Fruit 2017

 Conference Pears, October 7th.

 Conference pear, September.

Beurre Hardy Pear in blossom on the woodshed wall, April.

 Beurre Hardy Pear on the woodshed wall, September.

Some of the Beurre Hardy Pears, September 20th.

Brown Turkey Fig, July 11th.

 

On July 21st I took a few minutes to go around the garden and make quick snapshots of some of the fruit growing that day. We grow several varieties each of blueberries, grapes, figs, plums, kiwis... and dozens of varieties of apples although some have lost their labels.  These photos are just to give a brief impression of some the most loved plants here...

Grapes.

Nectarines.

Pears.

Robin perching on the Apricot tree.

Apricots.

Alpine strawberries.

Figs.

Raspberries.

Grapes.

Kiwis.

Blueberries.

Peaches.

Pears.

Apples.

Apples.

Spring garden 2017.

Echium pininana, tree echium, is a monocarpic plant, so after flowering it dies, although there will be many seedlings. The flowers are loved by bees, especially bumble bees, but it is the foliage that I find superbly uplifting, especially in the winter.

 Here is Echium pininana flowering, May 16th and they continued flowering all summer long.

 Echium pininana, catching the evening light, January 14th.

January 14th. Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Silver Queen', seen in the background here, was blown down in Ex-Hurricane Ophelia in October.

Frost on Verbascum., February 5th.

  Magnolia × soulangeana, March 23rd.

Magnolia Stellata March 23rd.


Camellia × williamsii 'Donation, Magnolia Stellata and magnolia× soulangeana, all common classics...

 
.... and reliably floriferous and cheerful!

The vegetable garden gate.

Hellebores, daffodils... spring.

  April 14th, Ribes odoratum, buffalo currant...

...with a superb scent.

April 22nd, Alfie opened a garden shop...

May 13th, Silene dioica,  Red Campion. 

Euphorbia stygiana in bud, May 13th.

Kniphofia Drummore Apricot, Red hot poker.

Bearded Iris.

 

Bearded iris catching the light.

 Alliums.

Wisteria.

Looking towards the small tunnel, May 13th.

May 16th.

Oriental poppies in bud, May 22nd.

 
 Delphinium staphisagria  and Allium.

Hail on the deck with Stachys byzantina, lamb's ear, April 25th.

Lilac in the rain, May 19th.

Pond garden spring 2017.

Our regular visitor, he is a non-native sika deer, doesn't do too much damage but he tests my degree of non-attachment and loving kindness! He likes to rub his antlers on the bark of young trees, removing their bark. This stunts the trees severely and sometimes kills them. He also breaks branches when eating leaves, but mostly it is the young shoots in spring that he eats and the trees can recover from this.

Perhaps he thinks he is invisible standing behind the apple tree and although he will run off when we come near, he is surprisingly brazen.

 Magpie pecking at his antlers. He is not just one, Tivon counted 8 Sika Deer in the next field and I expect there are not just 8 either.

Sarcoscypha coccinea, the scarlet elf cup, scores of these carpeted a damp area near the big pond.

Frost on the bank of the big pond... and reflections.

Reflection of oak.

Cornus reflected in the big pond on a frosty morning.

February Reflections in the big pond.
(No the photo isn't upside down!).

Growing near the big pond... Salix chaenomeloides "Mt Aso".

Chimonanthus, wintersweet.

Trillium.

Erythronium.

Fresh new growth of Schefflera brevipedunculata.

  Equisetum arvense, Horsetail was growing in the garden before it even was a garden. Many, if not most, gardeners consider it to be terrible weed but we have been living with it in harmony for almost 20 years, this is a plant that I respect!

 ...Isn't it handsome!

 Darmera peltata.

Magnolia Rostrata.

Native Primrose.

 Tivons turkey and one of the hens on the meadow with primroses.

A hail shower on 25th April.