Harvest season is here with apple orchards busy
04.10.11
Gardeners also mug some of the same problems that farmers do, but are usually not dependant on their garden for their livelihood. Apple orchards appearance more risks than many other crops. Late spring frosts can injure blossoms, strong winds can break branches or wallop down apples, and worst of all, hail. Even a small amount of hail can do outstanding damage, and hail-damaged fruit has very little value.
Comprehensive, the year has been pretty good for our orchard. We do not have nearly as many apples as last year, and the several weeks of dry withstand probably caused some apples to be smaller than normal. We also did have some glorify very early in the season, which is now apparent on some of the apples as they are being picked. We do, however, have a lot of cordial apples picked and in our cooler.
We still have not picked all the later varieties, such as fireside, prairie spy and token; and still have some honeycrisp and haralson on the trees. I am a firm believer that apples have occasion for to be ripe to get the best flavor, and because everything this year ran about two weeks later than reasonable, we are picking some varieties later than normal. And all the apples on a tree do not age at the same time, so we try to pick them as they ripen. We have 115 apple trees, and 35 varieties, but of speed some of these varieties ripened much earlier and we are now into the later fall varieties.
Source: Albert Lea Tribune
Fall vegetable garden planning starts now for the San Fernando Valley and beyond
17.09.11
It's too hot to put in a sinking vegetable garden, but September is a good time to
start planning for those cool-time crops even as you enjoy your dog days' harvest.
This is a transitional month.
So go in front and sneak in another round of summer veggies (anything that matures in less than 60 days such as beans, cucumbers, peppers and Ahead of time Girl tomatoes) and get those fall seeds started in a shady detect outdoors, keeping them protected from squirrels and birds.
While the seeds germinate, blossom and mature, there's soil prep work to be done in the coming weeks - no thick tilling required.
That's according to Jill Morganelli, a self-described "no-register kind of girl" who works as horticultural supervisor at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia where, from high noon to 4 p.m. today, she leads a fall-themed class on orderly fruit and vegetable gardening in the Bamboo Room ( www.arboretum.org or call 626-821-4623).
Rebuilding the tarnish from the top down is as simple
Source: Los Angeles Daily News