Matt recently decided that several trees in our trying-to-be-a garden were too decrepit. When we first got here it was just a field partly-covered with old fruit trees that had been left to their own devices; some were partly falling over and all of them were suffering from neglect. Some heavy pruning ensued, but despite this, two and half years later, he took the decision to remove the diseased and unproductive ones - a few days ago the sentence was carried out and he brutally chopped five of them down, much to my consternation. I did plead for my hammock trees, which are very old and gnarly with not a single fruit between them, and they have been magnanimously granted a stay of execution.
Despite this recent culling, we do have the tree balance in our favour. Since moving here we've planted a mandarin tree, two figs (one green, one purple), two different types of plums, a cherry, a walnut, a mimosa, some kind of fir, a lilac and a Japanese maple, plus several shrubs and bushes. We have another walnut and mimosa, two wild peaches and two tiny plum trees waiting to be put in this winter and are planning on planting an orange and a lemon tree too.
Last year, to our great excitement, we got our first figs - just a few, but they were delicious. I love peeling away the skin to reveal the juicy, sweet pink flesh inside. I have my fingers crossed for many more this year - enough to make my figs soaked in brandy, served with creme fraiche, and if we're fortunate we may also get our first manadarins - the tree has tiny green balls on it at the moment that will hopefully ripen before they fall off.
In other garden news, I've finally strung the garlic up, something which Elbi greatly enjoyed taking part in:
The courgette count currently stands at 'lots, with more on the way' although we've been managing to keep up with them so far.
4 comments:
I always hate it when trees have to be cut down. The old elm in our neighbour's garden, many years ago got Dutch Elm Disease and had to be culled. When the trunk was cut through, sap came flooding up and it looked as though the tree was crying. It was so very sad. Really glad your hammock trees were left though. It is just nice to have trees that don't 'do' anything, but are just allowed to 'be'. Do you have any olive trees? My daughter, (Wren) has planted one in her garden in Brighton and they think they may get a few this year.
I'm afraid Scaredy might well have been giving Elbi a tip or two! Must try to find out how Plumpy is doing.
Lorenzo.
p.s. Your figs in brandy sounds lovely. I never bother to peel figs though.
LtL
Nope, no olive trees here - we're pushing it already with a mandarin and plans for a lemon. I think it'd be too cold here to get any olives, although the tree would be ok in itself. Maybe we'll try one day as we're planning on planting lots more.
I think I could learn to love garlic...
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