Budding Spring

Satsuma plum blossuming in early Spring in Adelaide South Australia

The Satsuma plum tree is in flower, but then so are the pear and peach trees…

Early peach blossum

Nectarine graft budding on a parent peach tree One of these peach trees is in for a surprise; it’s about to become the proud parent of some three different varieties of freestone nectarines, grafted on to one of its somnambulant branches during winter. These buds will become branches that might produce fruit next year; this year any early fruits will be stripped off to allow the graft to heal and strengthen without the added weight of fruit threatening to break them off the parent tree.

Out in the front yard, our winter-grafted Granny Smith apple tree is also setting buds on six different varieties of apples, and the ornamental pear tree is boasting a successful edible pear graft.

Just weeks ago, the grafts were inert. Three different nectarine varieties on one peach branch.

Other things are budding too; a pot full of Isabella grapevine cuttings – just a bunch of twigs in a pot only weeks ago – is now popping out grapevine leaves above the soil and roots below the soil. These twenty twigs will form the basis of a row of table grapevines that will supply our future summer breakfasts once they have been established in our new enclosed orchard well out of reach of parrots and possums.

Isabella grapevine cuttings in a pot during late winter.

 Only weeks later, these same cuttings are developing both roots and leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even the vegetables are blooming, especially the broad beans, broccoli, German cabbage and Daikon radish.

German 'filderspitzkraut' cabbage flowering in the kitchen garden at the rear of the house. The chillis behind it are 'Scotch Bell', with Daikon radish flowering to the right. The old recycled bedframe to the far right will soon be covered in snow peas, now about 400 mm high in great clumps below it.

'Aquadulce' broad beans, grown to propogate seed.

Snow peas planted as near to the kitchen door as possible, beginning their assault on an old bedframe staked on its end in the kitchen garden. Twigs pushed into the soil among the peas provide a temporary support for the delicate pea plants until they can grab onto the bed springs with their curling tentacles.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello,

My name is jessica. I've been looking for a while for the isabella grapevine variety. Are you able to tell me where you got your cuttings from? Or could you point me in the right direction to find some? I'm really keen on growing a vine in the backyard and have searched high and low with no success. Any help you can give would be much appreciated! Thanks, jessica

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