We’re out in Burnfoot collecting apples from a friend’s garden. Apples haven’t heard about the recession or the credit crunch and this year has brought an abundance of the tasty fruits. I have been designated ladder holder as the kids wobble their way to the top of the tree for the reddest, most perfect fruit are hanging on the uppermost branches. I ponder on the human tendency to feel that the best things in life are just out of reach and try giving the tree a shake. Julie is collecting the windfalls from the ground and is chewing appreciatively comparing the crisp apple texture to that of a coconut and making rather disparaging comments about shop bought golden delicious. She stops to throw me a filthy look as my shaking quite literally bears fruit and one of the perfect apples bounces from the top of the tree onto her head. The kids giggle and continue to fill the bags to capacity. On our way home we discuss the treats in store for us. Apple pie, stewed apples, pork and apple sauce. When we get back, the juicer is dragged out from the back of a cupboard and after a wipe down we start to experiment with the apples adding carrots, cucumber and celery for different taste experiences. The colours are fabulous and the taste is like a high intensity vitamin shot. After that we have enough energy to make some apple jelly. I get out an old pillow case and hang it over the backs of two chairs to drip the concoction overnight ending up with a golden transparent conserve -yum yum. Early apples like these tend not to store as well as the later varieties and go powdery after a short time. Later apples can be stored in a cool shed wrapped individually in newspaper. The apples get drier and sweeter as the winter goes on.
WE HAVE A WINNER
Thank-you for all the entries for your favourite season gardening competition I have enjoyed reading the letters and comments from gardeners around the peninsula.
However, there was one entry that stood out. Judith Doherty from Greencastle thinks that we here in Ireland have the privilege of an extra season. Judith is currently on a horticultural course in Templemore, County Tipperary and her mother kindly sends her down the gardening articles from the paper. Congratulations Judith and I hope you enjoy the prize –the Dr Hessayon books. No doubt they will be useful in your career in horticulture.
I think you will agree that Judith’s observations are worthy of first prize…..
MY FAVOURITE SEASON
Ireland has a fifth season! This new season is an unusual combination of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Many days throughout 2008 have confused us with this situation of having four seasons in one day. An hour of June sunshine was followed by April showers, which preceded a darkening autumn sky that promised a winter afternoon. Watering the hanging baskets this summer was few and far between. The strong sun followed by windy gusts rarely dried them out, as there was always a certainty of a downpour on the afternoon.
If we gardeners are rather perplexed by this new season, imagine how confused the animals, birds and plants are. The swallows, which traditionally depart from our shores mid- September, prolonged their stay until mid – October. The mimulas that I planted in early May, have rejuvenated themselves into producing a third flush of canary yellow flowers, with no sign of fading. The white Lobelia has still got many buds waiting to burst open, instead of joining the compost heap.
Even though the Halloween festivities are looming, I am still enjoying the summer garden. As a result of this extension of the season, the plugs of winter pansies and violas I recently bought are staring angrily at me! They are waiting to get settled into their new homes for the next seven months or so. If only I’d take out the Busy Lizzies and Geraniums, which should be happily enjoying the shelter and the warm provided in the front porch by now.
So I guess I’d have to say that my favourite season id this new Fifth Season. I am still enjoying the summer flower displays. I have all of my spring bulbs planted. The autumn/winter bedding is lined up on the garden bench in polystyrene containers. But I don’t know when I am going to plant them because I do not know what season it’s going to be tomorrow!! – Judith Doherty.
WE HAVE A WINNER
Thank-you for all the entries for your favourite season gardening competition I have enjoyed reading the letters and comments from gardeners around the peninsula.
However, there was one entry that stood out. Judith Doherty from Greencastle thinks that we here in Ireland have the privilege of an extra season. Judith is currently on a horticultural course in Templemore, County Tipperary and her mother kindly sends her down the gardening articles from the paper. Congratulations Judith and I hope you enjoy the prize –the Dr Hessayon books. No doubt they will be useful in your career in horticulture.
I think you will agree that Judith’s observations are worthy of first prize…..
MY FAVOURITE SEASON
Ireland has a fifth season! This new season is an unusual combination of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Many days throughout 2008 have confused us with this situation of having four seasons in one day. An hour of June sunshine was followed by April showers, which preceded a darkening autumn sky that promised a winter afternoon. Watering the hanging baskets this summer was few and far between. The strong sun followed by windy gusts rarely dried them out, as there was always a certainty of a downpour on the afternoon.
If we gardeners are rather perplexed by this new season, imagine how confused the animals, birds and plants are. The swallows, which traditionally depart from our shores mid- September, prolonged their stay until mid – October. The mimulas that I planted in early May, have rejuvenated themselves into producing a third flush of canary yellow flowers, with no sign of fading. The white Lobelia has still got many buds waiting to burst open, instead of joining the compost heap.
Even though the Halloween festivities are looming, I am still enjoying the summer garden. As a result of this extension of the season, the plugs of winter pansies and violas I recently bought are staring angrily at me! They are waiting to get settled into their new homes for the next seven months or so. If only I’d take out the Busy Lizzies and Geraniums, which should be happily enjoying the shelter and the warm provided in the front porch by now.
So I guess I’d have to say that my favourite season id this new Fifth Season. I am still enjoying the summer flower displays. I have all of my spring bulbs planted. The autumn/winter bedding is lined up on the garden bench in polystyrene containers. But I don’t know when I am going to plant them because I do not know what season it’s going to be tomorrow!! – Judith Doherty.
