Tag Archives: Lil Big Apple Trees

Colorado’s October Snow

Nearly every year in Colorado, you can expect the first snowfall to come at the end of October. I remember growing up, we used to go trick-or-treating on snowy Halloweens all the time. We would have to wear huge coats over our cute costumes, so that even if we were a witch or pumpkin or skeleton, we really just looked like cold snowy kids with masks or paint on our faces.


Early this morning -lots of drooping sad trees -even our peach tree!!

This year followed the tradition, but just a few days early. We went from 80 degrees on Monday to low 30s. And here in Greeley it wasn’t just a light dusting of snow either. They are saying close to a foot or possibly more has fallen since last night when it changed from rain to snow. All through the night our power was going off and on and woke us up about 4 times. When we looked outside by 4am everything was glowing from the white sheet that lay across the ground, trees and houses.


The snow is as tall as Schnoodle

School District 6 is closed as is UNC and some other institutions had delays, but not my work; I had to roll out of our nice warm bed (with our flannel sheets and down comforter) and into the cold white world. The trees were all drooping from the weight of the snow on their still-leafed limbs and there were quite a few broken branches littering the roads.

The young chickens don’t know what to do in the snow and Kitty got to sleep inside last night (he is usually a mostly-outdoor cat).  Schnoodle also got to stay inside during the day for the first time since her bloody incident. But she did venture out for a little while…

 

What I was really worried about though, was our poor Lil Big Apple trees. It was as if they were no longer there!

That little blip in front of the rose bush is supposed to be our apple tree!

So I went over to uncover them…Sorry the video is so crazy. I was trying to film while at the same time shoveling myself a path from one tree to the other.

 

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Colorado Fruit Trees

The yard has burst to life in this summer heat. We have been gradually trying to shift our yard into a perennial food source instead of either having an annual garden (which we’ll do also) or just a lawn of grass and flowers that are nice but not edible.

So here is an update of some of our trees and some new additions:

Last year, 2010 we planted a fruit cocktail tree. This is what it looked like:


Fruit Cocktail Tree of Plums, Nectarines and Apricots in 2010


Today! It has grown about 4 feet in a year!


It even has plums already!

Our peach tree is doing well too. It hasn’t grown as tall as the fruit cocktail tree, but it’s gotten really full and bushy. I was noticing that the leaves of the peach tree are similar to mango trees. The fruit is somewhat similar too in color, taste and texture. I wonder if they are related botanically. Things that make you go hmm.


Here it is (to the right in front of the porch) last year


Peach Tree Summer 2011

We also planted some apple trees. We have two “Lil Big” Honeycrisp apple trees which are extra dwarf apple trees that are expected to only grow 6 feet max. The other apple tree is a 5-in-one apple tree. There are supposed to be five varieties of apple grafted together like the fruit cocktail tree. That maximizes our small space in the backyard to be a diverse food producing area. Still no apples or flower blooms yet though.


The Lil Big Apple Tree is in front and the 5-in-1 apple tree is behind

In addition to the trees though, we do have tomatoes coming in. The pepper plants are doing ok and I think we might get some cucumbers too. Also Omeleto is an egg-laying machine. Even though her eggs are smaller than the old chickens, she lays a lot more consistently. I love leghorns for this quality. Plus since we hand raised her she is not as skittish as old Omelette was. Summer is such an awesome time in Colorado. Lots of food, fun and flowers too! I wish I could do this year-round. Oh, wait. We can…in Puerto Rico! 🙂 I can’t wait to check on our fruit trees down there. We planted a mango tree, corazon tree, and guava. Hopefully they are growing good now!


Green Tomatoes

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