It's freezing cold in Swansea at the moment, so to make myself feel warmer and more joyous, I've been reading up about what exciting fruits and veggies I'm going to grow in the summer to liven up the garden (and my plate!)
I love growing fruit and vegetables; tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, fennel, beetroot, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries et cetera. I love the whole process of nurturing the plant, watching it grow and develop, the excitement of the first flower and finally the fruits. Its a beautiful, natural process with a brilliant end result: food.
This year, I want to broaden my garden horizon. I would like to grow more exotic and interesting plants along with more unusual varieties of vegetables and colourful fruits in order to bring different shades to the garden. Whilst looking around for trees and plants I could grow in the UK, I was incredibly surprised to see the variety of tropical plants which were hardy enough for our cold Welsh winters and relatively non-existant summers.
Figs
I already have a fig tree in the garden, "Brown Turkey". I bought it last year on a spontaneous spree and I had about 12 fruits from it. I'm not completely sure how old it is, but I imagine it's a few years old. I was pretty chuffed with the fact that I could walk out of my french doors and pick sun-ripened figs off my own tree! This year I'm going to buy another tree but a different variety; it's called "Gustissimo Two Timer". It can produce two crops in a single year with a little bit of TLC, which I can an abundance of when it comes to my garden.
Pomegranate
"Provence" is a variety of pomegranate which is suitable to grow in the UK. Therefore, I'm going to get one for the garden. Why not? In the back garden, where all the other fruit trees are, there is a brick foundation of an old summer house which was built with the rest of the house back in 1834. The walls have since fallen down and just the base and a small surrounding wall remain, which, incidentally, has become the perfect place for my greenhouse and other plants as the location in the garden is a great big fat sun-trap.
Kiwi
Up until I googled kiwi plants the other day, I had no idea how they grew. They're such weird little fruits that grow on these vines, and although they sound (to me) like the diva's of the fruit world - they require vigourous pruning and only last a few years - I think it would be flippin' awesome to have a kiwi vine in the garden. "Jenny" is a self-fertile plant which will do good in the garden. I will either grow it (her?) on a south facing trellis or I will grow her inside my greenhouse. Either way, I think she will fit in to my fruit menagerie quite well.
Blueberry
"Pink Lemonade." As if. A pink variety of blueberry! Who wouldn't want a pink blueberry bush?! I don't think anything else needs to be said on this...
Ruth x
P.S Oscar, the little blighter, had a funny 5 minutes on the weekend, darting around the house with huge pupils, jumping in the air for no reason and chasing his tail. He ran upstairs and after a few seconds I could hear some pathetic mewwing. I ran upstairs to make sure he hadn't hurt himself and found him like this...
