-Or rather, a distinct absence thereof. Our little apple tree that gave some 30 apples last year have not produced a single one this year, possibly due to some late spring frost that killed off the blossoms. The pear tree, on the other hand, gave no fruit last year but produced 5 pears this year, only one of which got to stick around on the tree long enough to ripen – and then it fell to the ground and was inedible when got up to the garden last weekend.
You win some, you loose some, right? So here are the wins:
The French beans are beautiful, both the classic green ones and the purple ones. The yellow French beans never really got started, since the plants where eaten as soon as they emerged from the ground, and for some reason the other beans fared better, perhaps because of the marigolds that I sowed between the green and purple beans? I cannot know, of course, but I will definitely sow marigolds between my beans next year as well, just in case this was the determining factor.
The cherry tomatoes also did well, though I had to pick them all this weekend as there is little point in letting the green ones ripen, only to leave them to drop to the ground before the next time I have time to get up to the garden. I’ve eaten some of the red cherry tomatoes and preserved the rest by scolding them and putting them in a jar of oil with a touch of salt. And I love the fragrance of green tomatoes, so I’ve brought them back to Copenhagen and might try pickling them somehow. Maybe whole in a sweet vanilla-infused vinegar like my mother used to do? Or maybe as a jam of sorts.
The yellow mirabelle prunes are generally dull-tasting, but the ripe ones seemed to have already fallen to the ground (making for a few drunken bees and wasps on the lawn) with only sour, unripe fruit left on the tree, so I tried making a jelly of it. It turned out nice and clear and with just the right consistency, but the taste was just not very interesting – though bitter! – so I scrapped it and made a mental note to just consider this fruit ornamental in coming years.
I also got some weeding done, though mainly “large” weeding. There is a large perennial that is very invasive and self-seeds all over the place, so I’ve been ripping that out everywhere I could find it, throwing the plants in the compost and the roots in the trash. And another potentially invasive weed, the Himalayan Balsam, got the opposite treatment, with me trying to gather seeds from it so I can sow them in the spring; it grows to 2 meters and has very pretty flowers that supposedly attracts bees and butterflies, so I’m willing to overlook the fact that it will spread wherever it wants. (Also, it’s FUN to gather balsam seeds, since the seed pods “explode” when touched, sending the seeds flying all over the place so you really need to be careful if you want them to end up in your seed collection, rather than everywhere on the ground.)
The rudbeckias are blooming now, but I forgot to take a picture. Many of the rudbeckias that I brought from my mother’s garden last autumn died over the cold winter, but enough have survived and have established themselves that I think I can make an acceptable block of them in one of the borders.
In shopping news my spring bulbs have arrived! 250 mixed tulips and 500 mixed crocus… Now I just need to store them in a cool, dark place until I go up to the garden the next time, which will be in a few weeks.
