What is the hardest thing you like growing in the garden? (i.e. it's complicated or difficult, but worth it) asked ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
grav_ity
Fruit. Stone fruit, specifically. Peaches and nectarines in particular, because when you buy them in the shop they're large and sweet and perfect, but they're not tasty. The ones off my tree are tasty.
It requires pruning every year so they don't grow out of control. It requires fertilising (okay, that part is easy; I just let the chickens run around in that part of the garden and toss some extra manure, grass clippings, tree trimmings, and compost in there). It requires netting so the fruit flies and possums and rats don't get most of the crop.
But oh, it is SO VERY WORTH IT.
The best crop I ever had was around 2018, when we had some good rain around September-October while the fruit was growing, but it was dry through November until harvesting time, so the flavour of the fruit concentrated. So. Good.
Last year, the avocados were AMAZING. (Yes, I know we don't think of avocados as 'fruit' but they kind of are, a bit like a tomato, and they grow on trees.) Anyway: avos for days.
This year, it's the mangos. I have a mango tree that's never set fruit. This year, it had heaps of flowers, and it set fruit, I've gotten about 8 mangoes from them and they not only taste like mangos should, they smell like mangos should. It's the most amazing thing in the world.
There are lots of other vegies and fruit that are complicated. I struggle with brassicas (caulis and cabbages and broccoli) and the tomatoes never seem to do quite as well as I want them to. Corn either does fantastic or absolutely sucks. (This year, it sucked.) Leafy greens? I can never grown them in sufficient numbers. But fruit? My fruit is spectacular every year, if not one type, then another will get it done.
I am hoping that one year in the future it will be apples. Or lychees. Or apricots. Someday.
--
And if you have a question, you can pop it in the March Memeness question post.
grav_ityFruit. Stone fruit, specifically. Peaches and nectarines in particular, because when you buy them in the shop they're large and sweet and perfect, but they're not tasty. The ones off my tree are tasty.
It requires pruning every year so they don't grow out of control. It requires fertilising (okay, that part is easy; I just let the chickens run around in that part of the garden and toss some extra manure, grass clippings, tree trimmings, and compost in there). It requires netting so the fruit flies and possums and rats don't get most of the crop.
But oh, it is SO VERY WORTH IT.
The best crop I ever had was around 2018, when we had some good rain around September-October while the fruit was growing, but it was dry through November until harvesting time, so the flavour of the fruit concentrated. So. Good.
Last year, the avocados were AMAZING. (Yes, I know we don't think of avocados as 'fruit' but they kind of are, a bit like a tomato, and they grow on trees.) Anyway: avos for days.
This year, it's the mangos. I have a mango tree that's never set fruit. This year, it had heaps of flowers, and it set fruit, I've gotten about 8 mangoes from them and they not only taste like mangos should, they smell like mangos should. It's the most amazing thing in the world.
There are lots of other vegies and fruit that are complicated. I struggle with brassicas (caulis and cabbages and broccoli) and the tomatoes never seem to do quite as well as I want them to. Corn either does fantastic or absolutely sucks. (This year, it sucked.) Leafy greens? I can never grown them in sufficient numbers. But fruit? My fruit is spectacular every year, if not one type, then another will get it done.
I am hoping that one year in the future it will be apples. Or lychees. Or apricots. Someday.
--
And if you have a question, you can pop it in the March Memeness question post.
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