As I wrote a while back I've been making very small steps towards being self sufficient for a while. Now that I've got a garden it should be somewhat easier.
One thing that I was keen to do was try my hand at growing some sort of fruit, but having taken a look at the contents of our new garden it seems I may already be a step ahead of where I thought I was.
The apple tree outside the log cabin was obvious (even to us!) but the others gave us a bit more to research. (Cooking apples we think based on the look on Mr C's face when he took an exploratory bite!)
Overhanging us from one neighbour is also what we think is some sort of cherry tree. Initially (based on something we saw at the garden centre) we thought it might be a morello cherry tree, but looking at some pictures on the internet the leaf colour seems wrong. Of course we can always just ask the neighbours, but I've not had chance yet!
The final one is a bit more interesting. There are two trees up near the house (one smaller than the other) and from the shape of the leaf it looked like they were some kind of fruit, but we weren't sure what. This week though some fruit has actually appeared on them. Not much (and very hard to see in the photo above) but we think it might be damsons. Grateful for any positive identification and if we are correct then fingers crossed that next year we might get a bumper harvest of them.
Rattling On says
Hello again!
I agree that looks like a damson and the apple tree looks like a cooker, there are a couple of varieties but I don’t suppose that really matters- just that they taste nice in pies.
Have you checked with the neighbour about the cherry? A lot of the trees with dark (purplish) leaves are purely ornamental. If it is a fruit tree and the cherries are fully ripe at that pale colour it’s more likely a sweeter cherry. I like the ‘Expert’ books and the Fruit Expert is particularly good. ISBN0 903505 31 2
I love this series of books, and there’s one on lawns if Mr C has lawn aspirations!
Mrs C says
Thank you Rattling On – you’re becoming my gardening “expert” on here it seems! 🙂
Funny you should mention the Expert books as I’m currently reading the Garden Expert that my Mum has leant me and really enjoying its style. Very annoyingly I saw the whole series in a charity shop a month or so before we moved and felt that I couldn’t justify buying them in case the house purchase fell through. I went back this afternoon and unfortunately they’d gone, but amazingly another charity shop had the Lawn Expert for only a pound. Mr C’s upstairs reading it right now!
Not had chance to speak to the neighbours yet, but will definitely ask them about the cherries if I see them this weekend.
Thanks again.