Bryan John

Do you have any recommendations based on your grandmother's garden?

[img]Hi All,

I am currently creating a new rock outlined strawberry patch. I'm mostly going to be planting new ones, but I have transplanted some older ones. I have a couple of questions. Does anyone see any issues with the beginning of the design? Any suggestions for what might go well next to, around or even in the patch? I do have chives, yarrow, elderberries and a peach tree quite close. Finally, I got some plants in today (and I was kind of not ready for them...they shipped fast!!!). I need to plant my red, black and white currants, some dwarf flowering cherries, a sugar cherry bush and an apricot tree. Any planting suggestions from your successes would be greatly appreciated. I already have a pretty successful strawberry patch, 7 apple trees, 2 pears, 2 cherries, 1 nectarine and 2 plums scattered around the yard, doing pretty well (aside from another attack from the winter moth catepillars!). If any of the new plants, go well with them, please advise.

Thanks

THEY'RE BACK!!! These little buggers are getting my cherry and apple trees again. In the fall I added yarrow, transplanted chives, added compost, layered a leaf mulch and added bird feeders near the trees. Today I started picking them off. I think I'm getting it earlier in their progress because they're much smaller this year or it's because the trees are just starting to leaf out. It also seems like I have way more ants climbing both the cherry and apple trees, too. I was hoping to get fruit on two of the apple trees this year, hopefully these buggers don't stop me. If anyone has any thoughts, your help is always appreciated. Thanks.

WOW...Thanks for all the help and advice everyone. They were winter moth caterpillars. I hand picked over 300 of them. I have 5 apple trees right now; a cortland, honeycrisp, mutsu, winesnap and a 4 in 1 from Stark Brothers. They are doing well right now as they have leaved out pretty well even though they looked pretty decrepit for awhile. Any advice on improving their soil health will be greatly appreciated. I don't plan on using any chemicals. @Matu, thanks for the advice. I don't plan on selling anything. Just for personal use and giving to family and friends. Just this year, so far, I've been able to give over 8 jars of strawberry jam to family just from produce of 2 year old our strawberry patch. Hopefully, with our apples, I want to eat them, press for cider and make sauces while giving much away to family and friends.

Thanks, Joseph. I'm in Rhode Island. My main concern is that these are all newly planted trees with none being older than two years on my property. Not that I was expecting fruit this year, but all the flowers were decimated and there is hardly any substance left to the leaves. I fear this will stunt growth and future production.

Great eyes!!! I didn't see any of that when I was outside. Do you have any suggestions to remedy? Are these things going to ruin my trees? All this damage happened in less than two weeks.

Hi All,

Figured this would be the best place to try to figure this out. Attached are three pictures that show the damage to three of my apple trees. All my apple and cherry trees look the same. I've read a couple of local articles about the winter moth caterpillar doing a lot of damage around here. What do you guys think it is causing the damage? Further, if you think you know what the damage is, what are some possible solutions? I appreciate any advice.

The possible toxins concern me as well. I almost can picture them 30 years ago pouring out excess gallons of lead paint into the space. The house was built in the early 1800's, so who knows what has been buried!!! What's your thoughts on panting fruit trees there?

Hi all,

This summer a major project of mine was clearing some serious overgrowth in my backyard. I wanted to expand my yard so I could grow some more food producing crops namely some more fruit trees and berry bushes. In clearing the land, I continuously ran into trash. Ranging from anything like rope, tires, plastic bags, construction signs, various metal fence/posts, to even stacks of plastic candy wrappers and gatorade bottles. I filled about 9 bags of trash from trash that was buried. I kept digging because I was concerned about what was under the land. I removed a lot of fill (bricks and broken cinder blocks) and removed a lot of trash. I feel like if i keep digging, I'll keep coming into more and more trash. My question for you guys is what do I do to remedy the land? Just bring in fill? Dig more up? Call it a day and start planting? Take some time to revitalize the land with compost/cover crop/manure etc? Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks Judith. This is the first year we have a garden here. This yard though was extremely overgrown as the house was a foreclosure, so who knows what was planted here. When I bought it, I don't think the yard had been touched in 5 years. We got about 15 beetles and about 6 section of the eggs underneath some of the leaves. We'll go at it again this afternoon.