April 28, 2016

Good morning, having fruiting mulberry trees could be considered a blessing or a real headache.

I guess if I were a really tidy kind of person, they would most certainly be considered a headache. I really like to think of them as a blessing. Especially in dry years and when we have not had any fruit killing freezes.

I so vividly remember the year 2011. It started off with a very chilly winter where we had two cold spells that were trying to push the mercury to zero and then after this freezing spell there were no more freezes until the next fall. The year brought a whopping 4.5 inches of precipitation for the year.  Everything was brown except for some of the trees that were feeding off the previous year’s rainfall. There was NOTHING growing or blooming except for some various trees our mulberries included. This coupled with all the huge fires that year, there was NOTHING for the wildlife to feed on.

During normal years a pair of kingbirds would set up housekeeping in our mulberry trees. They would effectively chase any other bird from “their” nest territory.

This changed during 2011 and has remained to this day. Because there was no food our mulberry tree became the “feedbag” for the duration of the mulberry harvest. I think we counted a couple dozen different birds feeding on the mulberries and also several mammals feeding on the fallen fruit.

I have always heard of the truce around watering holes among species and this was so prevalent at our mulberry trees.

This has really changed my attitude toward these trees.

Most years freezes nuke the fruit and there is not the feeding frenzy. This year is not one of those years.

Recently while looking out the kitchen window, I noticed the chickens jumping like jack rabbits under the mulberry tree behind the house. This was before it became all apparent that the fruit were ripening. I was thinking, “There must be some real good bugs under that tree”. Clueless me!!!

Well it became all apparent that PURPLE season was upon us! The trees are loaded and the chickens are gorging. Funny how when I open the coups in the morning there is the beeline to the mulberry trees. “Don’t need none of those pellets or water WE got mulberries”.

I have found scratch trumps everything. It is so funny to shake the scratch bucket and to see several 8 pound birds “launch” to beat everyone else over to the scratch. Once that is done it is back to gorging. I am surprised they find time to lay eggs.

Oh yes purple season will be over soon enough but it does provide some chuckles while it happens.

Funny how I began writing this column on Monday and on Tuesday as I was harvesting veggies, Deb hollers out to me about Cedar Wax Wings feeding in the tree. From her view she didn’t have a great perspective of the tree and thought there might be 25. From my perspective in the garden this was a decent sized flock. I singled out a quarter of one tree and there were easily 50 birds! And they were evenly distributed throughout both trees. What a treat. I would not expect wax wings to be here this late. One other interesting note: I have mentioned that we have harvester ant colonies spaced every 60 feet across our property. I do not think that they intermingle. So the colonies nearest to the trees are the only ones to get to harvest the seeds from these trees. That is until the chickens scarf down tons of these fruit seeds and all, and then redeposit the seeds well dispersed among many other colonies.

This so fascinates me as to how two trees can be such a dominating presence with such connectivity!!!

Sweet potato sets arrived and they are planted. Once they begin to grow I will take cuttings and finish planting the rest of my sweet potato beds. Several tomatoes are the size of a small tennis balls and expect any day to see the first toms ripen (of course I will HAVE to quality control them). Most likely the harvest will not start in earnest until mid-May +/-. Summer squash are cruising. Last week there was nearly15 pounds, I should harvest more than that this week. Some of the beans are 1 ½ inches. The bean harvest should start with any luck this Sunday. The peas are still producing but I suspect with this warmer weather they will begin to decline rapidly, but I hope for at least another week or three. There are a number of crops that are finishing and having peas will help fill bags. Chilies are blooming and some of the okra is nearly 3 inches tall. Okra is easily another month out, hopefully by the first of June. It is such exciting times in the garden!!!

This week I expect to harvest chard, kale, green onions, lettuce, carrots, peas, and summer squash. Please email as for quantities.