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Old July 11, 2017   #26
bower
Tomatovillian™
 
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,793
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Oakley, my what a lovely spot. I LOVE LOVE your behind the shed-rock-gets-sun-all-day !! Could be perfect microclimate for a fruit tree or two, it's not out of the question but mainly depends on how much MIG you get (Moose-In-Garden!). Also snowshoe hares will strip the bark in winter if they're about and anything exposed.
Grapes are only possible in the greenhouse - friend of mine has two types and she rooted a small one for me last year. The grapes are out of this world delicious of course, fresh from the vine duh.
For fruit trees, damson plums were traditionally grown, certainly in the Bonavista Bay area, you might even be able to find some local stock if you look around. I would love to get my hands on some of those old damsons if you find them. They also had an orchard of crabapples at my aunt's place in Eastport. Used to make jelly. But it may be that crabs were grown because other grafted apples were not at all available back in the day. Where I'm living the ravages of animals are keeping me and my neighbours apple-free. But I know people in Mount Pearl and CBS who have pears from trees in their gardens... moose free zones. The grafted apple trees I planted have been chowed down regularly and are now just neglected bushes, if you can imagine it. I notice that there are a lot of sprouts coming from the rootstock on one of them - as I recall they were grafted to Beautiful Arcade, a Russian stock that also bears early good apples itself. You could certainly get some shoots of it from me, if you want something inexpensive to trial, and if it does well, you can also graft onto it.... The apple trees and some of my roses came from Corn Hill Nursery in NB. I would recommend them if you decide to try grafted stock. And I have hazelnuts that came from Grimo in Ontario, which have suffered the same rabbit and moose troubles. But there are other issues with hazels, the catkins are frost sensitive and they tend to bloom prematurely in our yoyo spring. I had one tree of 20 seedlings that bore a few nuts a couple of times, and even in the best conditions I think it would not be a reliable crop in NL thaw and freeze conditions.
Lupins are blooming here too, out in the road. In my garden, bluebells and cornflowers and chives and irises are blooming now, which usually are around the solstice. The bluebells and cornflowers and chives all came from grandmother to mother to me... old standards of Bonavista Bay gardens. I have an early Dianthus which are also in bloom, and the first roses have begun: Blanc Double de Coubert is first and heavenly scented, and an old fashioned dark pink rambling rose just opened a first this morning. Also lovely smelling, they are both rugosas so very hardy and easy to grow.
In the food department, lovage is about to flower so past its prime for eating afaik (we relish it in early spring) and sage will soon flower as well. Took a beating this winter and I'm still working on the weed and feed of my sage patch. Garlic scapes are just popping this week on the porcelains (Music and Argentina). Spanish Roja will be 2 or 3 weeks later and the small Chesnoks and Persian Stars I'm trying to grow up from rounds will be as late as that or later. I have a pair of garlics I don't know what they are, came from a mixed stock of rounds someone got at the "Bonavista Social Club" a few years back (there it is, Bonavista again!). This is the hottest garlic I've ever tasted and after a couple years of disappearing early and reappearing in spring, produced some large rounds, I'm dubbing them "Bonavista Fireball" for now and eager to see what these two big plants produce. No scapes yet.
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