Back to Tomatoes and Raspberries -- The Garden After Our Vacation

Grumpy's Castle; 16 July 2010 --

Upon our return home, after being in the midwest since 23 June (yeah, I know, we were gone 17 days, not just 15!) Grumpy was happy to see that his trusted Grandson had kept his bargain to mow Grumpy's lawn at least a couple of times, but more importantly, he kept the Upside-Down Tomatoes adequately watered. The results were obvious: each of the four varieties of tomatoes had at least one developing fruit and multiple blossoms, promising a bumper crop in the warm days ahead.

The persons to whom we extended the invitation to reap the crop(s) of Raspberries during our absence, apparently did not take our invitation seriously as there were numerous ripe and dehydrated berries still on the vines. However, that next morning after our return, Grumpy took his berry pail and picked nearly half a gallon of the sweet-tart gems. He also ate a few -- just as a test to make sure they were edible! Ha! ha!

Grand Mother noted the pail-full with some trepidation, as she was tired from washing our accumulation of clothes from our trip plus a sizable amount from the bachelors who remained behind. Nevertheless, she summoned up that reserve that Grumpy can only marvel at, but not explain, and baked a super-delicious Raspberry pie. Due to circumstances almost entirely beyond Grumpy's control, the last bit of the pie disappeared before he could take a photo. The photo on the right is the best he could do; look closely and you may see the evidence in the corners of his mouth.

A day later, Grumpy picked another half pail of berries; now, three days later, yet more berries await. Grumpy will be out there in the morning to pick them before the heat of the day dehydrates them. Another Raspberry pie is surely in the offing!! Hurry; reserve your piece now, before yet another pie bites the dust!

First Ripe Raspberries!!

Grumpy's Castle; Friday 18 June 2010 --

Well, the Raspberries finally showed their color; and the rejuvenated row shows lots of promise, as these two pictures illustrate. 

The first berry picked was given to the Grand Mother, along with this entire handful that Grumpy found on this first foray along the row. Grumpy had tasted a later pick while he was gathering the remainder of the handful.

The astute reader may wonder about the small size of these examples; Grumpy believes that their diminutive size is a result of having no Orchard (Mason) bees present to pollinate the flowers when they began blooming a couple weeks ago. 

All of the pollination so far has been accomplished by a crew of what Grumpy calls "Bumble Bees"; these bees are nearly twice (or three times!) as big as the Orchard bees that Grumpy has had in past years. Grumpy observed as many as two dozen flitting from flower to flower on a warm summer day a week or so ago.

Orchard bees are much more industrious than any other bee (including Honey bees!) at the job of pollinating fruits. Grumpy recommends that any gardener who is serious about growing fruit crops such as apples or raspberries, invest in a small package of Orchard bees -- about 20-25 cocoons, each of which houses a fully pupated, but dormant bee. When the cocoons are exposed to warm weather (about 59 degrees and above) they will chew their way out of the cocoon and immediately go about their business. It is therefore very important to keep the package of cocoons in a refrigerator -- NOT FREEZING!! -- until you are assured that the daytime temperatures are going to remain in the 60-plus degree temperature range AND that there are flowers -- not necessarily fruit flowers -- for the bees to feed on.

Later, Grumpy will post a description of the Orchard bee "home" he has prepared so he can rehabilitate his "lost" colony.

Gardening 2010 -- Raspberries: Version 1.0

Grumpy was able to make his Raspberry vines much more accessible for picking and more neat to look at. He did this by extracting the "wild" plants that had erupted outside the line established by the wire trellis. Grumpy "deeded" 10 or 12 of these extraneous plants to the Swede Queen of Fort Straw. [Was there some ulterior motive involved, like some Raspberry freezer jam? Or maybe a Raspberry pie? No, Grumpy really will just enjoy seeing some "offspring" of his Raspberries lavishing in a more friendly environ than that here at Grumpy's Castle.] Later another 12-15 plants were extracted and given to the Sassy Offspring-Known-as-Anonymous.

Raspberries are, by nature, quite aggressive in spreading out in all directions. They do this by what are called "rhizomes". These are lateral roots that emanate from a well-established central plant. As a matter of fact, the Raspberry plants now claimed by Grumpy "emigrated" across  from the next door neighbor's garden several years ago by rhizome activity!

Good plant husbandry dictates that the bearing plants should be about 3 feet apart so the 10-12 inch long lateral branches, on which the summer's fruit develops (see left), have enough space to "see" sunshine and air circulation. This space also makes it much easier to find and pick the berries.

After digging up the extra plants, Grumpy used a spading fork to loosen the soil on both sides of the Raspberry row. This process resulted in incorporating into the soil some of the compost that Grumpy had used as a mulch on top of the row last year. Grumpy hopes that by loosening the soil on each side might discourage some of the rhizome activity. We'll see!

Finally, Grumpy spread some fresh compost (aged, chipper-shredded apple tree and rose prunings) on top of the freshly loosened soil. This row of Raspberries is sub-irrigated by means of a soaker hose that is buried just under the surface along the row of Raspberries. No water is lost by evaporation except through aspiration from the plants themselves.

Now, if Grumpy can stay out of trouble with the Grand Mother, he just might benefit by having a Raspberry pie later this summer!

Garden Update: An Invention and Fruitful Abundance

End of a Hot Week; Grumpy's Castle --
The warm weather this past week was very good for Grumpy's upside-down tomatoes. And also for his Raspberry Row! But the hot weather (103o on Wednesday!) brought a problem: keeping the tomatoes properly watered. Once or twice a day, Grumpy poured two or three cups of water into the upside-down "pots" from which the tomatoes hung. This still did not keep the plants from showing some wilting toward the end of the very hot days. The necessity to provide plenty of water gave rise to the mothering of an invention: A heat-powered watering system (see photo at right.)

Each one-liter-sized bottle is filled approximately 3/4 full and then capped. A 5mm hole is punched through each bottle cap. The bottles are turned cap-side down into the watering hole at the top of the upside-down planter. When the daytime temperature warms the water and the air pocket above the water, the air expands and pushes out the water. The warmer it gets, the more water is pushed out. The result is that the water is supplied to the roots of the tomatoes in proportion to the amount of heat that is experienced during the day. Grumpy has found out that just about the entire 3/4 liter of water is emptied during the hottest day. On a relatively cool day, less water is expelled and so during the cooler night, air is sucked into the bottle and is available for the next day.

While we are on the subject of tomatoes, Grumpy is proud to show off his first "Yellow Pear" that is finally showing signs of ripening! Grumpy will give it a few days before he samples this hopefully delicious fruit. In the meantime, the reader is directed to note the abundance of the cherry-sized fruit developing on the "Sun Gold" vine on the right. The Sun Gold is by far the most prolific tomato vine of the four Grumpy has.

Perhaps the second most prolific is the one he thinks is an Early Girl, shown here in the photo on the left. Grumpy and the Grand Mother have had five ripe tomatoes off of this vine already. The Glacier tomato vine has produced one ripe tomato which Grumpy sampled and concluded that it wasn't nearly as flavorful as the Early Girl. Grumpy is concerned that the size of these two varieties is much smaller than he would like. Perhaps the soil in which they are growing does not have the right pH -- he heard today that lime is needed in the soil to grow good tomatoes. Maybe next year.

Finally, the Raspberry Row! In an earlier post, Grumpy stated that no one had harvested raspberries while Grand Mother and he were gone to Florida. I was wrong! We were honored this week with a visit from Nancy Nurse and husband, Paul, from up Norske way. Paul mentioned that he had picked a half gallon or so of the raspberries while we were gone. Grumpy is glad that someone was able to benefit from ripe berries rather than let them be ravaged by Starlings or Clark's Jays -- or attract an itinerant Black Bear!! Oh no!!

Since returning, Grumpy has picked about three gallons of raspberries, resulting in one pie, three batches of freezer jam and enough frozen raspberries for a half-dozen more pies. Grumpy believes that he will be able to pick enough berries in the next week or so to enable the Grand Mother to make one or two more batches of freezer jam.

So much for Grumpy's weight loss goals!!