Wiersch I Was Gardening

 As I mentioned my property was densly planted in stone fruit before world war 2.  One of the oldest fruit trees in my main orchard is an old Santa Rosa plum.   It has great plums but they come all at once and so I am always asking for friends to come and help me harvest and take some home.   This year I plant to do a better job of tracking (here) when it blooms and when the fruit ripens.  I believe first week in July for fruit. Now, with dry January days ahead of me is a great time to do winter pruning.   Winter pruning is easier in many ways because the leaves are not there. You can really see the structure and you can also see the damage.  I pruned out several large branches (larger than is ideal) because of the extensive combination damage from sun and insects.   Winter pruning stimulates trees to regrow in the spring with lots of sprouts.   In addition to these big cuts, I also removed several small regrowth bran...

 My property is smack dab in the middle of the so-called Mandarin belt of the Sierra foothills.   This area used to be planted mostly with Stone Fruit and Pears which were loaded onto trains from Packing Sheds in Penryn, Loomis and Newcastle to ship east.   I have found a map of my property from the 1930's and there were almost zero other trees or plants except neat row after neat row of fruit trees to satisfy the "export" to the east market.   These family run farms started being out competed by much larger farms in the valley which could be managed with machines.   The crop that replaced them were Mandarins ( Citrus reticulata) , specifically mostly Owari Satsuma Mandarins.    The Satsuma Mandarins originated in China but were brought to Japan 700 years ago  .   They were first grown in the U.S. in Florida but have been grown here in Placer County for over 125 years .   Across the street from my house is o...

  “Gardening is like cooking. It is tempting to cook only with the goal of achieving great taste, with no thought of healthy eating, but that often results in tasty concoctions so full of fat, sugar, and salt that they are deadly in the long run. Similarly, it is tempting to garden only for beauty, without regard to the many ecological roles our landscapes must perform. All too often, such narrow gardening goals result in a landscape so low in ecological function that it drains the vitality from the surrounding ecosystem.”   Doug Tallamy, Nature's Best Hope. Happy New Year! One of my goals for my garden in Loomis, CA. is to have something blooming year round.  Yes, I like to look at flowers but more importantly, I want to support wildlife.   When we bought our property, it was the orchard that sold me (but that's another post!) but the rest of the property had almost zero native or "pollinator" plants.   In April 2021 when we move here from the Bay Are...