Two weekends ago, I finally accepted defeat and admitted that the California Sycamore I hoped might stage a miraculous comeback was actually gone for good. Despite careful attention, the two year old tree seemed to be dead as a doornail.

My disappointment at this failure was soothed a little by the fact that we scored a new Sycamore for free at the annual Department of Sanitation Open House. Thanks Million Trees LA! (If you're wondering why we were attending an open house for the Department of Sanitation, I will remind you that I have a 3-year-old boy who loves garbage trucks.)

This time around, I am determined that the tree will survive. When we dug up the old one, I saw the roots had not spread very far. This is probably due to the terrible, hard, rocky soil in that part of the backyard. We dug a pretty big hole to plant the last Sycamore, but clearly it wasn't big enough.

This time around, we dug an extra extra large hole for the new tree and mixed some grow mulch into the soil. I also tried to build up a good berm on the downhill side to keep water from draining away before it can soak in. I also need to stake it a little straighter once I get my hands on some good, sturdy stakes.

Summer is not the greatest time to plant a new tree, but I couldn't pass up the free tree and I figure it usually doesn't get really blistering hot until August. I plan to water it deeply once a week-ish at first, and see how that goes. Fingers crossed that this one makes it.

Grew this beauty in the upper garden bed.
The bloom is pretty striking.

I hope to let it go to seed, dry it out and then feed the seeds to the chickens. This time, I will shake them off the sunflower head first. We don't want another freak out.

So, how's the flock integration going? Well...

Let's just say the new girls spend an awful lot of time on this ledge.

Interestingly, Betty, the Easter Egger, is the main aggressor among the older girls. She's the smallest of the adult hens, so maybe she's just reveling in having two smaller ones to boss around. In the pecking order, I actually think Betty comes ahead of Janice, the Cuckoo Marans. Janice is my biggest chicken, but she's also a little slow and dumb, so she gets bossed around more than you'd think. Tina, the oldest, tends to stay out of any scuffles. Betty is smaller than Janice and Tina, but she's tough.

Once Doris and Linda are fully grown, they'll both be bigger than Betty. I wonder how that will change the dynamic between them. Maybe it won't. I just hope the new girls eventually feel comfortable coming down off their ledge.

This year's peach harvest from the Desert Gold tree in the backyard was our best one yet. The peaches were small, but really sweet and flavorful. After eating one, my son asked if he could have them all. (I made him share a couple with me and Dakota.)

More importantly, I managed to harvest almost all the ripe peaches before the were gobbled up by those darn squirrels. (By the way, allow me to recommend the Those Darn Squirrels! books to parents of toddlers. They are really funny, smart and nicely illustrated.) I purchased some garden netting to protect my fruit from those fuzzy-tailed jerks, but didn't get a chance to put it up before the peaches ripened.

Anyway, speaking of small peaches, does anyone know why that might be? Should I be watering more or less? Pruning or fertilizing more aggressively? Do I just need to wait until the tree is older and bigger, or is this the normal fruit size for this variety?

Even if the Desert Gold has small fruit naturally, I still highly recommend it for inland Southern California gardens. This tree has been the most productive of all the trees in my backyard orchard. Its neighbor, a Pink Lady Apple, has failed to make a single fruit in the last five years!

Last month, I finally settled on names for the new chickens. The White Rock is called Doris and the Langshan is Linda. My father wanted Susan, but we have a good friend by that name, and I didn't want anyone to get them confused (ahem).

In May, I also started letting Doris and Linda outside, first in the tractor and then the yard to free range. And, of course, I began introducing them to our three big hens. That went... okay. But, a weekend camping trip was approaching, and I didn't want to leave the pullets in their box or in the less-secure chicken tractor for two days. So, full integration became necessary.

I felt the girls were big enough to take some minor bullying, and fast enough to escape too much nasty pecking from the hens. So, I put Doris and Linda in the big coop and then hung out for a while to make sure it didn't get too brutal in there. There was a little of the usual pecking but nothing too crazy.

I briefly considered doing that thing where you put the new girls inside the coop late at night while everyone is sleeping and then they all wake up together without realizing there are two new chickens in their flock. But I don't think my chickens are that oblivious.

Integration is going somewhat well. No one is bleeding or missing major feathers. But I would be lying if I didn't admit that Linda and Doris live with a certain amount of fear. Most of the day they are perched up high in the run, away from the three big girls. I try to let everyone out as much as possible, just to give the little ones a break.

Doris and Linda are growing up nicely, and I see them eating, so they should be fine in time. In fact, they should get just as big as their older sisters before too long.

One of the fondest memories I have of gardening with my dad when I was a kid is picking and eating green beans right off the vine. The smell and taste of fresh-picked pole beans is one of my favorite sensations of summer.

This year, I've been happy to have several towers of beans thriving around my garden. Regular readers of this blog (aka my parents) know that my big summer garden plans don't always pan out. But, this year, I have had some success--and, of course, several failures. My pole beans are my biggest triumph so far.

I have one tower growing in the upper bed, and three more down below in the lower raised bed. All are currently covered in leafy vines and starting to create pods. I am growing pole beans, because I like the winding vines and they save space. The varieties I picked this year, Kentucky Wonder and Cherokee Trail, are from Seed Savers.

The Cherokee Trail beans have black seeds and dark pink flowers. They haven't made pods yet, so I can't speak to their taste, but here's the interesting description from the Seed Savers site:

(Phaseolus vulgaris) (aka Cherokee Black) Given to SSE in 1977 by the late Dr. John Wyche, SSE member from Hugo, Oklahoma. Dr. Wyche’s Cherokee ancestors carried this bean over the Trail of Tears, the infamous winter death march from the Smoky Mountains to Oklahoma (1838-1839), leaving a trail of 4,000 graves. Green 6" pods with purple overlay, shiny jet-black seeds. Good for snap beans and dry beans. Pole habit, snap or dry, 85 days.

I love their descriptions of heirloom varieties. They really add an extra layer of historical interest--and drama--to regular old vegetable gardening. Plus, it makes you feel like you're helping carry on a tradition just by planting them.

The beans we're currently eating are the Kentucky Wonders from the upper bed, which I planted first. My upper bed hasn't done so well lately. It's exposed to chicken interference and skunk destruction, and I worry the soil is a little tired. But the pole beans don't mind--perhaps because they grow upward and away from those pesky animals. When they reached the top of their pole tower, I attached a string, and have been training the vines that way.

I really like how that looks, maybe because it gives an impression of overflowing abundance. Or maybe it's because the delicate bean flowers are more exposed.

So, it looks like we'll be enjoying fresh beans for at least another month, maybe longer. My son is not a huge fan yet, but he's had some bites and plans to have more. I'll make him a pole bean lover by summer's end, I'm sure.