Gardening woes turn philosophical

We've really enjoyed watching our seeds come up!  Almost every day there is something more coming up and it's so excited.  I had just about given up on many of the tomatoes, melons, and peppers, but then we had a hot spell (hit 90) and they started popping.  Even today there were a couple more peppers coming up.  I think we've lost almost all our plants though.  They were doing great and it turned stormy after the heat.  I had to keep them in a few days for most of the day to protect them from the wind and heavy rain.  One night after putting them out for an afternoon I noticed everything seemed to have gone from a healthy green to kind of pale.  A couple of our watermelon plants did this when they first came up, they were yellow and eventually died.  They are rare heirloom species so I wasn't sure if the leaves were supposed to be yellow or not at first.  Now most of the tomatoes, some tomatillos, most cucumbers, half the flowers, and the sunflower and pumpkin all seem to be following suit.  I'm wondering if we got some bad potting soil that had a fungus in it?

I checked on my fruit trees yesterday to see if I had any cherries since I noticed the tree was all leafed out and I didn't see any more flowers on it.  It looked like an army of some insect had attacked it and just gorged themselves.  I checked the next tree and the next...all the same.  The smaller younger trees seemed spared, but all the established trees leaves' were just ripped to shreds and the fruit all had dings in them too.  Then I remembered the hail storm last week.  Nearly pea sized hail had fallen and so much that some spots of the ground looked like it had snowed and there was still some remaining in the shade in piles the next day.  So, yes I have cherries, but hardly a one not damaged by the hail.  I hadn't even thought to pray for protection for my fruit during that storm.  I was more worried about the boys and Richard that were out on a camping trip.  (They said they only got light sprinkles, so those prayers were answered.  It was so bad blowing and  hailing and raining I wondered if they would cancel the father sons and no one would show up to join them the next day.  I wouldn't have any way to reach them to tell them either because they were out of cell range.) 

Seeing that there was fruit visible on the cherry trees, I decided to check  if the petals had dropped so I could spray for fire blight.  They had on the pear trees and fruit was visible so I came in and got out the fire blight powder, only to learn as I read the instructions that I had to spray during the blossoming time, not after.  Now that there is fruit, it is too late and shouldn't be sprayed. 

I had a feeling that I shouldn't get a replacement Asian pear tree, but did anyways one day.  I planted one last year and it died almost immediately of fire blight.  I planted the new one a week or two ago and it is already showing signs of blight.  It was in blossom when I got it and should have been sprayed immediately, but I had the timing and instructions in my head mixed up.  The sprays for insects and fungicides is before blossoms show or after petal drop and little tiny fruit is visible, but the spray for fire blights is during.  The tree is showing major hail damage with little black marks all over every branch and also showing signs of the beginning of fire blight (so named because the tree begins to turn black and look like it's been scorched by a fire- it's a bacterial disease that kills the tree and is one of the most common  reasons around here for losing pear and apple trees).  I don't think my apples have bloomed yet, so at least I hope to remember to spray them. 

I'm trying to have the courage to remove my favorite cherry tree too; a Stella cherry tree.  I planted it three years ago and one branch seemed to be wilted all summer.  I called the nursery and they suggested possible poor drainage or root damage from planting and to keep an eye on it.  (They replace trees if they don't grow or die for some reason.)  Last year it bore fruit and we actually managed to keep the birds away enough to get to taste it.  (The first year there were a few cherrries, but on the morning I was going to go out and put on the bird net, the birds beat me to the cherries.  The kids said the birds basically flew in, did a fly-by, and the cherries were gone.  We had been eagerly anticipating their being ripe in the next week, but got none.) All branches looked vigorous so I thought I was out of the clear and the tree had recovered.  Then after picking the fruit, the whole tree seemed to wilt.   The leaves just always looked wilted no matter how much water I gave them.  I noticed cracks in the tree trunks in February about the same time we got a cat.  At first, I blamed the cat...I caught him red handed a couple of times.  It might have been, but now I'm thinking sunscald/frost cracks.  Anyway, I've now figured out that this tree has cytospora canker.  There is no cure as they've disallowed the chemical that used to treat it.  The canker has practically girdled the trunk and from what I've read, some years the tree may beat it back and heal a bit, but eventually it will probably kill the tree.  I've a mind to just let the tree battle it, it's so hard to lose something I've worked so hard to care for and anticipated the fruit of for so long.  It worked out so great last year...the Stella ripened and two weeks later the Bings; so I would be able to pick fruit for a month rather than a week or two by having the two different varieties.  The problem with keeping the tree is that the canker multiplies and releases spores every spring into the wind and can contaminate other cherry and peach trees.  About the time I figured out what it was last fall, my Bing tree which has really grown well, also began showing the amber ooze indicative of the canker.  And examination of the trees this February when I was getting ready to prune had a peach tree showing signs.  It might already be too late?


Still haven't figured out why my new currant bushes kept dying back.  One seems to have come back great this year after the winter, but the other 3 are still showing signs of last year's behavior: dying back, sending out new growth, leaves turn brown and fall off, repeat.

As you can tell, I am fast becoming a tree disease expert.  I'm about 2-3 years behind on the knowledge of what should have been done.  (A lot depends on the weather no matter what you do and last year and the year before were long wet springs so conditions were ripe and many trees were lost in the vallery.) I hate to think that all this work was just a practice crop and that I'll have to keep replacing trees.  I've had to grow a lot.  It is so hard to thin and prune trees.  You work so hard to afford to buy the trees, to plant them to water them, and looking forward to the fruit it is hard to pick it off and delay it's development for years even though it strengthens the tree.  Like a mother, taking a child to get a shot...it's a little hurt for a long term benefit.  There is so little in society now that isn't instant gratification that it is hard to have patience with growing things (be it trees, plants, children, people).  That is one benefit though of gardening, one of the blessings I am seeing is that you do have to think in longer terms of seconds, minutes, or even days, weeks, or months. 

I think the reason that Adam was commanded to till the earth was for that reason ... to have to work at something for a long time before seeing results and harvesting from his labors.  Raising children is this way and even waiting 3 years for fruit, might be hard, but it is faster results than children.  Men go to work and get nearly immediate rewards for their labors...something visible accomplished, even if only a check list, and in a reasonably short period of time, a paycheck.  Women raise children and I often say we don't see the results until the eternities.  That is when I'll know my work is done, when I see if my children made it to the Celestial kingdom.  There are sweet moments and little rewards and sometimes even great satisfaction watching our children grow, but the job isn't never completed in this life.  That's why I can... I can see something I created done - and it stays done/preserved the way I want it until I say so!  Although, I do have to annually replenish the canning and I can things year round; it is not like the dishes that have to be redone every few hours or a kitchen floor just mopped that only stays clean for five minutes...or a child that has to be reminded about how to treat their siblings sometims every few seconds for years before they get it! (We really never grow out of this, we all have our things Heavenly and Earthly parents have tried to teach us our whole life and we still are not getting.)  I think that's why ladies are drawn to crafting and other such hobbies.  As Elder Uchtdorf described it so well in Relief Society Conference a few years back: women need two things 1)to create 2) beauty.  Often we combine the two.  I think he was saying these two also made us God-like.  I should reread the talk to make sure I've got it straight.  We need to produce something beautiful and solid/lasting to counter the long-term nurturer role where we may not even see resulst in this life...be it nurturing our children, spouses, neighbors, friends, family, or whoever is in our lives - including ourselves.  Men were commanded to till the earth to give them a constant frustrating never-ending battle to force them to look longterm and be patient.  Anyways, that's my two bits.  And of course we are to help each other as, in my experience, men tend to deal with here and now and women tend to think more long term and plan for the future. Both views are needed in gardening and parenting.

The more I garden, the more I learn about the gospel and understand why the Savior used so many gardening parables and why we are commanded to keep a garden.  Everyone can grow something no matter when or where they live and everyone can learn about life and the gospel and better understand the gospel by growing something.