Growing: Peaches and Boysenberries

    With our track record of not growing things successfully in this unpredictable climate, maybe we should have headlines for what is growing. We’re having such a wet and pleasant spring that I’m almost getting used to seeing things grow – peas, turnips, radishes, green grass(!). Green grass, y’all.

And then there are these peaches. Two of the hardiest trees we’ve planted really early on are now displaying fuzzy little “baby peaches” as the children call them. This is the first time we’ve seen trees survive and bear fruit.

Not far from these peach trees, the pallet garden is starting to become a haven for perennials. The mint and spearmint patch are out of control. The strawberry rows are filled and flowering. Trees are now being planted here as are some perennial greens.

Now, boysenberries. We’ve planted and lost more varieties of fruit trees and berry plants than I’d like to consider at this moment. These boysenberries, planted a couple of years ago next to some sweet potatoes, have grown and crept along the weathered pallet fence and the wire trellis we put up.

And now it’s flowering.

So are the blackberries and the peas and the overwintered kale and cilantro. The potatoes are coming up, the radishes are growing, and the chard that we planted last spring is still producing. There are so many variables in this climate that it often seems the foes of would-be food greatly outnumber the possibilities.

But every year has seemed more abundant than the last so flowering berries we will take with grateful hearts.