productive weekend!

wow, after a few weeks of continuous rain, we actually got weekend full of sun! i started off my weekend by going to my favorite "small" garden nursery in san leandro to look at their plants. i went without a definite plan on what to buy (bad thing!), but i knew i wanted to see what kind of fruit trees they had (especially the multi-grafted ones) and what kind (if any) veggie starts they had.

well, they had no veggie starts. but i've started my own cold weather veggies anyways (and they are all, except for the spinach, sprouting!! in under a week! that's a record in my books!). with the fruit trees - not only did they have a TON of fruit trees (both single and multi-grafted ones), but they were on sale!!

i was looking at the ones i love to eat - pears, nectarines, cherries, and granny smith apples. no multi-grafted pears that i could see (*sob*), no nectarine ones either, BUT, i spied a dwarf variety of nectarines called Nectazee. it grows up to 5' to 6' if left untrimmed! and the tag stated that is self-fruited (a MUST for me). i had to get this one.

there was no end to the multi-grafted cherries. i had my eye on the bing, black tartaine, rainer type but i chickened out at the last moment. i may go back and buy it but you'll have to stay tuned for that one.

they also had multi-grafted apple trees too, but none with granny smith. apparently granny smith apples are not so popular, but i love their tartness. not only can you eat it fresh, they are great in apple pies (and i have a GREAT recipe for one that i found on allrecipes.com....yum!). i did find a single granny smith apple tree, but for some reason never got it.

there were multi-grafted asian pear trees but i wasn't really into them. dont get me wrong...asian pears are delish! but the fruit can get pretty big and i usually can't finish one in a sitting. i like the smaller fruit. i don't know my asian pear varieties, so i decided to stay away. there were single pear trees - my fav is bartlett and d'anjou pears. but they need a pollinizer so in this case, multi-grafted pear trees would be ideal. i think i'll wait to see if i can find one.

so after all that, i just came home with my nectazee. im not at all complaining because i had a wonderful time looking at all the plants.

on sunday, i dug up WEEDS from a few spots in my garden to get it ready to be planted in. i planted my nectazee tree near my european plum tree, and i planted my sprouting garlic (yes, i know its a bit late to plant these - normally you plant garlic in the fall, but oh well) near the plot where i have my small mandarin orange tree. we'll see how both do.

WEEDING - done in a few spots
PLANTED something - yes! a new fruit tree and garlic.
SPROUTED something - yes! all of my lettuce seeds sprouted, as well as a few broccoli seeds and my peas that i started sprouting in a container with wet paper towels are starting to break the soil surface. nothing from the spinach seeds yet.