The first blossoms of the season opened today – apricots!

Two days ago they were still tight buds, round & plump, but the warm sunshine of the last few days brought them out in a hurry. They are extra special because we thought the cold temperatures in February had killed all the apricots.

It is an exciting time! Each day we can see the crops progressing – growing & developing.

Here are some cherry buds a few days days ago …

This is what they look like today …

Pears …

Raspberries …

Peaches …

The green tips on the peach branch are the leaf buds. On either side of that are the fruit buds. I was not able to get better pictures to show the difference between live & dead fruit buds. Overall the crop looks to be quite variable. Most of the fruit buds on the lower half of the trees are dead. The top part of trees seem to have more live buds. It also varies by variety & age of tree. We’ll have to wait a bit longer yet to get a more accurate sense of what the crop will be.

Blackberries …

Blackberries are the bad news story. The canes are all dead! By this time of the season they should be leafing out similar to the raspberries, but there is nothing! We will leave them as is for another week or so, and then cut everything off at the ground. The roots should be alive and will send out new canes, which will bear a crop next year. For this year, there will be no blackberries.

We have a new row of blackberries that was planted last spring. There are a few leaves on those canes, but most of the buds were chewed off by the rabbits over the winter – guess they were really hungry!

In the greenhouse the vegetable & herb plants are growing well.

Tomatoes …

And out in the field the garlic is up, and peas & spinach too.

Here are some (almost straight) rows of broccoli we transplanted today.

Of course Oliver is always “helping“!