Fruity Fantasies

Well, it's snowing. Again. As I sit here with my cup of tea, glaring through the window at the offending white stuff, I can't help but fantasize about what my yard is going to look like in a few month's time.

In particular, I wonder about my fruit trees. I wonder if I'll actually get any fruit off of them this year. They've been in the ground long enough, so, assuming the vile vermin squirrel beasts don't get them first, I may actually get some freshly grown fruit this summer.

It's a small yard (well, it's reasonably big as far as suburban yards go, but it's still a small space in terms of square footage). But we've got six fruit trees, three currant bushes, a hedge of raspberries, a couple of blackberry canes, and a very sad little grape vine that still hasn't decided whether it wants to grow or not, after two years of careful tending. I have high hopes this year for the Evans cherry and the Flemish Beauty pear, both of which have the potential to be good producers once they get established. The Italian plum is something of an unknown, but it does have the potential for fruiting at least a little bit this year, as do the two Asian pears (a Kinkusu and a Shinseiki). As for the Stella cherry (a sweet variety), it is a complete experiment, being slightly out of it's ideal zone. But it is in a protected location, so hopefully it will surprise us with a nice sweet cherry or two.

Dreaming of Spring

The only thing that can be said about Canadian winters is that they are long, cold and snowy. This one has been no different. It's usually around this time every year that I tend to get really sick and tired of the whole winter scene (trust me, the novelty of fluffy white snow wears off after about a week and then you want it gone) and start dreaming about spring.

And with dreams of spring come dreams of what this year's garden will look like. Yes, even though there's still two feet of snow on the ground, and still well below zero, I find myself mentally planning the layout of the garden. It's got to be done soon because in another few weeks it will be time to start sprouting seedlings indoor! YAY! It's almost garden season again!

We tend to start our seedlings in March, under a heavy-duty grow light in the basement so that they are all ready for transplant as soon as the ground is warm enough. Cold-hardy crops such as spincah and Romaine lettuce can actually go out fairly early, but we have discovered, through trial and error, that putting things like peppers and tomatoes out before the end of May doesn't give you any sort of head start on the growing season as the still cool nights tend to stunt these types of plants.

Beyond my edibles, I'm also starting to think about annuals; where will I put my morning glories this year, and should I use climbing nasturtiums or the bush variety? And should I split my bulbs this year or should I wait another season? So many decisions to be made, but what fun it is! Ah, happy garden days ahead... and the warm-weather daydreams make it slightly easier to get through the final weeks of miserable winter.