Hello from the Channel Islands

[taihaku]

Hi there everyone
I'm a lurking plant geek who's been perusing the boards for a year or so and finally decided to take the plunge and say hello. I currently live and garden on the island of Guernsey with my partner. I've spent much of the past few years focussed on growing Capsicums through summer and gradually building a garden and orchard. The orchard (about an acre and a half) is pretty close to being fully planted now with all sorts of heirloom apples, pears, plums, asian pears, quinces and medlars as well as various nuts and other edible trees some of which are just starting to come into fruiting - last year we added our first chickens, next winter I hope to plant out a few different Juglans sp and cultivars too. With that done and the hydroponics units in the conservatory I use to grow my capsicums temporarily banished due to the imminent arrival of our first child I'm starting to focus a bit more on my kitchen garden; I'm very interested in perennials: alliums, artichokes, asparagus, seakales and perennial kales which I think is how I originally found this site and am looking to develop some healthy and beautiful edible perennial borders to accompany the other crops. I'm also very interested in squash and am experimenting this year with a lot of different varieties to try and get a feel for what's gonna work best for me moving forward before doing some of my own crosses. I'm also a collector of unusual waterlilies.

I'm interested in the unusual and undergrown edibles and pushing the limits of what can be achieved in our wonderful island climate so I've been thoroughly enjoying the can-do and experimental attitude of the board. I'll finish my hello with a few pictures....

my chilli growing system early in the year


Lemon Drop Chilli Powder later that year
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Our first nashi pear, shinseiki
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Medlar 'Royal'
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Almond 'Ingrid'
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Red Kuri
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chooks
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lillies
lily2

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[kazedwards]

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have your hands full. Those are some great looking fruit.

[12540dumont]

Hi and welcome! Tell us about Medlars and how you use them.

[flowerweaver]

Welcome to the forum! Looks like you've got a lot growing in your gardens, we'll enjoy hearing more about them.

[taihaku]

Feb 13, 2015 19:51:33 GMT -5 12540dumont said:

Hi and welcome! Tell us about Medlars and how you use them.

Well as you're probably aware Medlars are a fairly unrefined historically popular fruit from the rose family which need to rot a bit to be palatable. Medlars really go to the heart of what my orchard is about - the land I'm using is subject to quite a strict usage restrictions - it must be agricultural; the island has a strong history of agriculture most notably our world famous Guernsey cow with its unusually creamy milk production. I want this land to be accessible to the family as it is all round the house so I'm not keen to have cows on it anymore (I was renting it out) and I want it to enhance our environment by being beautiful and wildlife friendly as well as productive. I'm also not wildly interested in growing staples I can buy in shops. I'd rather experiment and have trees that produce something I can't buy just for variety.

Medlars work for me because they tend to make (for me) among the most beautiful of all fruit trees (second only to quinces), they throw out huge white flowers....


set amidst beautiful leathery leaves


and then funky looking fruit


which makes funky looking jelly


I should say jelly is all I've used them for so far. Once I have a few more fruit I may experiment more with bletting and eating them raw and so on. Our first tree is still little but has cropped quite well considering its size. My father has a bigger tree and I think to be honest one tree would meet an entire family's medlar needs quite easily once it's in production. Because I have space and am interested I've planted 5 trees. The one above is Royal and this year I've also planted the varieties Macrocarpa, Boom en Vrucht, Bredase Reus and Westerveld but those are all small maidens. To give an idea of what pretty trees they make when bigger....

This is Westeveld at the Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Rosemoor.
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It's pushing much bigger fruit than mine but I'm not sure if that's local conditions, variety or just the fact its a bigger stronger tree
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and this is my dad's tree of the variety Nottingham which is probably the most commonly grown in the UK and tends to arch and almost weep a bit...
medlar2

[12540dumont]

Those are quite lovely. I wonder if medlars grow here...Steev?

[blackox]

Welcome to HG! Sounds and looks like you have something great going.

[hortusbrambonii]

Welcome

[Al]

Hello
I look forward to hearing how your garden grows, we are just about in the same country: Guersey, Scotland?!
I love your chilli set up & the jar of lemon drop chilli powder. I have been promised a lemon drop plant by a chilli grower from Fife. His chilli sauce business is named The Spice of Fife which I thought was a catchy name, you could be The Spice Islander or similar!

[steev]

Holly: I've a Breda Giant ~8 years old, utterly trouble-free and very pretty, but I'm not that thrilled with the fruit; now that monster in Taihaku's hand might totally change my mind.

[synergy]

Welcome, lovely chicken flock too .