Louisiana Pictures

Louisiana

I am now in LA slowly recovering from my bout of ankylosing spondylitis. Slowly improving. Here with Grandma Dickens, I am thankful to get to spend some time with her.

Apple trees

So far over the last year and a half, before I came down with ankylosing spondylitis I planted several Dolgo Crabapples and American Crabapples for pollination and grafting. The Apples I have planted are Liberty, Enterprise, and Redfree. These are three very disease resistant apples that are low spray or no spray hopefully, and are said to produce nice apples at different times for a long crop. The Enterprise is an excellent keeper. I ordered my Redfree and Enterprise from Burnt Ridge, and my Liberty from Henry Fields. They have all taken and are looking good. All three of these are supposed to be good pollinator matches for each other and also for Dolgo. Another good pollinator that I now have is Golden Delicious. Golden Delicious is probably no good for fruit production in Kansas because it is vulnerable to cedar apple rust, but I wanted it for extra pollination since I had it for free. I got some scion wood from my tree in LA and grafted it to several of my Dolgo seedlings. grafts on 2 of the trees took and so it looks like I have 2 nice G. Delicious apples for pollination. I am hoping to get scion grafting wood from several other disease resistant varieties good for Kansas fruit production and pollination. The varieties I am most interested in are Williams Pride, Freedom, and Nova Easygro. Dad helped pack water to the most vulnerable trees this summer, since I could hardly walk. I hope to run water lines to everything when I recover.

Well for water

In the spring of 2009 we drilled a new well back by the little pond so we could set up a windmill and also possibly a solar pump for garden water, pond water, and also for livestock or wildlife as needed. I also bought an old windmill that I plan, Lord willing, to set up for water pumping. Of course, I am way behind on many projects because of my long bouts of being out of commission this year (most of 2010). We drilled a 6" well so we would have the option of 2 cylinders in well at the same time, similar to having 2 wells. At 75 ft deep we have all the water we need, the static level is 40 ft, which is pretty good compared to most of the nation.

Bailing Hay

Daniel and Gabriel Z. bailing hay in our south pasture. Wish I could help!!!

Tame wild Turkey

Cold Hardy Persimmon tree

Last April I planted 2 persimmon trees. (actually Mom and Nathaniel did the digging while I watched because I was too crippled to hardly walk) We planted 1 Rosseyanka Persimmon, wich is a cold hardy Asian X American cross from Nikita Botanic Garden in Yalta, Ukraine. It is supposed to be hardy to zone 5, minus 25F, and a vigorous grower to 20 ft high and 12 ft wide, a heavy producer of 2.5 inch diameter fruit that is astringent and asian flavored. The tree is said to be like American, and the fruit like Asian Persimmon. We also planted a Saijo Asian Persimmon which is supposed to be zone 6 hardy to minus 10F. The Saijo is supposed to be vigorous grower to 15 ft high and 12 ft wide, and is supposed to be a heavy producer of medium size, very sweet when soft, asian persimmons. I planted them in a good location, with the big metal shop to the north, and a good tree row with cedar and elm to the south and west. These factors block the Kansas wind, and seem to provide decent shelter. I hope to be picking tasty Asian persimmon fruit in a few years. As of August they both look decent with a foot of growth. I ordered the one gallon size from Edible Landscaping in Virginia. I am seriously thinking of also ordering a Hokkaido Persimmon from www.nuttrees.net in Kentucky, because they seem really cold hardy and produce huge fruit!! We will see!!

Late Bloom Almond tree

We planted Alenia Prima Almond and Dessertniy Bounty Almond April 2010. They are both late bloom, cold hardy Ukrainian types from Nikita Botanic Garden in Yalta. They are supposed to be hardy for up to zone 5, and reliably produce large crops of large, sweet, soft-shelled, nuts. They are supposed to be much better than the Halls Hardy Almond, and were brought to this country by One Green World, and are also sold at Burnt Ridge Nursery in Washington. They should do good here in Kansas zone 6. As of August, Prima looks good with over a foot of vigorous growth and Bounty looks sickly with 4 inches of new growth, but I think they are both going to make it. Bounty was real late to leaf out. Dad packed water to them when I asked this summer and I hobbled along sometimes with my crutches when I felt up to it. We will see how they take a Kansas winter. I plan to mulch them.