WALK THROUGH THE GARDEN

The joy of spring

Every spring it is a pleasure to first see the blossoms of the fruit trees, but later in the spring it is certainly just as fun, and every year exciting to watch how the fruit starts to grow.

Hopes for a good harvest

So far it seems to be going very well this year. It is of course still very early, so we will have to wait a long time to see what can finally be harvested. But it gives hope! A lot of hope for a good harvest.

So come with me for a walk through the garden past the fruit that I have examined more closely today?

To begin with, we come to our Pear Tree. A tree that we bought in 2015, so still quite young. But the advantage of grafting a tree on a trunk is clearly visible here because, despite its young age, this tree seems to be producing more and more yield every year.

Why the Conference Pear?

We chose the Conference Pear because it gives a fairly large hand pear with a long shelf life, while also retaining the taste. It is also the most cultivated pear in the Netherlands and Belgium because of these properties. So far I can conclude that we should not be disappointed in any case and since the second year we can enjoy delicious fresh pears from our own garden every year.

Lips like Cherry ...

If we go a little further then we come across the cherry tree. This is much younger and this year we see real cherry formation for the first time. Exciting! I can hardly wait until they are ripe, although I also know that this will take a while. And then in the meantime it is hoped that the birds will not be ahead of us… because you always run that risk with cherries. In this case, it is certainly not the dogs that are a risk factor for a few tasty cherries from your own garden.

I think it is ...

I no longer dare to say it with certainty… but I believe we have the Regina cherry in our garden. I know we've looked at the palatability (sweet), and high yield. Time will tell, the Regina cherry is ripe late and has therefore enjoyed many hours of sunshine. We'll see if our cherries make it.

One apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Then I walk a bit further and I arrive at the Elstar Apple Tree. We have had this tree for 4 years now. This is not grafted on a rootstock and it shows. The tree grows well in its large container, but so far it yields considerably less fruit than the Pear tree. You will notice a difference in this whether you have a grafted tree or not. Anyway, I have already enjoyed the blossoms that were much more exuberant this year than in previous years and so far we seem to be getting some apples. I hope they keep it up because the Elstar apple is a nice juicy tasty apple with a slightly sweet and sour taste.

And then no tree next, not that we are done with trees… on the contrary, we also have Plum trees and a fig tree, although I did not photograph them today. We are also thinking about what other trees we would like. For now we will continue with a bush.

Gooseberries!

And that is the Gooseberry bush. You have to love it, it is not a plant that everyone will appreciate ... but if you can appreciate the taste of gooseberries then it is still recommended. We both love it, and not just us. Every year it is a battle between us and the dogs. Where we still want to wait until the gooseberries are really ripe before we pick them, the dogs start as soon as the berries are big enough to their liking. Rowan was especially good at picking the berries between the spines. Because that's a drawback to the gooseberry bushes we have. There are spines on the branches. Well, Rowan never cared and picked what he could. He enjoyed the time when he could go into the garden and pick the fruit from the bushes. And although I like to eat a ripe gooseberry, I always had to laugh when I saw him picking the berries… Lana is also good at it, and she still walks outside every day. So I wonder how long these gooseberries stay on the bushes so beautifully to ripen. And I wonder if she will now teach Skipper that trick.

More bushes.

In addition to the gooseberries, we have another berry bush to show off ... and that is the currant bush. We appreciate the somewhat sour taste, and the dogs also like this again. Birds never actually pick these berries to my surprise ... but of course that leaves all the more for us. It is also delicious to make lemonade yourself! And often I throw them through my yogurt as soon as they are ripe. Wonderful to start the day with fresh fruit from your own garden. And in a filling for a cake, these berries are also delicious to use. So every year it is enjoyable to see them change from green to red and every day that they are beautiful red they get a bit sweeter.

The QUEEN of fruits!

And then again away from the bushes to go to a container full of plants that give me a lot of pleasure. For me the queen of fruit. The strawberry! When we came to live here in 2015, we had a strawberry tree, and unfortunately we never had a strawberry because our Lex was just as fond of strawberries at the time. He was faster every time because he just pulled the green strawberries off the tree. So even though the tree gave plenty of strawberries, we couldn't enjoy it ... After that, the strawberries were banned from our garden for a number of years ... but this year they are back! Happy! And I can't wait to sink my teeth into the first delicious juicy strawberry that will come off the plants. The beginning looks promising and luckily the strawberry plants always make those fine shoots, so that next year we can expect more and more strawberries.

So wonderful times ahead.

We have a lot more in the garden, but I'll save that for next time!

What is in your garden? And what kind of fruit trees would you like?