Fig trees… I have one here in the UK in a large pot so it won’t get too big and it is covered with several dozen figs.(Just need sun to ripen them) Needs a lot of water, so it’s just outside the back door and anytime I have a bowl of water I would have sent down the sink, I chuck it on the fig.
They respond very well to being cut very hard back, and the cuttings will almost all root if simply stuck in soil. Hence I have about 10 small fig trees too!
Can I bring it with me?
Just an interesting observation !
I bought a packet of mixed coloured sweet pea seeds, half I planted in a pot on the front terrace & the other half in a pot on the back terrace. Just randomly sowed the seeds. The result is in the front pot I have all pink, lavender & white & in the back pot I have blueish, white and purple ! I suppose it’s what you call “pot luck” !
Jeanette I am very jealous of your fig tree - mine is about 5 years old but still very small and rather lacking in fruit - non this year and I think it’s maximum is 1!!! What do you do to make it fruit for you?
Hello to you all, I think this summer can be called a challenging one for us gardeners - too dry, too hot and now for us anyway too wet and not sunny enough, some would be right in thinking we are never happy. I have to admit to feeling a bit relieved that we are getting some good water, and it does mean we don’t have to spend the hour or so every evening watering the veg garden, but some sun to ripen the tomatoes would be nice. Another plus side is that we have the largest pears in the world ever and the plums that normally ripen, fall and rot have clung on to the trees long enough for me to do plenty of pickings. As well as the harvesting and keeping up with the weeding we have used the wet time to check back over the many thousands of photos on the computer (such fun)! Here is my latest blog post with some photos of the potager over the years http://web.me.com/tournesol_bp/The_French_Village_Diaries/Blog/Entries/2011/7/23_The_Potager_now_and_then.html
I hope you are all able to spend some time in your gardens - @James Kearney have you had any rain yet? Our grass has never looked this green in July! I hope you have. @Karen Dempsey, I am not an expert on pruning, but often find with my fruit trees they have an off year after a good prune, then come back blazing the following year, so fingers crossed for your roses!
This drought we are having is really killing my lawn because the water restrictions say we can’t water lawns or wash cars but we can water the plants. Even that will be killing my water bill next year when they raise my monthly rate. No rain in sight. It’s beginning to feel like Global Warming may be a reality afterall.
Hello, I’m a bit worried about my roses. I think I pruned them too hard last year, they have grown back but not flowered this year. Have I killed them ? Or will they be OK next year ? Any help appreciated, thanks.
I have done it with peaches, pear slices, apple and quince slices (brush them in a syrup to stop them going brown), plums, damsons, figs, blackberries and cherries - I’m a cake addict who owns a fruit orchard! I’ve also used the same basic recipe for a coffee and walnut cake too.
Here in the dim and distant NE my raspberries are only just forming, but it looks as if there will be a good crop (providing the dog doesn’t get to them first!) but the tart recipe looks fantastic. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you Julia and Jacqueline, I`m going to the supermarket this morning and will buy the pastry for tonights desert! There are still lots of raspberries. I like your idea Jacqueline of using any fruit which is in season. Have you tried it with peaches?
Julia that looks delicious, I’ve bookmarked it, thanks. I have a fat-free cake that I make year round with whatever is fresh (or in the freezer) this is often cherries for us, but raspberries work just as well. It has been so dry here that our raspberries are all quite small, but tasty!
Fat Free Cherry Cake
Enough cherries to fill the bottom of a lined flan tin
3 eggs
65g sugar
110g plain flour
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp natural yoghurt
50g ground almonds
a few drops of almond essence
Beat the eggs and sugar for at least five minutes until very frothy and pale. Gently fold in the yoghurt and almond essence, and then half the dry ingredients sieved, then the remainder. Try and lose as little of the air as possible. Pour the batter over the cherries and bake in a preheated oven (gas 4) for about 20 mins, or until the top is golden and springs back to the touch. Leave to cool and then turn out upside down onto a plate. Serve warm or cold with a healthy dollop of natural yoghurt.
Anybody else having a bumper crop of raspberries? Running out of ideas on how to eat them!! Tonight it`s a Raspberry Clafoutis!
I will need to prune them when they have finished fruiting, something I forgot to do last year!
Can you start a discussion thread about this please Sab so that it doesn’t get lost? I think this could be a really interesting post - a bit like James’s bathroom thread in the renovation group!
Can’t it to see the pics!
Oh - the first SFN garden makeover project, how exciting! Please post some photos Sab then we can see what ideas we can all come up with!
I tell you what, and this is just a stab in the dark, plus the fact that I’ve just joined, but I’ll give it a go: my garden is a mini disaster.
I’ll put it bluntly: I’ve just moved into this new place, the drought is in full swing, everything’s dry and horrible and brown and… I’ve got a partner who thinks I’m a loser for not being able to get off my computer long enough to give our kid a sand pit or us a reasonable looking patch, and we don’t have much - just a few square metres.
So I was wondering, very tentatively like, and not knowing nuffink abaht nuffink as far as gardening’s concerned… if anyone could help me out.
Like tell me what seeds to buy, and when and what tools I’ll need and ideas for design too even, I don’t care, but I’d love to surprise my partner! I can supply photos of the challenge (he says desperately)! And it IS a challenge: one front garden sun-drenched, the back garden more shadow-laden. A poet’s dream. A gardener’s… nightmare. Ideas? Desperate in the south Parisian suburbs :-S
Your veggie patches are looking great Stuart - how come you still have that green stuff around? We are so dry here the ground is stoney dust, I feel rather guilty planting out, but what can you do? We are lucky to have a 10,000 litre storage tank that was full of rain water and last year saw us through the whole summer, it is going down quickly this year!!!
On a more positive note we have started harvesting our courgettes - yippee! Hope you are all having fun in your gardens.
Lots of watering required this year methinks. Nathalie does such a good job on these veggie patches. 4 in total. All sorts in this year.
Today is the last day for guessing the names of our chickies, what about this lovely black one what name would you giver her/him? Why don’t you give it a go, Seeds to be won!! Go to www.lamaisondesfleurs.com
Next year I have to dig up the tulips and split and replant them. I have about 500 bulbs originally planted but there are many daughter bulbs popping up now. I don’t look forward to this job. I wish I had a backhoe to do the digging.
Marianne, thank you for your answer. I do let the leaves brown and remove the stems when they can easily be pulled out of the ground with no effort. Another question now. Should one fertilize the tulip bulbs at some specific time of year and if so, when should it be applied so it sinks into their depths with the rains or waterings?
Just to let everyone know that I am running an Easter Competition over at my blog www.lamaisondesfleurs.com to win 10 packets of seeds from Thompson & Morgan, go over and try your luck at a gardening limerick! Competition closes Monday 25th April at midnight. Good luck!