1st March

Goldtraube blueberry plant buds

Wow, March already. What a beautiful start it was to March also, bright sunshine, blue skies and a little warmer today ... warm enough to venture out without a coat on at lunchtime today. Spring truly is in the air. We have now seen many signs of the Spring - the snowdrops, the crocuses, the daffodils are popping out too now. Many trees are bursting out of their buds with glorious shades of greens and reds, and the birdsong is all around. We've seen the lambs in the fields and our seedlings are growing; all these things are delighting the senses.

A nice change from the rather wet week we had for most of last week. We all ended up with another seasonal cold too - first Alex and then Imogen and I caught it at the weekend. So it was a relatively quiet weekend, although we did manage to go out a little.

On Sunday we ventured out to the New Forest and visited The Kitchen Garden Company, meeting John (the owner) whom Alex had met at the local seed swap recently. A very nice gentleman running a family business growing vegetables and herbs for sale at farmers markets, his nursery and the produce to local restaurants. He had stocked fruit but was clearing this out as he didn't want to continue to stock it. This was the main purpose to our visit and we came home with a car full of goodies at a fantastic discount price. (I have linked their website although it's down at the moment - I'm sure it will be back online soon).

Fruit and Nut

So what did we buy? Well, in addition to the Cranberry that Alex picked up at the seed swap event, we wanted some Blueberries so picked up two varieties that will produce lovely blueberries in the Summer.

Blueberries

We bought a Triple Apple tree on dwarf stock so we can keep it pruned to a size we want, grafted with three varieties - Braeburn, Lord Lambourne and Bountiful. We also picked up a Triple Pear tree (well 2 actually - one is for my Mom and Dad) again grafted with three varieties - Conference, William, and a French variety I forget the name of. If it wasn't for space I may have come home with a Worcester apple too as they are my favourite apples, although a short season. The triple varieties seemed more beneficial though. We did, however, also buy an Almond tree - Robijn. So now to plan where the new fruit is planted.