A Banana disaster

This week: A Banana disaster; Plumtastic – coming full circle; 40 years is not a bad life….;

We have had a beautiful week of weather with warm sunshine and clear skies.

Sadly today it has changed and the next week will be very unsettled.

I think that wherever you live, Spring is a magical time. From the first bulbs flowering, which here happens around Christmas, through the first blossoms, the first leaves and the appearance of butterflies and insects, there is something new every week.

This week my Bearded Iris, are in flower. They seem to survive the heat and dry summers without too much problem.

I haver been removing the annual weeds and grasses from the flower border in the Top Orchard.

In this border the fragrant yellow Forsythia is at its best at the moment.

Next to it is another colourful shrub, Bachelors Buttons, Kerria Japonica “Plentiflors” .

This is the double flowered variety. I had a single flowered variety, but it seems to have died over the winter.

I have grown Kerria Japonica in all my different homes, on three continents.

However what I noticed in the past was that whereas in more temperate climates, it readily spread by underground stolon’s. In this border, it grew, flowered and seemed happy, but there was no spreading.

That is until this year. Weeding this week, I have found that it has spread stolon’s widely, with new shoots poking out through stones on the rockery wall.

I’m not sure why it has taken 7 years to do this, but I’m happy it has because I will let them develop and then remove them for replanting in the late autumn.

Also in flower at the moment are the Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris, a pond marginal which is waiting for its permanent home.

The first Scops Owls have returned from their winter home. I wonder if Floof, last summer’s foundling, will make himself known?

The local postman called on Wednesday afternoon, on his way home from work. A young cat had appeared in his house on Monday, clearly someone’s pet, with a collar and recently sterilised.

He wondered if the boy was one of mine, or I knew who the owner was. I didn’t, but the markings are very similar to Yoda, so presumably a local cat.

Making contact with a couple of people in the village I know who have felines, none of theirs were missing, so I had a walk up to Petar’s home.

The handsome boy came as soon as he was called, so I took some photographs and put a message up onto the local expats Facebook group. Quickly the message was shared.

The owner, who lives in the next village, recognised his cat, which has been missing for a couple of weeks and went to collect him.

He is now back at home with his “bestie”. There is so much about social media which is negative, however the initiative of the postman and with the local power of Facebook, this story has a happy ending…

 

A Banana disaster

Bananas are from the genus Musa and the plants produce the yellow fruit we all enjoy. In the tropics, bananas are grown for fibre as well as fruit and most parts of the plant are used.

Mine grow in the polytunnel, however I bought them as Dwarf Cavendish. They are anything but dwarf, with a height of more than 3 meters and they are pushing against the roof.

Clearly they like the conditions, but the thick foliage and their sheer size dominates the rear wall.

A few weeks back, I realised that the original plant I purchased appeared to have died.

Bananas are classed as herbaceous shrubs and the thick, sturdy trunks are in fact modified and highly elongated leaves.

Thinking it was dead, I cut the trunk with a hand saw and gently removed it and the few remaining leaves, placing it on the ground in the polytunnel.

It was only then that I saw that this specimen had in fact recently flowered and young banana fingers had formed.

This is a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees! Had I realised, I would of course have left it in place to allow the fruit to develop.

The flower has not gone to waste though, because flowers can be cooked as a vegetable, with a flavour like an artichoke.

The remaining two stems are pups from this original. I need to get the steps out to investigate the heads of the plants and see if there are more flowers.

Bananas grow, produce a single flower which once pollinated by flies produce fruit. The plant then dies. The diameter of the cut stem is more than 25 cm.

The good news is that this plant has produced another “Pup” which will grow into a tree.

This time I will remove and replant it. I want to see if I can plant them in a warm corner, just outside the polytunnel.

Plumtastic – coming full circle

Of all the trees I have planted and of the original trees when I bought my home in Dol, plums, in their various guises are the most successful.

This week my Shropshire Damson is covered in blossom.

I bought this as a bare rooted sapling in December 2019. It was planted in a big pot to allow it to grow a strong root system, before being planted out in the courtyard in the spring of 2021.

This variety becomes a small pyramid shaped tree, so ideal as a shade tree for an enclosed yard.

Last year it produced a few fruit for the first time. This year it is covered in blossom.

Prunus is the genus that is the base of plums, cherries, peaches, apricots and almond trees. Most have Drupe fruits which are sweet, juicy and tasty. Some trees are grown solely for their beautiful spring blossoms.

In Japan “Cherry Blossom” is Sakura and the cherry blossom viewing season is known as “Hanami”. These are flowering cherries.

I have two very old plums, they are of a variety called Myrobalan or “Cherry plum”, Prunus cerasifera. They blossom and fruit early but I have also planted four varieties of plum.

By chance I have discovered that the microclimate where I live seems to be ideal for growing prunus trees.

Another Prunus tree I have planted in the courtyard is a Prunus serrulata “Amanogawa”, a flagpole or columnar double flowered cherry. It seems to like the the well draining sandstone bedrock under the courtyard.

Other fruit trees I have planted like pears and apples survive rather than thrive. All my peaches, plums and cherries are vigorous and fruit well.

The Shropshire Prune Damson I chose specifically because it is an autumn fruiting Prunus. Damsons in the wild are known as “Sloes” and they were brought to Britain by the Romans between AD 43 and AD 47.

For centuries, Britons have made Sloe Gin, where Prunus fruits are steeped in a clear alcohol and across Europe similar fruits have been steeped in a locally made alcohol too, for example the German Schlehenlikör.

I have one other variety of autumn fruiting plum, the rest being picked in early summer. I’m looking forward to eating and preserving my Damsons. I have no plans for any gin!

40 years is not a bad life….

I sat down on my wooden bench this week with a coffee.

Half way through my stress break, there was a crack and part of the seat gave way. Truth to tell, I knew the bench has been on borrowed time, the evidence was clear where rot was slowly eating away at the joints.

However after more than 40 years of service, it doesn’t owe me much.

It was made in a small workshop in rural Humberside, around 1983 and spent the next twenty years outside in the sun, rain, wind and snow of eastern England.

Occasionally I gave it a coat of wood preservative and in between enjoyed many a relaxing moment on its softwood seat rails.

The bench then moved with me to a new continent, the Canary Islands, off the coast of Morocco. There the blazing African sun bleached the wood and loosened the joints.

Moving again in 2006, it was in the garden of my villa in Abu Dhabi, where once more baking heat, an almost vertical summer sun and high humidity took a toll on the wood it was made from.

Moving to the Mediterranean with me, one of my first jobs was to treat the timber with Sadolin to ameliorate some of the damage caused by 30 years of exposure to the elements.

I had to replace one of the seat rails about five years ago, but apart from that, my wooden garden seat has been left outside in all weathers without complaint.

Last summer I noticed that the jolints had become really loose and added a little wood glue to fix them.

On Friday I disassembled it. Little can be reused, but I have kept some of the parts to use as patterns for when I build its replacement.

I hope I can find the sort of quality wood I need to make sure a new bench also lasts for the next 40 years…. NCG