Apple Trees!

We got our 2 apples trees planted yesterday!  One Yellow Delicious, and one Red McIntosh.

Yellow Delicious didn't have a tag. Here's what I know about it, though:

Semi-dwarf: mature size 15-20' tall and wide

Needs full sun.

Self-pollinating, but will do better with another variety to pollinate (midseason.)



I've learned a lot about apples trees in the last couple of days. 

You need 2 different varieties to pollinate each other.

Planting info:

They do best with well-draining soil, but it doesn't need to be super fertile.  Do well on a slope.  Avoid planting at the bottom where the cold air will pool around the tree and kill off blossoms. 

I'm still learning about pruning.

Probably will need to do something to protect them from bunnies and mice eating the bark.  Although, these trees seem to be a couple of years old--they are 1" thick already, so I don't know if that will be as much of a problem.  We will still most likely put up chicken wire or something to protect them.

Avoid sun-scald: we should wrap the tree or paint it white with latex paint, up to the first branches.

From the Red McIntosh tag:

Semi-dwarf: average mature size 15-20' tall and wide

Needs full sun.

Cold Hardy to -30 to -40 F.

Medium to large deep red apple with white, sweet, fragrant flesh.  Ripens in mid-September.  Needs midseason pollinizer, suggest Red Jonathan. 

Certified virus-free.

New Back Yard, Thoughts and Plans

We are starting over from scratch here, pretty much.

There is a nice bit of lawn between the house and this hill...and yay! no pool to worry about!  Jacob has actually been able to play outside by himself sometimes.  That part has been really good.

Otherwise, the amount of work to be done is a bit daunting, but I'm trying to remember that it doesn't need to be done all at once.

Old, falling-down garden box full of weeds.

Fairly steep slope behind, which we plan to terrace into more garden boxes.

Looking back at the middle of the slope.  A couple of young aspens, and a bunch more weeds in front.

I want to plant 2 apple trees this fall where those green weeds are, right at the bottom of the slope.  We would like to add a few more fruit trees next year, but haven't settled on which kind. 

Far side of the hill.  Big aspen, with a dead small tree and a bunch of dead grass and weeds.

I need to go up the hill and decide which aspen runners to let live and which to clip off.  We think having a small aspen grove on this side of the hill may be a good way to go.  Better than what we've got, for sure.

Steep slope down north side of yard. 

This may be part of a more extensive landscaping and wall-building project later on.  For now, it will probably just stay as is.

Raspberry bush! 

Thorny, with small but sweet berries. Not very abundant by the time we got here, but perhaps some judicious pruning and care would help that.

We're now looking at the flower bed up against the house, in case that wasn't obvious, (so hill with garden box is behind me.)

Lots of irises, which could probably use dividing.

I'm not sure what the plant is between the irises and the pointy evergreen.

The former owner thought they were scented geranium, but wasn't positive either.

The tree is going to have to come out--besides plans for deck expansion, I've seen several wasps crawl into it, and I think they are building a nest in there. Plus, it's just kind of ugly.

We have had to start watering the lawn, which has been strange!  Also, there is wind here almost all the time, so I want to interplant the trees on the slope with some shrubs in hopes of protecting my vegetable garden, at least a little bit.  Near as I can tell after a month, prevailing winds all blow straight across the hill from the south.  It may change at other seasons, don't know yet.

Flower Arranging 101

The kids and I went to a U-Pick Flower Farm in the area and so when we got home, I got to try my hand at flower arranging.  It's pretty obvious that I need some more practice, but it was fun to give it a try.

No. 1: Hodge-podge

 This one turned out okay, but the flowers look a bit crowded.

I really wanted that sunflower in there, too (below), but it looks pretty ridiculous.

I needed to stick a rod into the stem or something to hold it up, I think.

 Not my favorite at all. 

No. 2: Study in fuschia 

 I debated between leaving the gladiolus all by itself and sticking those field flowers in with it.  As you can see, I opted for the small flowers as well. Provided a little contrast, anyway.

No. 3: Pinks with yellow and purple accents

 This one, in the blue/green Venetian glass vase, was my favorite.

Form was a little better than the first, and colors went together well.

My hope is to someday have enough flowers of my own to cut arrangements, without having to worry about leaving a big bare spot in my landscaping!  I may even have room for a cutting garden, with our 3 garden terraces.