Raspberries, Apple Blossoms, and Cedar Apple Gall Rust

A week’s worth of garden updates to share!

I’ve been wanting a raspberry patch for quite some time now but I couldn’t decide where to put it.  I finally decided the south side of our shed is a good spot.  It’s a spot we couldn’t do much else with because the summer sun beating down off the metal isn’t favorable for many other types of plants.  Also, with driveway on two sides and a shed on another it will hopefully help limit their spread.

My husband prepared the garden bed – again using an ample amount of manure.  The plants themselves were easy to come by.  It seems as though if you know someone with raspberry plants, you know someone who is happy to give away raspberry plants.  I got them from my parents when the kiddos and I made a trip home last weekend.

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last weekend, our apple trees blossomed!  We have two apple trees – “Fireside” and “State Fair.”  One was a first anniversary present and one was my birthday present that same year.  Our daughter has a cherry tree (that blossomed not long after the apples) and as soon as we decide on a spot to plant it we’ll get a tree for our son (I’m thinking maybe a plum).

I also picked up a hanging basket from the Amish greenhouse down the road.   This was a Mother’s day present for my mom.  It’s nice having family that are avid gardeners – I would much rather give a hanging basket that will last all summer as a gift rather than a bouquet of cut flowers that won’t last more that a few weeks.

We also discovered a new nemesis… cedar apple gall rust.  A few weeks ago, after my husband cut down the nearly dead crab apple that was right next to it, we debated whether or not to cut down the cedar too.  Then we found cedar apple gall rust on it.  That made it a no-brainer to take it down – it doesn’t affect the cedar tree, but it is detrimental to the apple trees.  Our Fireside apple tree had ‘something going on with it’ last season, and we figure this had something to do with it.

So, bye bye cedar tree!

He wanted to point out a witch’s broom:

Next on the agenda – I bought about a hundred gladiolus bulbs, about thirty dahlia rhizomes, and 5 calla lily bulbs to plant!  I’m hoping to get these in the ground in the next few days.  Many of them will be going in between the raspberry plants for the next few years until the raspberries fill in.

I decided to get a bunch of bulbs this year rather than annuals.  Even though I’ll have to dig them up in fall they are much better value in the long run.  I’ve tried perennials in the past, and we don’t get along, so we’ll see how this new idea works out…