You don't have squirrels?

I hear you fruitnut! The majority of the Almond trees I see in my area(Greece) are un- pruned, really tall and almost completely defoliated come august. There is very little rainfall throughout the summer and the heat is on from May to September every year....typical meditteranean climate. The trees look nothing like the ones in the photos I posted above with lush new growth. Maybe I haven't paid very close attention but for the most part I have a image of them impressed in my memory. The leaves(whatever's left of them) are mix of light green, yellow and wilted. A lot of people do not fertilize their almond trees, as they are abandoned pretty much. You won't find drip houses watering any of them. Is the unhealthy appearance from Drought, soil PH, virtually no fertilization e.t.c.? The Almonds are tasty though...no doubt there.

Hi Gina, Almonds are very cold tolerant and you shouldn't need to cover your tree. In fact they need a substantial number of chilling hours to produce a good crop. Most need from 400 - 500 hours between November 1st and February 15th that are between 32° and 45° F. Some varieties are self-fruitful, meaning they don't need a pollinator. If you still have the label that came on the tree it may identify the variety. Here is a link to the University of Arizona publication on deciduous fruits. Scroll down to the almond section for more information on your tree. Here is a link that might be useful: Deciduous fruits and nuts for the low desert

Waurika, I don't grow almonds, but they do grow here. Garden writer Louise Riotte grew them in Carter County. A member of this forum who posted under the name "River" grew them in NW OK and got a good crop, but River hasn't posted here in quite some time. Telow is the current forum member who mentioned planting an almond tree on the apple tree thread. Almonds are grown exactly like all other stone fruit trees (stone fruits are the ones with pits, or stones, like peach, plum, apricot, cherry, nectarine, pluot, etc.). The only big problem with stone fruits is that they tend to bloom too early some years and then you lose the crop to a late freeze. With my stone fruit trees, I am happy if I get a great harvest once every three years, a so-so harvest once every three years and no harvest once every three years (well, not happy in the no harvest year, but understand that comes with the weather we have here). If I remember correctly, 2010 was the best harvest ever, 2011 was no harvest, and 2012 was a really good harvest, but not as good as 2010's. In a perfect world, stone fruit would give a good harvest every year, but OK weather is not a perfect world. I do not grow apples or pears because I have no patience when it comes to cedar apple rust and fire blight. I grow stone fruit, figs, berries and brambles, and citrus in pots. I'd like to grow pome fruit like apples and pears, but never seem to get around to planting them.(I have too much garden and too little time as it is.) You need a soil test because without one you have no idea what the soil needs added to it, if anything. My clay soil doesn't need much added to it in order to grow healthy, productive fruit trees because red clay like mine tends to be very high in minerals and, thus, high in fertility, though I add organic matter to improve both its ability to drain and its ability to hold water in drought. My sandy/silty band of soil does need a lot of work before anything will grow in it but once I've improved it, fruit trees love it. If a catalog describes the almond as self-pollinating, then it is. The plant breeders and retailers give accurate pollination descriptions because they want people to succeed with their plants. Self-pollinating fruit trees do not need a second variety near them as a pollinator, but often they will produce better if there is a second variety around that enables cross-pollination. Container gardening has become a bigger part of my gardening experience ever since the incredibly wet years of 2004 and 2007 when we had flooding and ground that stayed incredibly wet for months. Those wet years seem like such a distant memory now. I love container gardening. Right now I am toying with the idea of growing most of my 2013 tomatoes in containers just to give the soil in the raised beds in the main garden a break. My favorite containers are molasses feed tubs given to me by a friend who is a rancher. I have about 45 of them, but also grow in other containers too. My favorite container for growing lettuce is a cattle feed trough because ground-dwelling pests seldom can climb up into that feed trough. I also grow lettuce in large, flat tubs in the greenhouse. I can grow lettuce in the ground in fall but have a harder time with it in the ground in the spring because the wildlife devours many of the plants as soon as they sprout, likely because there's not a lot of green plants around in early spring so the wild things flock to whatever ones they can find. Containers can solve a multitude of problems, but filling them up with a good, soil-less mix can get expensive. Leaf miners are an issue with any tomato plant (and many other types of plants as well). You can use a preventive insecticide if looking at them bothers you. I just ignore them on most plants. I raise spinach,Swiss chard and other greens in spring under floating row cover to exclude the miners. In the fall/winter garden, I don't think I have seen leaf miners on a single plant. I simply prefer to raise my own tomato transplants from seed because it allows me to grow the varieties I choose and it allows me to have some control over their size and age at transplant time. In Oklahoma's ever-changing weather, timing tomato plantings precisely helps you get a better crop because an early planting helps ensure they set fruit before the temperatures get too hot for good fruitset, and I try to get my seed sown early enough that my plants are a nice size at transplant time. Also, I prefer to plant much earlier than recommended even though that means I will have to employ some protective measures to keep the plants from dying during a late freeze. I have no problem with planting purchased tomato plants either, but if you plant a lot of them, it can get pretty expensive and, as you noted, you sometimes bring home pests or even diseases on purchased plants. Someone else will have to advise you on climbing roses as I don't grow them here. I planted a lot of roses after we moved here in 1999, but either flooding rains or drought or black spot have gotten most of them over the years. All I have left is some no-name climbing roses outside my kitchen window, and one beautiful Graham Thomas rose on the south side of the house. When I lived in Texas, I grew a climbing 'Don Juan' that was spectacular, 'Iceberg' and a gorgeous yellow climber whose name I no longer remember. It might have been 'Golden Showers'. I've been working on improving soil in an area along our south property line that would be great for roses because it is in full sun and always will be since the power line is directly overhead. However, when I get that soil improved enough to plant something into it, I'll likely plant blackberries there. We built our house in what is essentially a large clearing in the woods. It was open area at the time, but of course we did plant shade trees for relief from the summer sun. As the trees now have reached a nice size, the planting areas in our yard are evolving from full sun areas to partial shade, dappled shade or even full shade areas, and my plantings are changing accordingly. That means mostly more ground cover type plants near the house and fewer flowers. I now grow most my flowers in a border around the veggie garden, inside the 8' fence where they are safe from the deer herd. Over the years, the deer have destroyed much of what I grow outside the fenced garden too, so I no longer plant much out there in the unprotected areas. Dawn