Brooklyn Feed

If a reader hadn’t asked, I might have forgotten to post about my little apple tree. In the early spring I posted about trying to pollinate my Sundance apple tree. I pruned branches from another tree and put the branches near my flowering tree in the hopes that the bees would do the cross-pollinating. You can read about the process here. The good news is that it worked and I had 5 apples growing on my tree. I don’t have any experience with dwarf apple trees, so I don’t know if this is a decent number for the first year of fruit. I also wasn’t familiar with this variety of apple, so wasn’t sure how it would look when the fruit was ripe. This apple is one of the 5 from my tree. The fruit is sweet and crisp and delicious. I’ve always dreamed of having a small home orchard, and although 5 apples is a laughably small amount, it is a beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the image to view it larger. It shows how much land you need to feed a family of 4 for a year. Pretty interesting.

As I’ve probably mentioned before, I have a tiny backyard surrounded by tall buildings. What this means is that for several hours a day (more in winter) the sun is blocked by these buildings. So while my yard looks sunny, the sun travels and doesn’t hit one spot all day long.

The spot that gets the most sun is (of course) the area that is paved. I have had an assortment of pots and planters there, and this year I put in some raised bed planters. Instead of building them, I scavenged wooden wine boxes from our local wine shops. They are the same width (wine bottle length), so even though they are different lengths, they make a nice, even row.

I have to be somewhat smart about what I can plant with my limited sunshine. I have bush beans, lots of greens including mâche, deer tongue, new zealand spinach and lacinata kale. I can grow tomato plants that don’t produce a lot. Cherries do best. This year I planted white currant tomatoes. I have way too many, since I started them from seed, so if anyone wants some, let me know.

I am trying yukon gold potatoes and ground cherries for the first time.

And if you are wondering why I have wire over my beds, it’s because I have very tenacious squirrels. They dig like lunatics in my beds, which rips up anything that isn’t well established.

You may recall a couple of weeks ago I put some blossoming apple branches into my backyard to try and pollinate my little apple tree. I didn’t have high hopes that it would work, but if looks don’t deceive me, I have baby apples. They are about 1.5 inches in diameter and there are about 8 of them.

I ordered a tiny twig of an apple tree, which arrived a week or two ago. What’s completely amazing is that this puny little runt of a tree is blossoming! I thought I would have to wait a couple years like I did with my first tree.

I’m going up to my in-laws house this weekend and might get greedy and bring back some of their apple tree branches which are blooming right now. Maybe I can pollinate my little tiny tree and get an apple or two it’s first year.

If you’ve read my earlier post, you will know that I was in need of a second apple tree to help me cross-pollinate my dwarf apple tree. I mentioned this to my sister, and she said all I might need are a few flowering branches from someone else’s tree. If I put the branches out in my garden near my tree, the bees could do their work and I might get apples this year.

So where does a city girl get flowering apple branches? I posted on Brooklyn Freecycle, but didn’t get a response.
I went to a synagogue a few blocks away that has a neglected apple tree on its property, but I think they thought I was nuts. (I’m getting used to this response in people) The woman who had to make the decision never called me back. My next, best option was to prune some branches from the apple trees where we went morel hunting. And this I did. I did notice that quite a few of the trees were actually crab apple trees, which wouldn’t help me out. In fact, I already have a crab apple tree in my yard.

The branches made it home without wilting too much. I put them in water and hung one from the support of my tiny, new tree. I also brushed the stamens/pistils from the pruned flowers onto my flowers just in case I didn’t have bees visiting my yard. Now, let’s cross our fingers for some fruit.

As you may have read from a previous post, I ordered a second apple tree to serve as pollinator to my current tree. My first tree is a Sundance apple. The new tree is a Pixie Crunch.

If you get a bare-root tree, as I did, you will need to immediately soak the roots in water (in the shade) for a couple of hours.

Then fill your container with good soil. I added compost from my garden, which is rich in nitrogen from my chicken’s manure. Make sure to keep the graft (the bumpy join in the trunk) a couple of inches above the level of the soil. My tree has a white line painted on to show the join.

I put a support post in as well and added a protective guard for the trunk. Hungry squirrels will chew on the bark of a young tree. I had this happen to my first apple tree. Fortunately it didn’t harm the tree. I added a guard around that tree as well. This set-up looks like overkill, but the tree will quickly grow into it.

When you have your tree in place, pat the soil down and water it well. Keep watering the newly planted tree if you have less than an inch of rainfall per week.

Two years ago I started to plant fewer flowers, and more edibles. I put in 4 blueberry bushes, 2 elderberries, 2 currants, 2 gooseberries and one apple tree. Waiting for the plants to mature enough to bear fruit has been excruciating. Last year we had blueberries, but nothing else yet.

Now you might already know what is wrong with my equation above, but embarrassingly enough I didn’t. This is going to be a ridiculous reveal in about five seconds. This past winter something kept bothering me about my apple tree. I didn’t really give it much thought, but doubts would creep in right before going to sleep, only to be completely forgotten by morning. Then the absolutely most obvious and embarrassing realization hit me. I need two freakin’ trees to pollinate each other!!! Crap, crap and double crap! I’ve had this tree for 2 years and now I would have to get a new one that would take a couple of years to mature. That’s 4 years of waiting for fruit! Gah, how could I be so stupid?? I quickly placed an order for a new tree. I even asked the lady if my crabapple tree could pollinate my apple tree. She tried not to laugh at the city girl.

The only tiny bright spot is that my sister told me the other night, that I could prune some branches off a different apple tree and put them in a vase near mine. That is supposed to be able to pollinate my tree. I’m going morel hunting this weekend at an apple orchard, so I’m going to try that. Cross your fingers!

This could be my favorite time of the year. Winter is ending. (Please, humor me) Flowers are starting to pop, trees are blooming and there is an exuberance in the air when we can finally shed the heavy winter coats.

I like planting seeds because it gets me dreaming of warm summer days and the joy of growing my own flowers and veggies. We’ve had an unusually long winter, so I wasn’t thinking about starting seeds until just recently.

I like to recycle, so when I was walking down my street last fall, I saw these plastic containers being tossed and thought they would be perfect for starting seeds. You can also use those ridiculous plastic tubs that washed salad greens come in. It might make you feel less guilty for buying something with so much packaging! There were loads of these containers, so I kept a few and gave a bunch to my daughter’s science teacher, who runs a gardening class at the school.

I was talking with my mother-in-law about starting seeds and how I don’t do much besides putting the containers in a warm place, which is usually in a sunny spot. I poo-pooed all the “helicopter parenting” for seed starting. However, after several days with no signs of sun, warmth or seeds, I decided to pull out a heating mat I bought years ago for seed starting. That did the trick for getting the little guys to germinate. We still haven’t seen any signs of sun in ages, so I also pulled out the grow light that’s been in my basement for years.

So now the jokes on me and I’m the helicopter seed parent. Hopefully it will warm up enough that I can put these guys outside during the day and turn off the electricity. I did plant kale, deer’s tongue lettuce, New Zealand spinach, bush beans, sweet peas and mixed greens outside.

Inside started borage, which is growing like crazy, white currant tomatoes (little heirloom cherries) and ground cherries. I also planted the ironweed seeds that my mother-in-law gathered from the native plant nursery Project Native.

I got a call the other day from my friend Victoria asking me if I would like a kumquat tree. I love calls like this! Among many other things, Victoria is an amazing food stylist. She has been working with a photographer who shoots out of his home in nearby Brooklyn. After their shoots they often have props that they can’t use or return. What is so great, is that Victoria thinks of me and asks me if I need…whatever it is. I’m so greedy, that I never say no.

Hopefully my little kumquat tree will survive the chilly ride in the messenger van! I also have 2 huge blueberry bushes in my backyard courtesy of Victoria. I know she’s happy that this stuff goes to good use, and of course I’m happy because I get to play with fun new things.

Last year Victoria’s son came over to pick blueberries with my daughter in our yard. It’s a funny urban/farming experience we bring to our children.

Update: I think that this little tree isn’t in fact a kumquat. I think it’s a calamondin based on looking through a gardening catalog. Their description is apt: It produces an abundance of round bright orange 1-1/2″ fruit. The fruit is easy to peel and has few seeds. The orange colored pulp is juicy and sour (this is an understatement!). It can be used as a flavoring or as a juice like a lemon or a lime. When sweetened with sugar it makes a delicious marmalade.

One area of gardening that still intimidates me is pruning. Especially when it comes to fruit trees. Two years ago I bought a dwarf apple tree and have been afraid to touch it. So far it hasn’t matured enough to produce fruit. Last year I saw one blossom, but that didn’t stick around long enough to make an apple. We had a weird, dry summer, so that wasn’t a surprise. This coming summer, I really want to see some action with this little tree. I think some judicious pruning, might help it along. That is why I got this book yesterday.

I had some fantasies about training the tree into a fancy, espaliered form, but I think I will just stick with a basic tree. Besides, a fancy, formal tree wouldn’t really fit in with my shabby, chic Brooklyn backyard. I say that mostly because I’m intimidated. One day you will see a post from me where I am attempting one.

So, hopefully this book will help me not only with my apple tree, but also with my berry bushes as well. I hope to see some currants and gooseberries this year!