the last 3 weeks have been ace picking, i can only get the low ones and using a hooked stick the flexible ones
as mentioned bramble is a staple food for many critters and ace cover for even more
gz
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 9456 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Posted: Tue Aug 05, 25 12:47 pm Post subject:
Brambles beginning to ripen in my garden..good thing I didn't clear them from the bottom of the garden
Nicky cigreen
Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9984 Location: Devon, uk
Posted: Tue Aug 05, 25 3:41 pm Post subject:
I have stopped picking blackberries as now have more than enough. Here it is another bumper year for blackberries, I only pick the ones I can reach without getting scratched or stung, this leaves plenty for all the other critters.
Hedgehogs seem to like living in the bramble patch.
Brambles are a good place for wildlife as they provide cover and often food. We have found birds nests in bramble patches and I think small mammals like them too. Not only do they provide cover, but food too, in the form of flowers for nectar, berries (either go climbing or what falls) and even insects for things like hedgehogs and omnivores.
Nicky cigreen
Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9984 Location: Devon, uk
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 25 7:44 am Post subject:
yes the brambles seem very popular with butterflies too - both flowers and fruit. The bees love the flowers. it makes me feel better about how much of my garden and fields is brambly !
englishman's grape was how the normans described it
better than grape for lots of things and easier to tend imho
Nicky cigreen
Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9984 Location: Devon, uk
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 25 3:52 pm Post subject:
I love to put my nose into the picking bowl of blackberries, just to smell the lovely winey smell. To me it smells of Autumn. I don't drink much these days, so no longer make booze from them. My favourite is chocolate and blackberry crumble. mmmmmm mm!
gz
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 9456 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Posted: Thu Aug 07, 25 8:03 am Post subject:
Three large shopping bags of apples from a tree just over the road. Picking easily, but it is one that ripens off the tree. As far as I know from talking to older neighbours, it must have grown from a discarded apple core and is like a Kidd's red.
Only fit for juicing, but makes a good and nicely coloured juice. A handy one to have as it is a late flowering tree so tends to avoid frosts
Neighbours like them picked to remove ammunition from the local small herberts who throw them at car, people, houses.....
You are lucky it gives good fruit Gz. We had 2 wildings in our garden, presumably from apple cores; one was useless as just pulpy, small, and no flavour, but the other is OK, but small. We cut one down, but even the wood was pretty useless for carving. The other is still with us and gets cut down sometimes as it interferes with the quince.
Nicky cigreen
Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9984 Location: Devon, uk
Posted: Sun Aug 10, 25 7:59 pm Post subject:
the interesting thing is quite often uninteresting apples for eating, make good juice. I have a couple of sown from an apple core trees I inherited with the house, I don't care to eat them, but the juice is lovely.
We've done the first pressing of the year, a really good sweet apple crop and ready now as they are dropping from the trees.
Sounds good Nicky. These weren't any good for juice either. The texture was like a flexible dryish sponge. Very little juice. Only good thing were the flowers, but we have plenty more at that time of year.
It seems our big crab apple tree in the woods has produced lots of apple this year, which have fallen to the ground (no chance of picking as it is very high). I feel crab apple jelly with some added rose geranium leaves coming on.
Picked up some crab apples in the wood. Looks as if small animals have been having their fill too. Near an inhabited dormouse box, so they might have been having a little nibble. Also got a reasonable haul from under a wilding apple tree in the garden, so crab apple jelly to be made. Good thing I got a big bag of sugar.
gz
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 9456 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Posted: Fri Sep 19, 25 8:23 am Post subject:
Gradually getting the apple stock up enough to get juicing, as I like to blend them.
I haven't picked many brambles this year as I haven't finished what is in the freezer.
The elder I planted as a cutting in the front garden is now growing well and fruiting... only a dozen umbels, but a great start.
Elder is useful, both for the flowers and fruit. The pith comes out quite easily too, so the twigs are useful if you need a hollow tube. It is quite short lived though, which is why there are sometimes gaps in hedges where elder bushes were.
View Latest Posts