My garden is bursting with greenery as we're having a nice and wet spring/summer so far. The red dahlias in the pot are from my friend Simone who is growing her own in Germany. We can think of each other when we look at the pretty red blooms.
On another note, I'm starting to battle the mulberry tree that hangs over the back of my garden. This tree drops mulberries in my garden, which not only attracts flies and bees, but it also smothers the grass. Each year I try and pick up the berries as they come down, and each year I lose the battle. This has been going on for over 10 years. I plant new grass each spring only to lose it to the blasted berries. I can't even eat the berries because by the time they drop they are overripe. There are so many that they actually mold in lumps in the yard (and stick to the bottom of our shoes). That with the cloying smell of the rotting berries drives me nuts.
This year I tried to get smarter to win the war against this tree. (We aren't going to chop it down because it blocks out the neighbors and for most of the year is a lovely tree) I bought a miracle gardening fabric that allows 70% of light through. It is water permeable and lightweight, so the grass doesn't get smothered. I laid it down in the back of the garden and Neil helps me gather the corners to dump the berries into the compost bin. We collect the berries about every other day. Today I think we had about 15 pounds of berries in the fabric. The amazing thing is that after 2 weeks, there are still loads of berries on the tree. I think this year I will win the battle of the berries!! Here are some photos:
3 comments:
Another reason to get chickens...
I know!!! I keep thinking that next year the chickens will help me gobble the berries up. Neil wants to wait until the berries have finished before we order the chicken coop. The delivery person helps set it up when they bring it. I've ordered practically everything except the coop and the chicks.
I think ducks would love the berries, and you would like duck eggs too.
We have a similar problem every second year with our apricots. After making them into jam, freezing, drying and giving it away to friends, in fact to anyone who is willing to take them, we still end up ankle deep in apricots. I think we should find a way to make moonshine booze out of all this stuff.
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