Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland
One Woman, Three Acres.
The roses hang heavy on the veranda trellis, spurred on by copious amounts of soft rain and sunshine…Today at Bealtaine.
Baby apples all soft and furry peep from under leaves of bright, greeny newness…Today at Bealtaine.
And furry little balls of new peaches start to look important on the tiny, new tree in the tunnel…Today at Bealtaine.
And the small Nectarine tree, also in the tunnel, showing off with an abundance of fruit on its two year old branches…Today at Bealtaine.
And the Strawberries…refusing to wait for Wimbledon…Today at Bealtaine.
And the Ladys Mantle that has taken over the path and nestles into the water bin…Today at Bealtaine.
Your descriptions of the ‘behaviour’ of the fruits is delightful. I loved the imagery as much as the image of the “Strawberries refusing to wait for Wimbledon”!
Could not resist a quick update – after some more research on the internet I tried painting a band of old food oil in a band about 10cm wide on both the apple tree trunks. Boy do the ants hate this! After 2 days not only has the number on the trees fallen away dramatically but my other half commented that there are a lot of ladybird insects about. A brilliant result – now there are a lot more different insects flitting through the trees presumably having a gorge fest on the aphids. The new growth apple leaves seem to be no longer deformed. Apple happiness reigns 🙂
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Fantastic result! Excellent stuff and re-using old oil too…wow! Way to go! Colette x
Those apples look promising Colette..here in Sweden the flowers are yet to open and there are a worrying amount of ants scuttling about..we must have too few other plants around the apples, to have this aphid problem. With any luck the trees can shrug them off, fingers crossed!
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This will be a good year for fruit all round, Helen. As for the ant problem, there are many solutions. Have you tried a grease band on the tree trunk, or a chalk band…ants are famous for not crossing a chalk line, apparently! Also, a sticky band will deter them I’m sure! Anyway, good luck in solving the ant problem in the immediate future. In the long term, lots of other plants, cramming in as much biodiversity as you can manage…good all round!