Appletrees – thegreenerdream

High Summer on the land

October 25, 2020October 25, 2020mariamayfleming

We usually write a post at the start of each month, summarizing what has happen on the land and sharing a few pictures. Our camera gave up the ghost sometime in June and since then we have been using a phone for taking photos. Unfortunately there have been a lot of hiccups with uploading them to any posts and we have had to try to work around this problem. That is the biggest reason we did not post much in the last couple of months. We have hopefully found a system that works now and will post on a more regular basis.

In July and August the land was very generous and the seeds we planted in spring grew and supplied us with a bountiful harvest. All our perennial plants have also been great and we had more berries than any other year. This year we have also spent a lot of time harvesting herbs and other plants for drying and using in mixes for teas. We wrote a post recently with a few of our favourite mixes and their benefits.

Around our main circle we have admired and cherished all the colours, smells and sounds. As you probably all agree this year has been very different from most and the land has supported and nurtured us through these unchartered times and kept us from falling into despair. What can be more calming and reassuring than resting your senses in nature.

We never got the chance to finish writing this post earlier as uploading the photos kept on being a problem but now we have worked around it and wish to share these pictures of sunnier days with you. It was a glorious summer despite the strange circumstances.

Please feel free to share some photos from your special summer in the comments if you like.

Off to a good start.

February 6, 2019mariamayfleming

The first part of January was unseasonably mild and we were quite worried as many buds on trees and shrubs started to swell and lots of flowers burst open much too early in the season.

Pulmonaria.

What September brought.

October 3, 2015October 3, 2015mariamayfleming

When we look back on the month of September we remember a lot of sunshine and warmth. Maybe it was only an average month, but after the cold and wet summer September felt like a very welcome change.

We continued to harvest potatoes, courgettes and broad beans. All our onions and shallots that we harvested at the end of August dried out in the shed and are now hanging in inviting bunches from the ceiling.

The garden has taken on a more muted palette; some gold, copper and brown amongst the flowers and shrubs. Because of the warmth and sunshine many plants have been putting on new growth. All the pollinators made the most of it, filling up their winter reserves. Our ferns have also benefited from both the warmth and the rain.

Our espaliered apple-trees have only been planted less than three years but a couple of them have already provided us with lots of apples for tasty crumbles. We notice a remarkable difference in yields between espaliered and un-espaliered trees. Considering the space you save and the way you eliminate congestion and bad air circulation, we cannot recommend espaliering enough. You get both higher yields and healthier trees.

In our circle the plants are still looking good, unfortunately we do not have a picture of what it looked like last year at this time but as we remember it, there were a lot less plants a year ago and they also finished flowering sooner. A blog like this is not only a tool to share our successes and failures with the world but also an important record for us. By looking back through the posts we can see how things develop and change throughout time. We do not have a lot of readers but we do very much appreciate the ones we have and we hope we are making a few small changes, ignite some sparks and inspire people to plant and create something beautiful things in their lives.

East

South

West

North

We are looking forward to the remaining days of October. We hope to finish our extension this month and move into it. We will tidy up the garden and bring our Pelargoniums inside for the Winter months. There is a lot of weeding and tidying up to attend to in the garden. We think we will be quite busy. September brought us a lot of joy. We hope October will too…