More unusual edibles planted in our Forest Garden

On April’s activity Sunday, volunteers spent the morning planting unusual edibles in our Forest Garden. These included a couple of Apricots – one Tomcot which is a late-blossoming variety and one Orange Summer, which fruits later than most apricots. The beauty of these later-flowering varieties is that they come out after the early frosts and therefore have a better chance of being pollinated and producing actual fruit!

We also planted a Mirabelle plum and a Nashi Pear (variety Kumoi). Unlike ordinary pears, Nashi pears are round, golden in colour and have an aromatic flavour and a crunchy bite. We’re looking forward to tasting these when they’re ready! Other trees added were a Shropshire Damson, a Blue Bean tree and a Loquat – more on these in future articles. This last batch of planting almost completes the tree and shrub layers of the Forest Garden – in the autumn we will start taking up the mulch mat in selected places and planting the herbaceous/groundcover layer.

In the meantime there are plenty of maturing trees and shrubs that will hopefully be producing fruit and flowers this summer including Honeyberries, Buffalo Currants and American Elders which flower all summer long. Lots of lovely elderflower cordial to look forward to!