Apple tree, gardening update

[tagryn]

Yesterday I planted a new apple tree in our backyard. We received it as a surprise condolencee gift from Donna's Oldsters list friends. It's an "Apple Surprise" variety - basically, you get four different apple varieties off the one tree, thanks to grafting. The four on this tree are "Summerred", "Red McIntosh", "Liberty", and "Winesap". It's a semi-dwarf tree, and we should start getting fruit off it in about 4-5 years. The two apple trees which came with the house are pretty old, so the timing should work out well. Click on image for larger version.

Which reminds me...I'll probably have to do the first fungicide spraying against cedar apple rust next weekend, as this site recommends "Fungicides that are effective against the rust diseases should be applied periodically from the pink stage of bud development through third cover to protect the emerging leaves and developing fruit." We're just starting to get the barest show of pink right now on them.

Our seedlings for this year are coming along pretty well, here they are in our indoor greenhouse. I have in tomatoes (Sugar Sweetie cherry, Brandywine heirloom, and Burpee Super Summer), cucumbers, peppers, beans, lettuce, black-eyed susan flowers, cilantro, parsley, and more cat grass since the cats ate the first batch down to the soil. All seem to be doing well. I put in six pots of lavender today, also, with plans to put them in as a border to our entranceway once they're grown.

We went to downtown DC to see the cherry blossoms, but it was very crowded and many of the trees in East Potomac Park weren't in full bloom yet. The ones by the Tidal Basin were spectacular, but parking was impossible. Oh well; next year we'll know to go early if we want to see them.