Journal August 28, 2015 - Preserving the harvest

Fortunately, my wife likes to can vegetables,  while I enjoy growing them, so it works out just great.  From our bumper crop of tomatoes this year, she has canned several batches of tomatoes,  which we will use throughout the coming winter.

With the gardening season winding down,  I have begun to think about the olive trees.  Repotting them with my homemade soil and placing them on the deck has done wonders for the trees.  The trees will remain on the deck until it really gets cold,  as they need at least 400 hours of cold temperatures if they are going to flower in the late winter and early spring.  That said, however,  there has been so much growth this summer that most of the trees have to be pruned and moved to larger containers.  I had thought of cloning more trees, as this is the ideal time to take cuttings, but, and it is a big but, I have hardly any room left for more trees.  The trees in the photo above are all trees that I have propagated.  Propagating my own trees was a personal objective when I started to grow olives,  so as these trees represent a success with several methods of propagation, I am satisfied that I have achieved my objective.
Today I ordered 20 three gallon nursery containers, most of which I intend to use to repot the olives.   It is my intention that this is the largest container that I will use for the trees.   Periodically I plan on simply root pruning the trees and adding a small amount of new soil every year to keep the trees container sized.

 The Ascolano olive tree shown above is pretty much what I intend the rest of the trees to look like.  The maximum height I can comfortably deal with a little over three feet, so I am trying to train the trees to be short stubby bushes, rather than upright.

And, for a little variety, soon I will be adding a few small fig trees to my collection; the question is: where to put them?