My little road has communal gardens that are looked after by gardeners who work for our 'gardens committee'. It involves a small amount of mowing and tidying each year which costs us each a notional amount; nothing to upset the bank balance.
We have a communal 'front lawn' surrounded by nice shrubs and flowering trees, a small private lawn with high hedges for which we all have a precious key, and other bits of mixed borders in front of the houses. It's all quite pleasant and well-kempt.
Right in front of our bijou faux-Regency house are two apple trees. I think we're the only people who ever take the fruit from them. In recent times we've had a few apples from one of the trees, and I noticed yesterday that there was just one remaining apple on the other. I picked it (below).
People have always said that it's a Bramley, but it ain't. Bramleys mostly fall in late September and have a very distinctive shape, we are now in January and this one apple was still hanging-on. It looks like a Golden Delicious.
Right in front of our bijou house I planted a Black Hamburg grape, and a pair of Globe Artichoke plants. I can't resist growing things that give something back. We have never been in residence at the right season to benefit from either.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think there's a Fox living beneath a very thick shrub just a few metres from our front door. If I was an urban Fox, I'd certainly look at it as a prospective home. Otherwise our local wildlife consists of Seagulls, Pigeons, Crows, Blackbirds, and the occasional Robin, who all enjoy the gardens as much as I do.
Not quite the bucolic environment of our cottage in France, but nice anyway.
p.s. The Apple was awful. Goodness knows what variety it is!
That is posh to employ gardeners for your community garden.
ReplyDeleteArtichokes always seem so bland to me, whatever the variety, and while I am been so negative, I've never had an apple direct from a tree that has tasted nice.
Not really; if the work was left to the residents it would never get done. I don't suppose anyone even has a mower!
DeletePerfectly normal and not posh Andrew.
DeleteJerusalem artichoke is basically like a potato. I always wonder why it's his name.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sign of age; I really meant Globe Artichokes. Silly me. I do grow Jerusalem Artichokes in France (I can't stop them), and love them too. I have no idea why they are named as such.
DeleteI was surprised to read that Andrew had never had an apple that tasted good direct from the tree. Maybe they were just the wrong trees.
ReplyDeleteMy Mom had planted two different apple trees and a pear tree, a peach tree, and grape vines. One of the apple trees was a more tart type, but the other one was a red delicious, and those apples were delicious even before they were ripe and still green., They were really good after they got ripe. The peach tree was a variety that I never knew the name of, but the peaches from it were delicious, the pear tree had big, sweet delicious pears that were so good in the early fall. The grapes were a dark blue, very sweet variety with seeds. Now they say you should never give grapes to dogs, but our dogs loved them and they ate them and never got sick and lived many years. My Mom did a lot of canning. That house is 84 years old now and all of those trees are gone.
It makes me sad to drive by and see a treeless backyard.
A good friend of mine, who grew up in the same neighborhood I did, was reminding me how we kids from the neighborhood could spend the whole day outside in summer and early fall and not go home except to use the bathroom. If we needed a drink, we would drink from the garden hose in everybody's backyard.
Everybody's yards had fruit trees or grape vines and we all mostly just foraged from all of the fruit trees and grapevines until the street lights came on and we all went home.
The kids now will never get to have that kind of fun and independence. They'll never know what they missed.
At my home in France I grow plenty of fruit. Apples, Pears, Grapes, Plums, Peaches, and Figs. And re Andrew; I've never tasted Apples that are as good as directly off the tree!
DeleteCro, Have you had much luck growing tomatoes during your French Summers?
ReplyDeleteAs children growing up we would pick them from our garden, and then when they were almost mature we were told to place them on a sunny window sill.
I used to grow wonderful crops of the most delicious Tomatoes, but over the past few years my garden (Haddock's) has become disease-ridden and useless. I shall be growing them elsewhere this year, and Haddock's will become a 'fun garden' with BBQ, pergola, etc. I may even plant more fruit trees there.
DeleteStill got the same knife!! Sounds like the orange trees that grow along our streets. They're very sour. Only good for marmelade.
ReplyDeleteYou've got mother nature at your door even in the city. Wonderful. Hope you see the fox
Once, when in Marrakech, I took some Oranges from trees that lined the big Avenue Mohammed V, and made them into Marmalade when I returned to France. It was delicious.
DeleteNeat and tidy city landscapes present well. Artichoke plants are exotic looking, the leaf and flowers are most unusual. I tried growing them in a large pot with no success. Will you replace the apple tree with something you would prefer?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that it's not really up to me. They are really there for decoration (and the birds), so they will stay. I might, however, offer another for the communal lawn.
DeleteIt all sounds very 'Edinburgh' in Scottish terms.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest lived in Edinburgh for a few years (Stockbridge), where he had a huge communal lawn behind the flats. It was the size of a Football Pitch.
DeleteIf it is a self sown apple they are often horrible being no actual variety at all but a mixture.
ReplyDeleteYou could well be right as it is very close to the other one, and no-one in their right mind would have planted two trees so close together.
DeletePerhaps the fox is there because it is small and elegant, and may bear grapes one day.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of Foxes around, so such comfortable looking bushes must be in high demand. It also looks as if it might be quite dry beneath.
DeleteI have had apples, peaches and apricots straight from the trees and they are much nicer than store bought because you can pick them when ripe. Store fruit has to be picked unripe so it withstands travel and storage.
ReplyDelete