Once again Thinning peaches

It is time once again to thin the peaches on the little peach trees in my front yard. The nectarine tree needed it too.

It seems these little trees really try to put on a full tree's worth of fruit. I have to be merciless in thinning or taking off the extra fruit that sets on these trees.

Long ago I made the decision to plant these dwarf trees instead of the roses that used to line the front walk. These dwarf trees do not get any bigger than six feet tall. The first one, the Bonanza Peach, has gotten to be 9 feet tall. It is still manageable without a ladder.

So a pee zee peach in on the curb has moderate production every year. The pee zee nectarine has an incredible harvest every year. I am always looking for nectarine lovers to give these wonderful cling fruit. I enjoy them myself but not at that rate. They are amazingly sweet.. but they do not come off their pit very easily. It makes it harder to make jam or slice them. They do not have to be peeled however. Gowing up on peach orchards, we always peel the peaches.

The Bonanza peach is always has the first fruit of the season. I can pretty well count on peaches the week after school is out.. about the 14th of June and it will continue to produce tree ripe fruit until the 4th of July. The other trees have started production by then.. including the 30 year old Tilton apricot in the back. It has a bumper crop growing on it this year. It had a pretty small crop on it last year. I could only get 8 quarts of canned fruit from it. This year, I am going to have to thin out the fruit on the tree so that the branches don't break in May. It is loaded. The Alan Wilson plum has a great crop on it this year too. The pluots, an intergenitic cross of plums and apricots, of which I have two trees in the front look to have an average crop. The big yello/green one was something else last year. It was the last one to have fruit except for the lemon tree and the pomegranate. I was concern about the pomegranate tree not blooming this year.. but I checked my flickr notes and discovered that I took photos of them blooming in late May last year.. so.. not to worry yet. My students loved them last year.

The white peach that Sue hates because it is so sweet and does not have the peach acid in it, has a good crop but not a spectacular corp.

It is finally time for the last of the iris to bloom. The Beverly Sills are out in their delicate pinks. What a great flower. I think that they will do better in a different part of the front yard garden. They are slated to be dug up 6 weeks after their bloom.. About the time the school is out.. darn that sounds nice.

: ) pat