The Peach Tree Saga

Up very early but probably still won't go outside.  The excessive humidity isn't helping the bronchitis!

The saga of the peach tree (outside the kitchen)

This tree is a seedling.  I think maybe Red Haven.  I have kept it halfway pruned and sprayed irregularly for a couple of year.
It is hardy since it escaped the frosts this year and set a heavy crop for such a young tree.

Once the fruit began turning color, the resident groundhog has been feasting regularly.  This morning I discovered he had guests:



I even found some fresh pits on the porch steps!.
 

Some of our heavy winds combined with the weight of the fruit caused a couple of major limbs to break.  I left them attached hoping the remaining bark would allow ripening.  Each day I would check but they were still too hard.  Of course each day meant I lost another feast of fruit.



Yesterday was the last straw!  I drug out the drop  cord, the electric saw and my new ladder.  I picked all the peaches from the broken limbs but left a few on the east side to see if they would ever soften.

 

after trimming,


This side of the tree shows the broken area better.


This is the complete harvest from yesterday.  I was happy to see some size and lots of blemish free peaches.


So, the peach tree lives for another year.........

Random Picture:

Mystery Varmint Identified and some flower pictures

Well, it is another wet day in the Ozarks.  We have had 1/2 inch of rain in the early hours and more is due this afternoon before a drier and much hotter spell.  Maybe the heat will dry out our swamps.  Tractors can't get into the fields  until some of this wet  goes away.

Mystery Varmint:

Mystery solved.  We got the beast out of the trap (after it was deceased) and I hosed it off.  Now you can see the rings around the tail and a faint white around the  eyes.  It is a raccoon that will catch no more of our chickens!

Water is now standing even deeper in the west yard.

This is the newly named Kerria Bed (for the kerria japonica pleniflora bush)

 I planted a few  white vinca at the edges, wish I had done more:

 Finally, for the first time a a few years, I planted zinnias which are just now opening:

 The next are some close-ups of the blooms:

 I even managed a second later planting hoping that the flowers would last longer:
Note the three small lavenders at the edges.  I think I have 5 or so planted at the edges of this bed.

 This is also the bed where I recently managed to get the clematis up on a small circle of green welded wire:
I forget the name of the variety but it is a Type 3 that you cut down each year.  I have another growing the an Alba Rose.

 This is the middle of the bed where you can see the ferny cosmos that will come on later.

 and of course, my old standby, self-seeded flowering tobacco, nicotiana sylvestris, that is everywhere!

The kerria is in a rebloom period now:

I have Max out taking pictures of Willow and her new baby (another Willow story coming) and the lane that is full of water now.

I think  I will make soap today.  We are getting low again.