Agricultural Architecture
Last year I built a multi-tier strawberry bed, and this year I built a sweet pea tee pee. Maybe I should become an agricultural architect?
April 10, 2007
April 14, 2006
Grafting experiments: fruiting apple to ornamental pear
We have two ornamental pear trees in the strip of grass by the street. These 30 foot tall trees contribute to a nice feel to the front yard and provide shade during the summer, so they do have their benefits. But they don't make food, and if you know anything about the way I garden, then you know I want everything to be to edible. Last year I conducted my first experiments in grafting. I grafted fruiting apple branches (technically "scions") to the ornamental pear tree. One of the grafts appeared to survive the winter and this spring is growing leaves and flowers. It's exciting and fun to see apple leaves and apple flowers on our pear tree. In the picture below, the graft is growing out of the large branch on the right towards the left.
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Fruiting apple branch on ornamental pear tree |
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Strawberry Condominiums
No, it's not an urbanization of John Lennon's Strawberry Fields. It's the brand new raised bed that Rowan and I built over the course of two weeks. The terraces maximize southern exposure to allow dense placement of the plants. There are about 40 plants in a 3'x7' bed. I planted two varieties of day-neutral strawberries. Day-neutral plants bear berries all season long, and put out far fewer runners.
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Four tier terraced raised bed with 40+ strawberry plants |