We bought our house in the Northern Dordogne in 1998. The day that we signed we discovered that we had an additional parcel of land, opposite the house but on the other side of the chemin that runs beside it. At the time it seemed like an ideal site for an orchard, not large but not small either, about 500 or 600m2.
Time moved on (about 10 years in fact) and the house and garden got sorted out. I did install two apricot trees in the front courtyard, well shielded from the north wind and getting afternoon sun. They do now produce rather good apricots in early July and one year, we promise ourselves, we'll be down to eat them from the tree. Meanwhile various neighbours really do appreciate them and eat most of them. And preserve some for us so that's OK.
Meanwhile nothing much had happened in the orchard. A reine claude and two apples went in, struggled but eventually survived. Ditto a fig (they grow like weeds locally, dark blue skin, red flesh and delicious ripe from the tree) planted in a frost pocket but, when it did manage to survive our pretty cruel winters, is also in full sun and productive.
No comments:
Post a Comment