The Cherries are in!

Alright, sneaking a picture of Ellie at her finest. She loves the sun.



So, good news! We got the cherry trees in. The one at the top of the hill is the Stella and the lower one is the Bada Bing. They were both bare root trees with some potting soil on them so we could keep them in the pot until now. We weren't expecting it, but as soon as we pulled them out of the pot, all the soil fell off. This caused a few seconds of panic, but then we remembered what the nursery guy had told us...they are bare root, but he put them in soil so they would last. They did, about a month or more in the pot. We even saw some healthy new white roots growing in the pot. Hope these take off nicely!

Spring is in the air

Okay, it's a beautiful day, and we decided to plant a tree or two. Okay, so the lower trees are going to require a fence, so those will be a little extra work...okay a lot of extra work, so instead we will do the ones inside the fence. We are thinking continue
with the cherries inside the fence.

The second picture is probably more like what we will have. None of these are specifically Bada Bing cherries, so not sure where we will end up there in regards to looks.

Skiing in California

Okay, it's been a bit long since the last post...not from lack of activities, so let's catch up. First, Matt and I had a great day on the mountain...it was special for a couple reasons;
- first ski day in 2009!
- really nice weather, snow was reasonably good...we found some really nice runs
- first time skiing with Matt, since we last saw each other about 30 years ago at CCHS
- rented a really nice pair of skis, which if I were to buy a pair, these would be a nice pair...
Salomon Tornado XWing i think....178 cm
- We went to Squaw Valley

The photo is from lunch the week before...our first rendezvous after 30 plus years...now we both live in the greater San Francisco area.

Fruit Trees

We got fruit trees today, Valentine's Day! Our gardener suggested M & M Nursery so we gave it a try. Manfred was awesome helping us. The address is:
322 Woodside RWC CA
366-4429

So, what did we get? I am glad you asked! We went to get bare root fruit trees, which normally would be perfect right now, but it's been so warm, some have already started to bud and blossom. Anyway, Manfred had already potted everything. What I didn't realize, when you get bare-root, he actually had them planted and he pulls them up if you want, which saves $10.00 per plant...hmmm. Well we would have done that if we already had holes in the ground and ready to plant. Since we didn't we got the pots. Instead of $25/each, they were $35/each...but...it doesn't stop there....I asked him if our gardener gets a discount, and he said 10% and he would give us the discount...so 3.50 off per container bringing the final price to $31.50/each.

What was our criteria for tree selection?
Well, we had a few criteria for our trees;
- hardy, requiring little or no water during normal times, little or no pesticides/spraying and so on, and resistant to disease and anything else.
- delicious fruit - tasty for eating straight-up and baking and cooking and canning, drying or freezing
- harvest season as long as possible. some fruits come all at once and if you aren't ready you can miss a whole crop, or even if you catch it, it may so much you can't pick and pass things out fast enough.
- the trees can not get too big or take up too much of our precious little space

So, what did we get?
We thought we had lots to cover, and would need to select lots of trees. So, we have about 50 feet across the back, and want to plant every 8-10 feet between trunks, suggesting we can do about 6 trees there. We think we can squeeze a couple other trees in the backyard as well. Closer up near the house...so we are thinking a fig, possible mulberries, possible avacado or orange...

Listed in order of harvest time:
xxx hours Amount of chill hours below 45 deg. to produce fruit.

1) Compact Stella Semi Dwarf Cherry
Early season - June
Self Fertile
750 Hours, large, dark red fruit with good flavor and texture.

2) Bada Bing Semi-dwarf Cherry
Late season - mid June to Early July

3) Burgundy Semi-dwarf Plum
Early July-Late August
Self Fertile, Medium fruit with cherry red skin and deep red flesh.
One source says ripens in mid June. - others say later.

4) Blenheim Semi-dwarf Apricot
Ripens late June to July (Long season!)
Self Fertile Freestone, medium to large

5) Fan-Stil Semi Dwarf Pear
Ripens in August
Medium sized fruit with good eating quality. Fireblight resistant.

6) Red Fuji (BC-2) Semi Dwarf Apple
Ripens September
Self Fertile, 350 - 400 Hours,
red blush covers entire surface, firm, crunchy, great flavor.

Possible next trees later in the season:
Fig, mulberry, orange..nectarine,peach?