It is believed that, with the notable exception of cherries, the stone fruit species originated in an area that is in modern-day southern China. But apricots have been bred for thousands of years in Persia and Armenia. Before all that breeding, the original Asian apricot was very sour. In fact, they still have it in Asia, and use it to make alcohol and for pickle them as a condiment (in Japan it is called mume). Cherries originated around the area in the North, above the Black Sea extending to the Caspian Sea. Crabapples have long been native to Europe, but the modern apple resulted from crossing the crabapple with a bigger apple species from the Tien Shan mountains in the far Western part of China. There are still crabapple varieties in Europe that are good for eating. All the citrus came from Southeastern China, or in the case of Pomelo, from Malaysia (and surrounding parts of Southeast Asia). The Orange is believed to have been originally developed in China from repeated breeding of Pomelo together with Mandarin. Wild strawberries have long been native to the Northernmost part of Europe, and the Alps, but are very small. The modern day strawberry came about by crossing a bigger strawberry species native to Peru with the smaller European wild strawberry. Pineapples are native to Central America, when the Spanish explorers first came to Panama they saw pineapples growing wild. Grapes are thought to have either come from the Caucasus region (there are some lush green pockets of forest and subtropical jungle there) or from Afghanistan. Wild grapes grow wild across the region, but these are not very suitable for eating, so it is unclear where they were originally bred. Grapes were already being grown in Armenia in very ancient times. But in ancient times they did not have seedless grapes, so grapes were almost always made into wine (often with a lower alcohol content than today's wine).

I have two sides going so far--lots of seedlings going in the areas that look bare. side 1 (this was the 1st side I did back in March): And this is side 2 (I had a bunch of herbs and potatoes but decided to go above ground with those (I just threw together the wood planters from scraps we had laying around-now ISO soil): I have corn, greens, beans, and a few other sprouts coming up--I threw the straw down (from when I cleared our side yard in May) to give them a bit of shade and extra water---this side gets like 6 hours of INTENSE sun this time of year (especially this year). I have some raspberries to plant in the back corner on side 2--I'd love to have a little berry patch. But through research I've found very few varieties grow in a 10a zone (this part is all new to me) Those retaining wall planters are my next big project but the dirt is so compacted I can't even dig---but I'm thinking of just top filling it after I pull everything...just can bring myself to get rid of all my aloe and succulents that grow up in the shade. I'd love to do something vertical... (Side 1) (Side 2) This is the first year I'm doing this---I pulled the existing shrubs (2 10 year old hibiscus, a 10 year old rosemary, among others) all by hand and turned the soil myself---my husband's around to help but it's mostly a project I've taken on myself. I'd like to get a bit more organized as far as what grows where and when, more vertical growth, etc...one thing at a time I suppose. I've shown you mine--who's showing theirs? (I apologize for any typos, I didn't proofread this)

Aloha Sandpounder, Lisa, Ilima and Farmfreedom, It is beginning to sound like pistachios might be the next nut tree I'll try in the back yard. The health food store sells them "raw" so I'll get a few and plant them and see if they sprout. Hmm, anybody know if they are a hybrid and if they self-pollinate? Thanks for the peanut idea, Ilima. When I finally get the official garden (it still needs a fence to keep out chickens and a hose bibb installed for watering) put together, then I will have a space for peanuts. Until then, maybe they could grow in the flower bed by the house? Do they take up a lot of room? Farmfreedom, those are some good ideas, however not all of them would work in Hawaii. We have difficulties getting things such as chestnuts, walnuts and filberts cold enough in the winter. Actually, there are a LOT of mainland plants and trees we don't have enough "chill hours" for. We can't get them cold enough for them to flower and set fruit. Most apples, peaches, pears and cherries can't be grown here. There are about three varieties of apple and peaches which can be grown, but we have to be really selective and get a "low chill" cultivar or they don't get enough chill hours. Peonies and lilacs are two more which don't survive, although I've ordered a "low chill" lilac which I hope will live and produce flowers. The Big Island of Hawaii has most of the climates available on the planet, but they are only in small spots on the island and no one spot has all the climates. I'm down near the ocean in an area with dirt and rain so it is a better growing area than most. However, I don't have the winter time cold and we do have some ferocious snails, insects, fungus and molds to deal with as well as the occasional nematode and those pesky chickens, too. A hui hou, Cathy

Just figured I would give an update for everyone. I guess I'll start with the bad news. So far things have been pretty crazy. We got lots of flooding and a good part of the orchard floor has had standing or slightly flowing water for basically all of May. I've had this property for about 8 years and I've only ever seen water flow across it like that once previously. This year it's been several times that we've had quickly flowing 1+ foot deep water in the native grove and part of the improved section. But other than worrying about waterlogged roots, things have seemed fine. But last weekend, we had a frightening amount of water with 3-4 foot deep water with the creek swelled out several hundred feet wide. I looked on the FEMA flood map and we basically had a 100 year flood back their this weekend. Had some of the new Pawnees disappear so I thought the worst when I walked out there the next day. I was sure I was going to find stumps with the grafts ripped off the root stock after basically being submerged under fast flowing water with debris enough to make a cedar tree look like it went through a tornado. I was happy to find that all were still there and even with broken bamboo stakes, all the grafts held. Even a couple of the holes had been scoured out but the tree was still there. I restaked and cleaned them all up and all appear no worse for the wear. So other than alot of clean up that will need to be done, we are good! So far the only casualty has been a wind broken Kanza but I cut off the broken part and made scions out of it. Thankfully the there were a few buds left on the bottom of that which are sending up fresh growth so the tree should recover. Now the good news. I got 10 Lakota scions I've been tinkering with. We grafted 3 of them onto small 1.5in or so natives just to experiment. The scions never really took off but they did slowly start to swell so I hoped the scion was alive. Well three weeks in, two are sending green leaves out and the third looks like it's about to. So I trimmed back the couple native branches I left to throttle things up a bit. I also grafted another larger 3in tree a week or so ago and man you can really see the energy difference. A week later, its buds are starting to break. So Sunday I put on the rubber boots and splashed back out into the native grove and grafted the remaining 6 Lakota scions. Must be the right time of the season for it because both the bark grafts and the couple banana grafts are just starting to show some life so that offers hope that they will bond well. I also grafted a 6in (chest height) tree that was about 18-20' tall I was going to cut out of a group just to see what would happen. There are no native branches left so I don't know if it will kill it or send the scion up like a rocket but it was a curiosity anyway. So at this point, despite some extra work and some worry about the water standing in the orchard from nearly daily rains, things are going well.