Bilberry and Birch

We’ve put in lot of hard work with the garden since we moved, and this spring we’re really starting to see the results. The picture above is the first of our fruit trees to blossom this year. It’s an apple, Belle de Boskoop. Our Reine de Reinette is not far behind. We have a couple of older local varieties, which are taking a little longer to bloom, but I’m sure they’ll get there. We’re nowhere near past the danger of heavy frost yet, so they may be very wise to hold back!

The fruit bushes that we planted at the same time are all doing well, and the redcurrants in particular seem to be forming little sprays of what will (hopefully) become fruit. The perennials that we bought from Campanule and Compagnie last spring are all re-shooting, and looking very healthy.

We have a small plastic greenhouse this year, courtesy of Lidl, so we’re growing much more from seed than we did last year. So far we have germinated peas, tomatoes, beetroot, squash and courgettes, plus a selection of Higgledy Garden’s fabulous flowers.

The cabbages that sulked right through the winter have perked up and formed hearts, which is great, except that they’ve all done so at the same time. We’ve been eating a lot of cabbage over the past few weeks! We’ll need the space for the main crop potatoes in the next few weeks, so the last couple are destined for the kitchen very soon. Fortunately David has some very tasty recipes, including this from Rick Stein, which is one of my favourites. It specifies cavalo nero, but it works with any leafy green cabbage.

I love this time of year, with everything growing, sprouting, shooting, blooming and generally greening up. It’s so exciting walk around the garden every day, and see all the changes. I’m keeping a particularly close watch on our bluebells at the moment. We planted the bulbs in the autumn, and they’ve all come through, so I’m really hoping that we’ll have some flowers soon.

Sophie cat, meanwhile, seems strangely unimpressed with our efforts!