Tiny Cherry Trees

Most Cherry tries are self pollinating. This means that you don't need friend trees as pollination partners. I'm accustomed to buying two of everything. This way you always have back up. 

I found these darling trees at the Port Kells Nursery (aka heaven on earth). I planted them together so they can support each other as they grow. Hopefully in 2-3 years I'll get some cherries to munch on. I'll be patient my darlings, because you are so adorable.

I put some Chocolate Mint and Strawberries in the pot as well. Goodness, this pot smells ah-maz-ing...

Container Gardening: Blueberries

I, BeesintheGardens, am a hoarder of blueberry plants. I currently have 13 blueberry plants on my patio, ranging in sizes. When I see a new variety, I force the people around me to help me justify bringing them home. Reason have ranged from "But... It's so cute" to "I don't have this one yet, my other blueberries told me they want this new variety as their new friend" to "I must, I must, I must save this blueberry plant from the awful conditions it's currently in and give it a better home."

The first step in getting better is admitting your addiction.

Ror loves blueberries too. Whenever she's on our patio she goes up to them and sniffs around to see if there are any for her yet. This is why I think it's okay to keep adding new ones? This might just be another excuse to add more, and more, and more, and more.... blueberries...

I'm an avid believer that what you grow, you should share. I love sharing my harvests with my co-workers, neighbours, and friends. However, if you are one of these groups of people you may have noticed you have never receive any blueberries.

This is my second problem. I hoard the plants and the berries... Ror only gets some because she looks up at me with those cute big eyes and it's hard to say no.

Here are some tips I've learned along the way:

I have found that Blueberries love love love coffee grounds. They thrive on it.

You also need blueberry friend plants because blueberries don't like being alone. The friend plants cannot be of the same variety because blueberries will have a greater yield when you give it 3 or more varieties to cross pollinate with.

Don't forget to plant bee friendly plants to lure the bees to your garden.

Container Gardening : Chrimson Gala Apples

(This is after I followed the below steps)

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Gala apples I love you

Gardening can be very precise. I can get overly excited at times, so this precision doesn't always get executed. In my research for container gardening for fruit trees there were a lot of steps where you had to do exactly what they said. I took this as suggestions, rather than hard facts. Hopefully this delinquency works in my favour...

This is what I did, only time will tell if these were the right steps. I'm optimistic because I've always done things a little differently when it comes to gardening.

One: soak the bare root tree in water for 4-6 hours

Two: add soil to the container and place the tree into the pot. If you have a grafted tree, make sure the grafted part is above the soil line.

Three: Trim back the branches by a third. Make sure there is one leader branch and a couple of smaller branches below the leader branch.

Four: Water, water, water. Make sure the tree is continually moist. As September approaches reduce the water to once a week so the tree can start winterizing.

Five: I use the seaweed fertiliser and coffee grounds. In the summer I do this once a week. As the summer ends, I cut this back so plants can winterize.

I guess my imprecision is working because the branches are growing :)

Six: Add something to the top layer of the soil to keep it moist. You could add mulch, burlap, I chose this succulent ground cover plants that I found at Home Depot. 

Fun Fact: Fruit trees need friend trees so that bees can cross pollinate. I only have one this year, but hopefully when plants go on sale at the end of the season I'll get another. 

Container Gardening: Magnolias

The best way to have a garden in a small space is to have all your plants in pots. This is also known as container gardening. I always thought that certain plants (like trees) needed to be in the ground. This is my experiment with the success and failures. 

First up is Magnolia Trees. I'm currently on season 3 of Magnolia trees and these guys have not died. Success! 

I have two different kinds and the thing I've learned is that the white ones bloom weeks before purple ones. This is also why I only have pictures of the white one. Patience got the best of me in previous years and I trimmed the buds off the purples ones before they even got a chance to bloom. Last year I was too busy and just left the trees to their own and was pleasantly surprised when ba-bing, blooms!

 I'm pretty sure this one is a star magnolia tree. The one beside it is Magnolia Liliiflora (not bloomed).