The Joys of Winter

One of the joys I particularly look forward to is planting trees. This Winter I have been lucky enough to have had cash for my birthday and Wintermas. Alongside the wonderful bulb collection Catherine and my family bought from the UK for me, I have been able to plant 10 shrubs and 13 fruiting trees on top of what we already had. The trees include 3 cherries, 3 plums, 1 Galician Apple tree called Sangre de Torro (Bulls Blood), a flat peach, 2 Persimmons, 2 Walnuts and another Apricot. I can't wait to see them sprout in Spring. We get frosts here and so there is no guarantee that they will all fruit but I can only try them. Even if they struggle now, I hope that the windbreaks I am planting now will mature and give better shelter as time passes. Our long term plan is to create a forest garden and annual vegetable bed. We hope that perennial vegetables and crops will work alongside the more usual annuals. Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/ has been our inspiration. Tim and I did one of his weekend courses and came away determined to make it happen for us.
My next job is to organise my seeds so I know what I should sow on a month by month basis, no easy task when you collect as many as I do.