The ‘test batch’ of blackberry wine turned out surprisingly great, so over the summer of 2017 we picked enough blackberries for a 5 gallon batch. We saved some time and some skin damage by taking hand pruners and nipping off the loaded ends of the canes (to battle later). Many…
If you’ve ever taken a cutting from a spider plant, you know how easy it can be to make one plant into two. There are several methods of asexual plant propagation. Cutting: Rooting a severed piece of a plant, such as the stem of a pothos plant or a jade…
A pluot has a complex family tree. It starts off simply enough, just cross an apricot and a plum. Both are stonefruit, both in the Prunus genus, both easily identifiable in the grocery aisle. It is simple to cross-pollinate these fruits. The result is a plumcot, bred over 100 years…
Okay, harvest is definitely not an accurate description. But our expectations were zero, so we were delighted with a handful of dark blue berries. There’s a honeyberry in there, I swear. 2015 was rough for honeyberries, but they started to do well in the spring of…
Berries might be the most successful perennial you can grow in our area. There are so many to choose from, and it seems like there is a new ‘superberry’ in the news daily. I think it is safe to say berries, regardless of type, are good for you. Here is the…
When we first carved out a garden from the surrounding trees, we knew we couldn’t grow a sun-loving shrub like the blueberry. Blueberries needed a little more warmth and light than we could provide, so we researched cold-hardy berries like the honeyberry, seaberry, and lignonberry, and planted a 30 ft…
Utah Honeysuckle (Lonicera utahensis) If you’ve ever walked through the woods near McCall, ID, you’ve probably seen several honeysuckle varieties growing wild. The distinctive red twinberry, or Utah Honeysuckle (Lonicera utahensis) looks like two translucent fish eggs glued together. The black twinberry (Lonicera involucrata) looks like…
In 2015 I posted that you should never purchase raspberries because they are probably invading someone else’s home and garden. I didn’t expect it to happen to me so soon, but I had sprouts coming up that fall. Now they are coming up in the path, in the former rhubarb…
Last weekend we started building a kiwi trellis. Most people’s reaction to this is “Inside your greenhouse?” or “Inside your actual house with that fig you’re going to kill eventually?” or just “WHAATT?” But the kiwi endeavor, unlike the fig tree or the maypop vine, might actually be successful. When…
I have a theory on why individual raspberry plants are so expensive. Who is willing to pay $30 for a single plant at D&B? I would never be able to afford my raspberry habit! I think they are priced to save overzealous gardeners from themselves. They will TAKE OVER. My…