Tuesday 19 August 2014

Peach, Black Boy, #1 / 2013-2014

There were two unknown fruit trees planted around the house. One was in the garden by the hut and it was obviously a dwarf nectarine or peach. The other was in the front garden, and was obviously not a dwarf tree, but was also a nectarine or peach. The only way to find out what kind, was to wait and see, as a peach is a fuzzy nectarine.

Day X+0: By this stage, I'd pruned the tree, and we were into summer and leaves had grown along with small fruit. There's not much to say past this point, other than to observe the growth over the 2/3 of a year that passed. I did thin out the fruit at one point.

Peach, Black Boy - 01 - 2013-11-08

Day X+6:

Peach, Black Boy - 01 - 2013-11-14

Day X+44:

Peach, Black Boy - 01 - 2013-12-22

Day X+66:

Peach, Black Boy - 01 - 2014-01-13

Day X+69:

Peach, Black Boy - 01 - 2014-01-16

Day X+76:

Peach, Black Boy - 01 - 2014-01-23

Day X+85:

Peach, Black Boy - 01 - 2014-02-01

Day X+99:

Peach, Black Boy - 01 - 2014-02-15

Day X+114:

Peach, Black Boy - 01 - 2014-03-02

Day X+141:

Peach, Black Boy - 01 - 2014-03-29

I would have gotten around 10 fruit from the tree. Some mornings I would go out and pick up the windfall fruit, but if I forgot, either rabbits, hares or more likely blackbirds would have taken a bite or three out of them. The chickens at this stage were caged away, but love pecking away at black boy peaches.

Sunday 17 August 2014

Kohlrabi / 2013-2014

I'd never heard of Kohlrabi until I lived in Iceland, where someone I worked with used to bring in some she grew. The flavour is something I'd describe as something like a sweeter crisper mini-turnip.

Day X+0: Not sure when I planted it out. Like most of my seed sowing, I did it rather rough, and just put them in soil in a tray and placed the tray outside. It would then have gotten hail and snow on it, for short durations.

Kohlrabi - 01 - 2013-11-08 - Seedlings

Day X+6: Six more days later.

Kohlrabi - 01 - 2013-11-14 - Seedlings

Day X+45: Thirty nine more days later, planted out.

Garden Bed, Granny Smith - 2013-12-22 - Kohlrabi

Day X+85: Forty more days later.

Kohlrabi - 2014-02-01 - 57

Unfortunately, I don't seem to have taken any more pictures. I ended up getting maybe 10 decent sized kohlrabi harvested. A rabbit or hare came along at some point and bit the top off several plants. I also put the last kohlrabi into a kimchi made from other things I harvested, but eventually yeast grew on top of it.