Entries
2026
August
127 g — Single fruit
93 g — Single fruit
This is the first time I've noticed an insect larvae in a plum, not sure what it is
These are closer to what I'd consider a classic mirabelle plum. Small yellow plum, first one I had was nothing to write home about, but this was the first from this graft and they might need to ripen more. But so far just a so so fresh eating plum
This makes a very big plum, not exactly what I imagine when I think of mirabelles
A few berries left, they are incredible, so sweet. We definitely need to wait longer to harvest these, we jump in when they turn blue but they are flavorless early on, come August these guys are amazing
The flavor of these has dramatically improved, just reminds me to wait until August to pick blueberries, they get so much sweeter.
July
Picked our first peach, it smelled good and looked good but I think I slightly jumped the gun in my excitement, not calling it ready, it wasn't bad but wasn't there yet.
First and only VBD breba, these were grafted the spring 2025.
Lots of nuts on the tree, also noticed the stellar's jay hanging about for the first time this morning. He's usually here when there's hazelnuts to be had
These are huge and really tasty
2 g — Single fruit
Breba is complete
These seemed a little stalled. I added a sprinkle of fertilizer and cut the water as I think they were over watered.
Grafts were to young this year to produce fruit
We had some flowers but it didn't set fruit this year, it has grown a lot though
This is the first fruit we've ever gotten off the Lattarula. It didn't have a lot of flavor but it wasn't bad
Pretty big fig
147 g — Single fruit
More delectable desert kings
I don't know if it's dry season or heat stress, but some of my oregon grape leaves are a bright red, they are a nice splash of color
Taste really good, I like this one
While harvest has slowed some, we are still getting berries
I picked lot of what was left on the tree, at this point many of the plums are ripe or overly ripe
85 g — Single fruit
First DK!
123 g — Single fruit
Looks and tastes not unlike my Longue d'Août fig. Almost over ripe on the bottom and a little under ripe near the top, although I didn't get any sap when I picked it.
Typical size
43 g — Single fruit
You can't judge a plum without making the NYT Original Plum Torte. As always it was excellent, these multi color plums make a nice presentation, everyone ate it all before I could take a picture, I had to photograph what was left
Still producing a few
It might have been my favorite blueberry of the season. This variety has been consistently tasty, with large berries, although yet to be very productive for me
Pretty sure our local rabbits got this one, noticed one hanging around and the seedling is just gone. I'll need to remember to protect young trees from these guys
More golden and crimson orbs. A bowl left on the table in the morning is always empty by the evening
Finally truly ripe, these are really good. The smell alone is something special, my best description is like deep floral and almost cream like aroma. Like peaches, you'll know these are ripe when you pass by and the tree smells intoxicating. The taste rivals the smell, I really like this plum.
This might be our best harvest to date from the jersey.
An Oregon grape sparkling water. Interesting flavor, this berry seems to give me a slightly odd sensation, it's beyond the flavor, it's almost like a very light buzz, it's so light I almost think I'm imagining it but I don't think I am. Flavor is a kin to blending up grass and mixing it with sparkling water and drinking it
I missed documentation on Oregon grape flowering, they make a nice yellow flower in spring. I collected some seed today to see if I can't grow a few more out, they make a good evergreen border.
While all other varieties have most apples showing frass this time of year, I'm not seeing any on goldrush, they are once again way behind in their development, other apples are large and red by now, goldrush is still small and green, it's my theory that this is why the local boring insects pass over this one, but hard to think like an apple maggot.
Lots of frass on my apples. I don't bother with covering them, many people in our area will cover apples in early summer often using pantyhose or organza bags around individual fruit to keep the local apple boring insects out.
Still lots of berries coming from these guys
64 g — Single fruit
Not bad, it didn't have a lot of flavor but I enjoyed it, it was actually ripe and sweet and hadn't gone bad like the other breba from earlier in the summer
Maybe a touch tart, but good
Officially out of rain water from our barrels and no rain in sight.
This has grown a lot, maybe too much as it's taking over a lot of the tree, but has yet to set any fruit, we didn't get anything off it this year
Starting to show some color
Maybe this one is ripe or it's bad, guessing somewhere in-between. We had a weird breba crop, I think in part because the tree is young but also maybe because we had such a mild winter, the trees carried over a lot of larger fruit they normally drop
For the last couple years my imperial ep. Plum is the first plum to ripen and we are starting to see color in the plums now. The first to ripen always seem to get hit the worst. During the day squirrels and at night rats are getting at the fruit at the moment, notice the rat trap in the background. Last year I noticed with the camera just putting up the traps, not baiting or loading them, seemed to deter them from the tree, not this guy. They don't seem to go near the traps no matter what bait I put in them. It's something you'll need to deal with if you grow fruit in Seattle. Plums, figs and peaches are all favorites for squirrels and rats, although they'll eat almost anything you grow, maybe not garlic but besides that good luck. Rats get much easier to trap in the winter when they're hungry, trap hard all winter long and the problem will be reduced come summer, although never completely. That's been my strategy so far. Would love to find a way to trap them in the tree but nothing works so far, let me know if you have any ideas.
I was gone for a few days and had a watering issue with my water timer, all but one small plant died, I reseeded them, but at least we know that one is tough
Raspberries are still coming strong from the back patch
Getting a good number of berries, or at least the kids are
Getting lots of berries from Spartan lately
We had a few berries off the bush today, this one has never been super productive for me
June
Rust is covering the plant and it dropped all it's fruit
Rust is coming in strong and the tree dropped all it's fruit
I think this will be our last strawberry of the season
Lots of hazelnuts forming, maybe we'll get one this year before the birds and squirrels do
I planted seeds for fall/winter kale harvest and summer reseeding
These are coming ripe regularly, kids seem to prefer these and get to them first
First fruit of what looks to be a pretty small harvest
Super ripe, maybe too ripe, and quite a few berries, this one definitely seems to do better with rust than the other varieties around the area, a good tree.
Collected seed today. I found crushing up the dry seed pods into a jar and blowing the jar with my high volume inflator blew out at lot of the chaff and made for fairly clean seed.
Some of the checker-blooms are still flowering, but others in warmer sunnier spots are all done
We have too many, time to start freezing
3 g — Single fruit
Kids got to them before I could photograph it
I need a finer scale to measure blueberry weight
2 g — Single fruit
First and only
Strawberry harvests are starting to thin out
Raspberries are hitting their stride
I pick and roll the pods in my hand and the seeds fall out easily
Our local leaf cutter bees seem to prefer the vine maple. I like how they cut little circles off the leafs and fly around our garden with them, it always looks like they are riding little flying leaf motorcycles.
Last year we had such a great harvest, but this year most of the fruit dropped. Many of the flowers turned into small pinhead size fruit and then fell off.
This one also produces dark red berries
Ok, this one is winning this year
29 g — Single fruit
Sun touched upper leafs gain a purple/red hue in summer
Some of the plants in my patch have a cream color with a nice pink blush
LP seems to drop a lot of breba late in the game, it's almost like the figs are coming ripe, but they're just going bad and dropping off, it did this last year but it's much more pronounced this year
18 g — Single fruit
Our little harvest, salmonberry have a lot of color variations, this makes a nice reddish orange color fruit, really attractive. I also find these to be tasty, maybe better than some of the wild varieties around us.
Planting seeds in coconut core and old coffee grounds
Kids ate most but managed to weigh one
Not bad
Maybe the currant maggot? Somebody is poking holes in these guys. With this plus rust issues the saskatoon berry has a hard time in our area.
May
I don't know what this is? I noticed what looks like maybe a white fungus growing on the underside of leafs and along parts of the lower plant. The plant appears healthy, although it's always been a slow grower
Maybe our largest strawberry yet
23 g — Single fruit
Currant maggot
Cotton Scale insect, I brushed these off, my general scale management technique
Currant maggot was too much to handle, it's really good at ruining currants
Finished flowering for the most part
Seed pods forming on flowers
I have two VDB I grafted last year, of the figs I've grafted only VBD has produced fruit the next year after grafting. Two breba it seems to be holding on
Lots of ladybugs
First single flower
All curled up for the evening. California Poppy showing their nyctinasty side
All finished flowering and now forming seed pods
Rust developing on a few berries
Again this season LDA dropped all it's breba
First strawberry of the season
First spots of rust on the leafs
Some leaf curl
Working through breaking dormancy and fighting off leaf curl.
Currant maggots have proven too great of challenge. They have laid waste to every single gooseberry I've grown. Sad because I really love gooseberry
April
Working through the Spring leaf curl
March
2025
June
First ripe blueberry from Spartan of the year