I'm not quite sure what happened to Spring this year. It has been unusually cold, and the experts are saying that it will probably end up the coldest on record. Not for the coldest - but for the most consistently below the normal average for the entire season. I don't think we had a single day where we were actually above the average in temperature.
However... the garden seems to have liked it. All indications are that we're going to have a bumper crop on nearly all our fruit bushes and trees. The cherry tree is loaded - on one branch alone, I counted over a dozen cherries - and it was a short branch - just about an arms length. My little pear tree is overloaded on pears - 9 of one variety and a gazillion (nearly) of the other. I've had to pinch off a lot of the smaller buds to give the rest a chance. In a week or two, I'll pinch off all the smaller ones and only keep some of the bigger pears. If I don't, I'd run the risk of breaking the slim branches. (It is only 4 years old and too skinny to support that many fruit.)
Our gooseberry, red and black currants, raspberries, and saskatoon berries are loaded as well, as are both of the apple trees. Our plum tree - well the original tree has completely died, and we've just finished chopping down the last of the dead branches and trunks. There are lots of new shoots busily growing, and there is one plum, so it looks like we'll have plums again in the next few years.
In my raised gardens, I've planted snow peas, broccoli, cauliflower, white and red cabbage and 3 varieties of tomatoes in the larger one; and watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini, peppers, cucumber, and acorn and spaghetti squash in the smaller one.
In the front yard, the lilac is in full bloom right now... it smells heavenly! I've also planted 2 green grapes (they haven't shown any signs of life yet), 2 purple grapes, 2 blueberry bushes, 1 pink grape, and 1 blue grape bushes. Except for the green grapes, all are happily growing and leafing out nicely. They likely won't bear any fruit this year as they are quite small right now, but in a few years.... YUM!
Rockwood Gardens finally sent me my order of Honey Berries - these are supposedly something like a cross between a blueberry and a plum, both in general appearance and taste. It will be interesting to see what the fruit is like when it gets big enough to bear some. (Again, that may take a year or two.)
This weekend I'll try to take pictures of the garden (assuming the weather cooperates!) and will post them to show my garden off.
