Tag Archives: Propagation

Late Cleanup

This week is my well earned vacation week. We aren’t going anywhere this week but I am using it to catch up on some projects.

Today I cleaned out the raspberry beds, cutting one to the ground and the other to about 12-18 inches high. They are just starting to wake up. I normally do it before now but it is still early enough I do believe. The variety is Heritage and since they will fruit twice I alternate beds so that each spring a bed is fruiting and that fall the other bed is fruiting. It makes for a very long raspberry harvest.

I also cleaned out the blackberry patch. Well…half of it anyway. I keep threatening to get rid of one non productive row. I do believe this is the year for it.

I bought some basil seeds yesterday that I will start tonight in the basement. I have some tomato seeds on order. I like to get them started by April 1 so I am right on target with that. I ended up not getting the garlic in the ground last fall so I started some in the basement about a month ago. I will transplant it outside probably this week.

There is still a LOT of cleanup that is needed in the flower beds. I am still not sure what I want to do with it though. We haven’t had the rain we need to keep it looking decent so I may just take out some of it and turn it back into lawn. The jury is still out on that one.

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Cutting Success and Unknown Figs

About 3 months ago I planted the cuttings that I had taken from both plants last fall. They had spent the winter in a ziplock back in the veggie tray of the fridge. They went into moist soil with no rooting hormone, heat or anything. They cups were kept in the milk crates and left in the shade. The past month or so they have been eased into the sun where they are now getting about 5 hours a day. Every one of them rooted. Not a single loss. I’ve been slowly finding homes for them. I really didn’t expect to end up with so many making it but am glad they did. Now to find them some homes.
figs_2

A coup of years ago I purchased what were supposed to be 2 Brown Turkey Figs from two different suppliers, one local and one via the Internet. Looking at the fruit below it appears that at least one is mislabeled.

figs_1

I’ve scoured the net and I’ve seen photos of brown turkey figs that appear quite dark and others that appear lighter. The green fruit above will end up with more color than it has now (green/brown/gold) while the darker of the two will get quite purple and be much smaller. The mature leaves are a bit different too. The purple variety has more angular leaves while the green variety has more rounded leaves. Anyone have any ideas?