Charlie Brown

I feel like I have walked in Charlie Brown's shoes for the past week. Nothing big and bad has happened (yet) but all the little things in my life seem to turn sour. Everyday I feel like I am kicking a football that gets yanked out of the way before I get to it.

The worst thing by far is the fate of my beloved cherry tree. I checked it on Saturday and it was teeming with orange and yellow cherries... it was days away from being pickable. I saw a couple birds, but since they only ate a few last year I didn't freak out about them. Sunday evening I made up my mind to pick all the reddest cherries and wait for the rest to ripen. I went out, and all the cherries were gone!!!! I can't express how sad I was!! The birds sacked the tree. The weirdest part is, I had more cherries than I could pick last year and the birds didn't mess with them hardly at all!!! I think more cherries rotted on the tree because I couldn't reach them than were actually eaten by birds! I have been salivating all year over the cherry pies, jams and liqeuer. Nick picked about 3 cups of yellow orange cherries and that was all there was. So I will definately be making some liqeuer to drown away my cherry sorrows.

On the flip side, a few of the branches are dead, and from what I have read cherry trees only produce for about 20-35 years, and I know this tree is quite old. So I am going to try and sprout some new trees from some of the pits the birds left behind. I don't think I will get any cherries from the new trees for 5 years or so, but I might as well start now and get some good out of this year. I have read of 3 different methods for sprouting cherries and I am giving each one a shot:

1. Planting directly in ground, should sprout next spring.

2. Soaking in warm water overnight, and putting in bag of soil in fridge for 2-3 months until sprouting.

3. Cutting 2" off of new growth and rooting with rooting mixture (not sure where to buy this?) in pots.

I will also put about 10-20 seeds in a pot on the deck and see if they have better luck than the ones in the ground. I will let you know which method works best and if they all work, and I have lots of seedlings, I will gladly be giving some away. (I don't think I need 50 trees but the way these evil birds eat... you never know).

So that is the very cherry saga. :(

I have some really fun activities planned for Anastasia this week... which I will be posting soon!! Check Nick's blog for the excitement in our neighborhood. Scary, crazy stuff. Back to the garden I go...