Days 312 - 339 Bounty Returns, Thinning Fruit, and Bees

Variety has returned to the garden. Whereas a month ago it was lemons, lemons, lemons...we now are harvesting salad greens, beets, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, and kale...and soon we will be tasting our first blueberries of the season...and a big crop that is coming. Yum!!

Been pretty busy over the past few weeks. For one, school has ended so I now have more time for the garden. I will need it because I need to get some of my starts in, albiet late due to the first attempt being mowed down by pesky snails, slugs and I believe earwigs. I will be out defending the next starts I plant!! I do not use any sprays on my plants or fruit trees, but I find that a quick visit to the garden at 10PM before bed to take out the pests works pretty well.

These weeks are usually the time to thin the fruit trees. I did not have to thin the peach or nectarine trees because they got hammered by the March rains. I generally leave 6 inches between fruit on those trees. The apple and pear were spared the rain and have set a heavy crop. Our pear tree seems to thin itself so I do nothing to it. I cannot say the same for the apple tree. I gennerally have to snip all but one fruit in each fruiting bud. Kind of tedious, but it has made for a much better crop in the past, especially taking care of the coddling moth problem.

The bees have been busy. I picked up a swarn a few weeks ago and I have already added an extra super for them. I then noticed that my box that I left out due to lazyness was repopulated. I guess a swarm found me. Convenient!! Last week I picked up another swarm (big!!) and gave it to a friend. I have been doing this with any extra swarms that I run into.

Looks like less than 4 weeks left to make my goal of harvesting every day for a year. I believe I will "hang up" the blog at that time...but not until I do a final tally and blog entry. There are less readers and I m busy with other things. I will still keep going on my own though and my wife says I should get it all on paper just in case the blog disappears into the bog heaven.

A four-week summary if you do not want to read the details:
Lemons: 38 ($19.00)
Chard: 2 bunches ($6.00)
Kale: 10.5 bunches ($21.00)
Salad Greens: 14 salads ($7.00)
Cherries: 22 ($1.00)
Raspberries: 1 basket ($2.00)
Beets: 4 beets ($3.00)
Strawberries: 2 baskets ($4.00)

Day 312
1) 3 lemons
2) Salad Greens

Day 313
1) 1 lemon
2) Salad greens

Day 314
1) 2 lemons
2) Salad greens
3) 1 bunch Kale

Day 315
1) 2 lemons

Day 316
1) 2 lemons

Day 317
1) 2 lemons

Day 318
1) 2 lemons

Day 319
1) Salad Greens

Day 320
1) Salad Greens

Day 321
1) 2 bunches chard

Day 322
1) 1 lemon
2) Salad Greens
3) 1/2 bunch kale

Day 323
1) 2 lemons

Day 324
1) 2 lemons

Day 325
1) 3 lemons
2) 2 bunches kale
3) Salad Greens
4) Couple of cherries

Day 326
1) 1 lemon
2) 2 bunches kale

Day 327
1) Salad Greens

Day 328
1) 1 lemon
2) 12 strawberries
3) 1 bunch kale
4) Salad Greens

Day 329
1) 1 lemon
2) Salad Greens

Day 330
1) 2 lemons
2) 4 raspberries

Day 331
1) 1 lemon
2) Salad Greens
3) 4 cherries

Day 332
1) 3 lemons
2) 6 strawberries

Day 333
1) 1 basket strawberries
2) 2 bunches kale
3) 8 cherries

Day 334
1) 2 lemons

Day 335
1) 1 lemon
2) 2 bunches kale
3) 6 raspberries
4) salad greens

Day 336
1) 1 lemon
2) 5 raspberries
3) 8 cherries
4) Salad Greens
5) 4 beets

Day 337
1) 1 lemon
2) 8 raspberries
3) 1 basket strawberries

Day 338
1) salad greens

Day 339
1) 2 lemons

Four-Week harvest: $63.00

Total Produce Harvested (Year-to-Date): $1414.75
Total Honey Harvested (Year-to-Date): $360.00
Expenses (Year-to-Date): $190.00