Friend or Foe?

We had great hopes for our cherry harvest this year. There were lots of cherries on the tree in May and the tree looked healthy and
vigorous.

Until it didn't. First we noticed some of the leaves curling and darkening; then the fruit was dying on the vine. Laurie thought we had some kind of cherry mite. It looked like we wouldn't get any fruit at all.

Last week I noticed some really evil looking bugs on the leaves - and lots of them. We were prepared to have a smashing party (we won't use insecticides in our yard) - but we decided to take samples of the bugs to our favorite local garden shop, Portland Nursery, first. I'm so glad we did before we resorted to extermination!

This is what we were looking at. I was particularly freaked out by the one on the upper left (better photo below, courtesy of What's That Bug?). It turns out these are all ladybugs in various stages of life! I would never have guessed that! The experts told us that at these larval stages, they're actually eating more of the bad bugs than they do at the mature stage.

We have a terrible aphid infestation on the cherry and plum trees, so the ladybugs are having quite a feast. Unfortunately, we probably won't have any fruit this year.

Would you trust this bad boy with your fruit trees?

The good news is, the aphids are leaving the cabbages and artichokes alone this year. Read More!

Future fruit and other garden goodies

The strawberries are starting to look like...strawberries.


I expect a Munchkin to pop out of this one.

Raspberries....

...and cherries. The race is on! Which will ripen first?





This clematis was a surprise as I wandered around to the back fence.

Apples.

Cabbage is starting to furl.

The first pea!

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Blooms and Blossoms

It seems like such a miracle to look outside one morning and see that the fruit trees have blossoms on them. The mornings are still frosty, the rain and wind come in torrents, but the delicate blossoms hold on stubbornly with the promise of juicy goodness.

Cherry blossoms will bring the first tree fruit of the season, sometime in June. We have to be quick to pick though -- raccoons and various birds will be watching carefully, too. (Raspberries and strawberries race the cherries for the first taste of sweetness - who will win this year?)



We have two Italian plum trees, and they've been loaded with fruit the last couple of years. Ants are the critters to watch for here - they love to suck all the juice out of the plums!



The cherry and plum trees are relatively new to the yard. The Old Wise One is the lovely apple tree. She provides wonderful shade in the summer, though her apple bounty has been pretty minimal the last couple of years. Maybe she's peri-menopausal. Here she's framed by the neighbors' gigantic English walnut tree (we benefit from the shade in the summer and the walnuts dropping into our yard in the autumn - and the squirrels love it).


The Red Sails lettuce is doing beautifully. I plant this variety every year - it's beautiful and tasty and quite hardy. We'll be eating thinnings in a couple of weeks. Here's a future salad:











It'll be awhile before we'll be adding peas to the salads, but they are making some progress.

Can you guess what this plant is?

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