Carrie writes:

“What ever happened with your cherry and almond trees? I haven’t seen
any posts on them since 2014.”

Answer:

I sold the farm and don’t know.

.

.

.

Just kidding.

I do know how they were doing when I left and I can share that.

Here’s the report

Minnie Royal

Of the cherries and almonds I planted, all the ones from Willis Orchards, with the exception of the Coral Champagne (which is still sickly), kicked off.

The two trees I got from Grow Organic, however: “Minnie Royal” and “Royal Lee,” were doing fine. The Minnie Royal was twice the size of the Royal Lee for some reason, at about 10′ tall when we moved.

No blooms or fruit on either tree this spring. I hope to get a field report from our old homestead/food forest soon along with some photos.

Good nursery stock makes a big difference in how things grow. I won’t buy from Willis Orchards again but my respect for Grow Organic keeps increasing. They have great seeds, tools and trees. I’ve been more than happy with every purchase and recommend them without reserve. Their bareroot trees have all lived and thrived.

Good stock.

I tried intergrafting sweet cherries with wild black cherry and didn’t have any luck. The grafts looked like they were taking, then all died, so it appears the reports on incompatibility are true.

I may have a sweet cherry that took on a wild plum stock, though, but I can’t check on it now.

Unfortunately for science, my days of experimenting with cherries and almonds in Florida have come to a close, as has my apple experiment.

We’ll see if the new owner has any success. I hope so!

For now, I’m germinating apple seeds here and hope to start growing them in the full tropics. That will be fun.

Nostalgia

Sometimes I really miss my gardens and food forest… like today, as I’m thinking on the many experiments and trees I planted.

I would really love it if a good photographer could go over there and film some videos and take lots of photos so I can see how everything is going.

It was truly turning into a garden of Eden. So much life – and knowing that it started as a weedy, sandy yard baked by the hot Florida sun… and was then transformed into a model food forest for Florida… and that I left it behind… well, sometimes it gets to me a bit.

But only for a few minutes. I’m looking out my office window at a big jackfruit hanging on the limb of the jackfruit tree. Next to it is a towering banana tree and behind that is a view of the mountains draped in misty clouds.

I miss my food forest but I’m also quite content here. There’s just a bit of nostalgia and a feeling that there were so many threads left untied back in Florida. Watching the video tour of my yard now seems like a different life.

And I know, this sounds like a stupid complaint, but…

Gardening is too easy here!

I’m used to a bazillion bugs and nasty freezes. Here I haven’t seen a single pest on my tomato plants… or a stink bug on my beans… or the remnants of a racoon-ravaged pineapple in the yard.

Too. Easy.

You just plant things and they grow. Heck, I stuck twigs from a katuk tree in the ground along the fence line and they all rooted. That’s ridiculous. I used to have to care for them like babies in Florida. The hot sun and the dry sand did in a lot of my cuttings… and the winter will happily take the rest of them if you don’t keep them in a very sheltered location.

Okay, I’m done.

Pardon my stupid complaints. I am a foolish and fallen creature. I need to get outside and work in the gardens. There are weeds taking over the cucumber beds and the field corn right now, so all isn’t truly perfect in paradise.

Have a great Thursday… until tomorrow, enjoy the video on super easy composting I posted yesterday – and remember, the new episode of Totally Crazy Easy Gardening comes out this afternoon at 2:30PM.

UPDATE @10:45AM: I bumped the next episode of Totally Crazy Easy Gardening to tomorrow afternoon in favor of another video featuring Rachel picking wild greens and weeds for dinner. You’re going to like it.