This time of year it is too hot for us to spend much time working outdoors. We live in Central Oklahoma, about fifteen miles east of Norman. According to maps I found of the area online, we live in an area known as the Potato Hills. When I started my Google search I was hoping for something more romantic like The Wildcat Ridge or Falcon's Roost. I've made my peace with it.
Outside it is 94 degrees, with a heat index of 98. I went out this morning and watered the greenhouse, checked the garden and started watering the trees. Every once in awhile one of us goes out and moves the hose. We planted a peach, two pears and four dogwoods last year. One dogwood didn't make it, but the other trees are doing all right. They still need a lot of water this time of year, so we leave a hose trickling for an hour or more to give each tree a good deep watering.
We wanted to try fruit trees, but we also wanted dogwood blossoms in the spring. I grew up in the Ozarks where dogwoods grow wild throughout the hills and we had two dogwoods in front of our bay window at the house in town.
It's our plan to keep the fruit trees well pruned so they will remain small enough we can pick fruit without a ladder. We left plenty of space between trees, which I wanted to use for vine crops like pumpkins and melons. This was our first year for our greenhouse and our new garden space, so there has been too much to do to accomplish all of our plans, but I did get a few pumpkins planted in the "orchard." Today we picked the first fruit of that labor.
That's a two-by-six the pumpkin is sitting on, so it's about the size of a soccer ball.
I've made plenty of mistakes this year and one was not researching pumpkins before planting. They seemed so easy. I mean, I see tons of them in the fall. It turns out they need lots of nitrogen and other nutrients and the recommendation is to dig composted manure into the planting hole twelve inches deep, add plenty of good organic plant food and then side dress with compost a couple of times between germination and fruiting. I've also discovered that they need twice as much water as most of my garden.
According to some sources, it is time to plant pumpkins for an October harvest, so I planted a few in the garden last week. We'll see how they do. Maybe in October I will share our secret family recipe for pumpkin pie.
Stephen
Outside it is 94 degrees, with a heat index of 98. I went out this morning and watered the greenhouse, checked the garden and started watering the trees. Every once in awhile one of us goes out and moves the hose. We planted a peach, two pears and four dogwoods last year. One dogwood didn't make it, but the other trees are doing all right. They still need a lot of water this time of year, so we leave a hose trickling for an hour or more to give each tree a good deep watering.
We wanted to try fruit trees, but we also wanted dogwood blossoms in the spring. I grew up in the Ozarks where dogwoods grow wild throughout the hills and we had two dogwoods in front of our bay window at the house in town.
It's our plan to keep the fruit trees well pruned so they will remain small enough we can pick fruit without a ladder. We left plenty of space between trees, which I wanted to use for vine crops like pumpkins and melons. This was our first year for our greenhouse and our new garden space, so there has been too much to do to accomplish all of our plans, but I did get a few pumpkins planted in the "orchard." Today we picked the first fruit of that labor.
That's a two-by-six the pumpkin is sitting on, so it's about the size of a soccer ball.
I've made plenty of mistakes this year and one was not researching pumpkins before planting. They seemed so easy. I mean, I see tons of them in the fall. It turns out they need lots of nitrogen and other nutrients and the recommendation is to dig composted manure into the planting hole twelve inches deep, add plenty of good organic plant food and then side dress with compost a couple of times between germination and fruiting. I've also discovered that they need twice as much water as most of my garden.
According to some sources, it is time to plant pumpkins for an October harvest, so I planted a few in the garden last week. We'll see how they do. Maybe in October I will share our secret family recipe for pumpkin pie.
Stephen
All photos are copyright 2017, Stephen P. Scott
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