The north east corner of my place has been designated on the Garden Plan as “Briar Patch”. Technically, it is reserved for all kinds of fruiting bushes that also, may be thorny – – Alas, it seems the modern world loves no-thorns and so haven’t completely settled on what varieties I wish to plant – But the infrastructure is ready for raspberries, jostaberries, black berries or whatever other kind of berry I find that likes it here – – And if I can just find some Silver Horehound ground cover (would you believe it? A Plant Select winner and perfect for my place, but can I find a single supplier for it? – LOL)
The Good, Bad and Ludicrous 
While my house has no outside space, I like to think of my whole village as my garden. In the summer there are blackberries galore, especially surrounding the vineyards. Seasonally, there is always something if one is open to it. There may be almonds, hazelnuts, or chestnuts, or our fig trees have two seasons each year. There are apple trees and more. Fresh herbs are everywhere. If one doesn’t have outside space attached to their home, there are allotments available to those who request them. It is very common in Europe.
Léa
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How lovely! Over the years, I have planted over 250 bareroot trees here, and watched as one thing or another spells their doom – but, the wild roses, native plum and chokecherries if bare root planted or seedlings protected from weed whipping/mowing – well – they are slowly spreading and enhancing the bounty of the place – each year .
Outside my kitchen window, a wild rose has grown to nearly 5 feet and I often get to observe the local winged population feast on the winter buffet of rose hips left on branches for their ‘feeder’ of the winter – (I am a hard arse – I leave a portion of harvest for the wildlife, but do not put up feeders at all… )
Nut trees? Ahh – maybe someday – for now – I’m working towards getting in the infrastructure for perennial edible bushes, shrubbery and a cottage garden area for veggies and getting herbs establishe throughout – I still have yet to take pictures and post blog of cleaned up existing trees, clean up of brush and completion of the southern portion of fencing for cottage garden area, that was done this past week – 😀
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Thank you. I’ve just flashbaked an old memory. Before moving abroad, I lived in Northern California. There was a small yard in front and I decided to grow a hedge. I’ve always know I belonged in Europe so when picking plants for the hedge, I bought some English Lavender and some French Lavender… I planted them across the front. The English lavender grew slowly. But the French lavender grew heartily and rapidly. Several neighbors didn’t like it. I didn’t care. Yet there were all jealous of the mass of hummingbirds always in my yard. 😉
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Ahh…yes – the experimental heart, being careful what the ‘neighbors’ are okay with, etc. Back in 2011, I moved back to the Eastern Plains of Colorado childhood home of mine – It is a land of drought, tornados, hail – – pasture grazing of livestock and dryland farming – with some folks here and there, installing pivot heads to irrigate crops that cannot survive here without supplementation – me?
Well – I was researching various plants that would build the soil, break up lower clay layers, to allow the absorption of rainfall deep into the ground to ‘store for growing things, later…” etc., one of the things I was looking at for deep roots was cereal rye – I visited with friend of of neighborhood, 5th+ generation of dryland farming (wheat, corn, sunflowers, proso (millet) ) and she flat out told me, “Tam? You plant rye I’m going to come over and give you what for! Do you know how many years we’ve spent erradicating that from our fields???) Since I was purchasing my wheat berries for home pantry from them, I figured in my best interest to not make their farming life harder! 😀
There is such a fine line between “What I want, what my neighbors want, what the ecosystem can bear” and well – having serious & honest conversations, every step of the way, for myself, is the only way I currently know to navigate such things – for the highest good of ‘my neighborhood’ – ❤
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I would never put cars in my yard or leave a mess. However, they objected to my lavendar hedge and worst of all, I didn’t care. Briefly, I had thought of going to England to live, however, half my family are from the UK and I was unsure about learning French. The English lavender couldn’t keep up with the French lavender and I’ve been here just over fifteen years. A friend who still lives a few blocks away from that house, is unable to tell me if the hedge is still there. She says she can’t bear to go by it. Instead she comes to visit me. I am happy with that. As for what the neighbors have to say, I am thrilled to have neighbors who are much kinder and open minded. I treasure each day here.
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Wow, a lavendar hedge?? So hard for me to understand someone complaining about that! I, myself, have complained, here and there, on small side streets where folks plant large bushes right near street intersections, as a traffic hazaard (you have to nose out into intersection to SEE if any traffic coming!) but, small town, low traffic and slow traffic, so I don’t complain to harshly or loud! 😀 My ‘corner’ near an alley was just cleared of two small dead trees – excited to plant some low growing xeriscape berry bushes (sand cherries!) and see how they do – pretty, short and once established, don’t need much water! 😀
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Alas, I had the audacity to plant the hedge around the perimiter of the yard and not simply next to the house which might have been tolerable… We shall never know. I ended up selling the house, not because of them, and moving to the south of France. I’m loving every second of it. 🙂
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Now thats a big patch to fill 🙂
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Yup and found out the company I was going to order all the plants from turns out to be big on promise, long on delivery – so searching out a new source or hitting the nurseries 60 miles away this coming weekend! 🙂
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Just shows how lucky we are .. as we have dozens of nurseries all within a 5 mile radius.. x Even the DIY and Superstores sell plants.. but obviously not the specialised kind x
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Found so many of the native/xeriscape plants I would love to have in a 2009 book published by the Denver, Colorado Waterboard – made my shopping lists – and then cried to learn I can’t find them for sale anywhere!
But carry the list (with common/latin name) in m purse, so I can always keep an eye out for them – the local nurseries don’t put their ever-changing inventory up on their website, so nothing to do, but drive, then spend the day walking through them all on the Treasure Hunt!
But there are much, much worse ways to spend the day!
🙂
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Yes I agree, I love walking among the plants in a nursery garden.. x
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