i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
Regular strawberries are nice, but sadly we neither eat enough of it, nor have the patience to really protect it from all the creatures that want to devour it. The fruit sizes are varied, some years giving large ones, other years giving rise to strangely …
I must admit, I was very daunted by the prospect of blueberries (vaccinium cyanococcus), as people complained all over the internet about issues afflicting them and the difficulty in their care. But my hoarding instinct got the better of me and whenever a blueberry bush …
There was a cherry tree at my grandparent’s house that gave tart, dark red fruits that weren’t good for eating directly but made for some fun times when me and my sister would sit on our dad’s shoulders and pick them. I have a very distinct memory of our father climbing the tree way up high much to our shrieking delight, but which was, in reality, less than 15 feet tall. It never gave very much fruit, the birds picking it clean while leaving only a few for us kids to grab.
I was a bit hesitant in getting cherry trees for this very reason, sure that what I plant can be nowhere near as delicious as what we get in the grocery stores–and boy, have I never been so happy to be wrong.
I got two, one black tartarian, and another White Gold and they sit outside our bedroom window. This way their showy blossoms can welcome us early spring mornings. I wanted to choose something that would confuse the birds and squirrels, who would see an unripe fruit and leave it alone. They have a beautiful blush on a cream background that reminds me of my daughters’ chubby cheeks.
This year is the third year I’ll have had it, and while it is only about 10 feet tall, it gave over a pound of cherries, much to the delight of my almost 4 year old daughter, who sat on my shoulders to pick them the same way I did my dad. She snacked on them from her hands while we walked around the garden inspecting everything (and yes, she knows to eat around the pit.) My favorite moments are when she wants to rush inside after she asks if she “can share with my daddy?” It makes me melt into a puddle of unrecognizable goo.
I have mine in partial shade, so it is fine with at least that, and the soil is rich and well drained. I did mulch it with straw to maintain the moisture, so it did very well this year. They do have a lifespan though, of about 20 years, which is a shame because then I’ll have to eventually replace it. I suppose I could replant in other spots in 10 years, and stagger them like that if I have to, or plant a long lived variety (which are not sweet enough for fresh eating.)
Some time ago, when I had been earnestly following bento blogs and the like, one particular poster always had these beautiful, tiny red or white berries that she arranged in the bento she made for her children. I always wondered what they were, looking almost …
Every Chinese family I know has garlic chives (allium tuberosum) in their garden. It’s a species of onion that hails from China, and is one of the earliest spring vegetables to come out, harvested beginning of March here on Long Island so that they are …
My birthday is in June, and I’ve been wanting a Juneberry (also called serviceberry, or saskatoon) for my edible landscape. As luck (or bad luck) would have it, my husband, in his over-excitement at using a chainsaw to do yard work, accidentally chopped down my young loquat tree thinking it was a weed, and told me I could replace it with anything on his dollar. So I chose something I’ve been wanting for a long time. I was a bit wary of getting it because, if these berries were as good as people said it was, why wasn’t it more popular? Why didn’t I find the fruits in supermarkets? But one taste of the fruit and I was hooked. It tasted like a “blueberry” flavored gum I had when I was a kid, which I now realize, because the fruits look similar, that it was serviceberry, and not blueberry. If I had to explain it, I’d say it tastes like a juicy non-tart blueberry, so the sweetness and flavor without the acidity.
I also realized why we don’t find it in the supermarkets more often, and that’s because the fruits don’t keep well, despite being delicious. So all was forgiven in my loquat homicide, when I got not one, but two!
The foliage is beautiful and creates a splash of flowers during early spring, and the fruit ripen in June like its name suggests. You’ll have to fight off birds if you don’t net it though, because we’re not the only one who enjoys it.
My variation, grandiflora, can grow to about 25 feet high, while others are smaller. It is an attractive plant that can be shaped into a tree or a shrub. They do well in part shade, but sun seems to be needed to make the fruits very sweet. They’re drought tolerant once established, and one of the things I like about them is that they don’t need such acidic soil the way blueberries do.
Don’t tell my husband but I plan to buy a lot more of these and plant them all over our property!
Scientific Name: Amelanchier sp.
USDA Hardiness Zone: 4 – 9
Perennial fruit tree that can be trained as a single trunk or maintained with a shrub appearance. Can grow to 25 feet tall. Drought tolerant, and will grow in part shade. Prolific flowers during the spring, followed by sweet fruits ripening in June. Susceptible to Apple Cedar rust fungus, and birds will eat the clusters of purple black berries if you don’t get to them quickly. Berries are fragile, therefore not often found in markets.
Here are the recipes on my blog that utilize serviceberries, either as a central player or as optional add ins!
If there is one thing that I’m always looking for, it’s an edible perennial green that also tastes good. Dandelions are great, but they’re bitter (which not everyone in my family likes) and not suited to cooking because they shrivel up into tough strings, better …
Shiso (perilla frutescens) is one of my favorite annual herbs. It’s much more commonly seen and used in Asia than it is in the US, and for the longest time I had been hunting for the green variety called ohba（大葉) in Japanese. I finally found it two …
I had wanted to start beekeeping this year but because I had been busy setting up the rest of the garden, by the time I wanted to get to it, it was too late. I will probably start next year, if time and finances allow.
In any case, pollinators are important, and they need somewhere to stay. Native mason bees help pollinate just as well, if not better than honeybees–but they don’t produce honey. Native mason bees are so named for their use of mud to construct their homes—masonry products if you will. While they wouldn’t normally be using a constructed bee hotel like this, many species, when available, love empty straws and tubes. The females, which construct these nests, go around collecting nectar and pollen for her offspring, her boon being sealed in with them so that they can grow sheltered in the nest. They are solitary bees and therefore don’t form hives. Mason bees, thankfully, don’t sting unless grabbed and so can be a happy little neighbor we don’t have to worry about in terms of aggressively defending their nest.
Okay, I have to thank my husband Adam for this because we saw a mason bee house for sale at the Bay Shore arts festival and I begged him for it. Then I haggled it down from $30 to $25. I think a lot of people don’t know what it is so they didn’t bother but I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. I didn’t have the required cash on me so he spotted me despite his misgivings.
I took it home and wanted it to last long, so I decided to seal it with something natural and nontoxic. Thankfully, I have a bar of pure beeswax and olive oil, which, when mixed together in a hot water bath, produces a natural sealant and polish. I put in a bit too much beeswax so it took a slightly longer time to spread it on but that was the project I worked on last night and hung it up where an old garden clock was on an oak tree. I have to say it was SO cute in the kitchen I almost kept it inside as decoration–but that would have defeated the purpose. The tubes, as they get used up, should be replaced every so often.
Now all I have to do is wait for some bees to take up residence.
Update: It has seen many residents over the two years, including one that had a traffic accident with my husband when he was walking past it! He said one of them shot out and bumped into his neck and it had startled him bad but he’s glad something is actually using it.
From a young age, I knew I would suck at keeping green things alive. The curly beans that were grown in jars never amounted to much–they always wilted before I had a chance to put them into the ground. My Christmas Cactus, which was given to …