Maximum temperatures above 20? Check. Minimum temperatures above 10? Check. Lots and lots of sunshine with occasional rain? Check and check. Here we go.
The lettuces have been the vegetable surprise of the year. They didn’t just sprout and survive, they are actually growing and we might get to make a few salads out of them. In other news, only about a quarter of the onions we planted made it. No idea why, maybe nature just likes to keep us in a state of perpetual surprise.
The first tomatoes are in the ground and so are the aubergines, which have debunked the myth of being divas that wilt and die at the mere suggestion of transplanting. Those aubergines are hardy little things.
The courgettes are out, too, and, luck of all lucks, the aphids are not on them. They’re on the rose bush, or rather were, before I treated them to a dose of tobacco water with a dash of potassium permanganate. The squash is doing surprisingly well, too. We couldn’t ask for more.
The horse chestnuts are coming along nicely, all five of them, growing strong and pretty. We hope the summer heat won’t kill them. The new rose bush presented us with its first blooms and while a variety of life forms tried to destroy them, they survived. The scent is heavenly. Last but not least in the decorative segment, the tiny little jasmine plant that barely made it last year, is doing wonderfully well. Plans are to make a living curtain of shade out of it at some point.
And now for three more surprises. Surprise number one, the strawberries are bearing fruit like crazy. It must be the iodine fertilisation that this year I did properly, namely three times over 30 days after they woke up from their winter slumber. The coffee grounds may be helping, too, keeping potential pests away.
Surprise number two, the peach tree that went and died on us a couple of months ago turned out to not be quite dead yet. Yes, it will take ages for these to turn into proper trees but we’ll take that. No life left behind.
Surprise number three: we’re going to have cherries! All three trees have fruited and a whole handful of the fruit has made it and is growing. This has to be the best spring present from nature this year.
👏👏 a heavy March frost got most of our peaches, stunned our plums, hit the pears and mulberry trees, and torched our fig trees. Figs have rebounded, nectarines survived, pecans look good, and we have tomatoes on the vines! Heirloom and propagated varieties. We harvested all our early beets and are about to get our carrots and rutabagas. Our kohlrabi is doing incredible! And I just saw some apples escaped the frost attack 💪 jalapeno in buckets this year, growing like crazy, and the herbs are gaining traction. We need rain for vegetables and pastures🙏🤞🫐🍓 June is blueberry month here in GA but were already getting a few. Cheers to your best garden yet!
Lovely. Thank you for sharing your garden with us.
Do you know if the peach tree was a grafted tree? If it was and it resprouted below the graft, who knows what kind of fruit it will actually bear.