Apples

My dwarf apple tree has 3 different varieties grafted onto the root stock. The Discovery are ready first, followed by James Grieve and finally Fiesta, giving a lovely long picking season. This year it was really obvious that the blossom was developing at different rates. I wonder if that's anything to do with the cold/late Spring? It certainly felt like nature was waiting to pounce and then everything burst into life at once.  These photos were all taken within minutes of each other... 

Discovery - blossoms over

James Grieve - blossoms fading

Fiesta - blossoms still opening

Spring is here!

Tidying the back garden

Having been away for the weekend and enjoying the sunshine, I was raring to get out in the garden this morning. I started with a bit of tidying in the back garden. This area is where the guinea pig hutch tends to spend most of its time in the summer as it's very shady. Over the winter I let the fallen leaves provide a winter home for insects etc., but today seemed to be a good day to clear them away and expose the bricks again. The border looks very bare at the moment, although it won't be long before the Lilly-of-the-Valley start to appear. The friends we visited over the weekend had lots of wood anemones in flower - maybe this would be a good place for them to add some spring colour next year?




 The apple tree is springing into life again - this is a triple grafted tree I bought about 10 years ago. It has Malus Discovery, Fiesta and James Grieve apples on a dwarf rootstock, so it's self-pollinating.

My blueberry bush is also showing signs of life,












and the neglected parsley I thought was dead seems to have self-seeded!