I learned some new things

Last night while reading my large book called "the Encyclopedia of Gardening"
I found out some answers to questions that have plagued me for a couple of years

We have Raspberry bushes and blackberry bushes and we also have 3 apple trees on our property

the bushes are really brambles mixed with weeds and they do not produce big lovely fruit they produce a lot of small tiny fruits but only a few large ones

I found out why

in order to produce the large amount of fruits and the large size fruits you don't need more brambles you need less and need them done right so I told Dave we are going to train the brambles nicely on a fence thin them out and get rid of the weed competition growing in between

and then any excess plants that grow up in the middle we can sell off

Not only will this make growing them better but it will also make picking them easier (DUH guess I should have looked in the book before)

Now the apple trees I checked into this one because I was really bummed about this our apple trees have taken on a Biennial bloom pattern.(there is a name for it !) what this means is they bloom one year in a large profusion and then the next year they only make a few blooms. luckily we have 2 small trees that produce one year and 1 large tree that produces the next year.

There is a way to fix this it is too late for this year to repair the problem but for next year we can take care of it

pruning the limbs to thin out the canopy Also we need to pinch the mass of blossoms or get rid of some of the fruit.

Don't think I have not asked around I talked to the guys at 3 different garden centers they all said either they had never seen what I was talking about OR they had the same problem with their trees.

So I am looking forward to being able to fix some of my fruit problems probably this fall with the berries.

In the picture above you see we teach ours young to help out he was helping his brothers pick some berries when he saw me coming out of the chicken house. You can see the pig pen off his left and the gravity waterer that screams white trash..well that and the old broken truck parked in front of the barn.



Tim just came in the house and said he has a new survivalist salad for people to try

Daisy petals, white clover petals, and raspberries

good thing my kids know how to get their own breakfast!

Off to work before the rain comes