, we'll see how that experiment works as well.  The animals in the pasture enjoyed the pruning experiment and are already calling it a rousing success.

Finally, I have to show a neat photo from our kitchen window.  If you look due east, you see a (not so picturesque) view of our neighbor's shop.  It just so happens that if you look through both openings of their shop, the view of a big white horse across the road is framed nicely in the photo with a red barn as the backdrop.

Have a great weekend!  I'll talk to you more on Sunday night.