My to-do list is a pleasant one today: The oven is currently heating for two loaves of sourdough that have been slow-fermenting in the fridge since Tuesday. Once those are baked, the condo smelling delicious, I’m heading downtown to meet an out-of-town girlfriend for a gallery visit and lunch.
But I have time to pop out on the terrace with you, show you what’s what in the garden at the very end of summer. I love a spring garden, perhaps best of all, but the textures of a fall garden are so rich and varied. In the photo above, you see spiky, feathery, bumpy . . . and then the different densities of foliage, the space emerging around branches and stems losing their petals, exposing stark seedheads. Colours are warm, fiery even. . .
Although we have exceptions to Summer’s turn to Fall. . .
Sometimes it gets confused. . . .
and tries to take a turn backwards to Spring, as with this Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’). Of course, the real show for this shrub is a few months off, when its twigs flame against the greys of winter. . . .
We added some plants last summer to create something of an understorey to the garden, and that included tucking three fuchsia plants under the foliage of the Corylopsis spicata (Spike Winter Hazel) and the dogwood. I love the effect, although I’m considering ways to better place the fuchsia so that the hummingbirds are more willing to risk a visit. The tiny avians will drink and dip in the fountain, sometimes rest in the maple for a few minutes, but I don’t often see them feeding at the fuchsias.
Perhaps they do when I’m not around, though. Something has surely pollinated the flowers — look at all those glossy deep-purple berries. I’ve just done some quick research, and these are apparently edible (as are the flowers — won’t they look pretty on a salad!). The descriptions I’ve read suggest they can be peppery, but overall taste something between a fig and a kiwi. I’m going to try one or two later. . .
While I was on my knees admiring the fuchsias. . . . these leaves alone endear me to the Corylopsis. (If you want to see why else I adore this shrub, I go on about it here andhere.
And in the first of the two posts I just linked to, you can see a photo of the apples on this tree back in the spring, How exciting — and gratifying — it’s been these last two summers, to follow the fruit production from blossom to harvest
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I picked enough of these tomake two apple piesand I served them to our in-town kids and grandkids on Sunday in what I hope might become a Fall Tradition.
And there are enough left for at least one more pie, two if I supplement with some of the green tomatoes left on the vine, as Irma Rombauer suggests in my 47-year-old copy of The Joy of Cooking. . . .
Time to go now. I’ve lifted the first loaf, golden brown, from the very hot Dutch oven. It’s turned out very well, and I have the second yet to bake. Meanwhile, though, I’ve burnt my arm — first time ever in this particular process, and yes, I was wearing those silicone gloves, but somehow. . .
I’ll be fine, but I think I’ll concentrate on applying ice, and I’ll chat with you later.
Happy Thursday!
And do let me know if any of you have ever sampled fuchsia berries — or flowers!
I'm sorry about the burns-they can be really nasty- but I'm imagining the divine smell in your kitchen 🙂
My grandmother loved fuchsias . I didn't know that the berries and flowers are edible. There is a new opened pizzeria we like very much and my favourite is vegetarian Il Giardino-with (I hope) edible flowers- not fuchsias!
Dottoressa
So sorry you have been burned:(.
I love your patio garden. It gets more and more and more beautiful. <3 And I also love my fuchsia – but I will say that hummingbirds don't like it as much as they do a salvia in my front yard. Hmm!
I'm so impressed. We have a garden in the ground and don't do as much. I used to have several fuchsia plants but never saw hummingbirds but that might be because they hid when I was around. Or the neighbor's cats.
Such a lovely terrace garden. Amazing to have apples growing in that space.
I guess our East Coast hummingbirds are not a shy variety. If I am not quick enough at hanging up a refreshed hummingbird feeder, a couple of them will wing up beside my head waiting for access. Guess it is the equivalent of hummingbird swearing–telling me to get the hell out of the way. Definitely not shy.
Very impressed by your harvest! Here in my tiny London courtyard garden two pear trees in containers have yet to yield any fruit after 5 years. I have tried but with no luck to do a search through your archive for information on your apple variety and size of container. Would love it if you could supply those details please.
Dottoressa: A pizza with flowers! Che bella! (I can easily imagine with zucchini flowers, at least 😉
Lisa: Hmmm, worth thinking about. Is the salvia a red flowered-one? Wonder how it would do here. Hummingbirds used to enjoy the fuchsias in our island garden, but for this urban one, they have to come into a partially enclosed space quite high up, so they're probably wise to be wary. . . But they do come to the fountain now. . .
Taste of France: It's easier to tend a garden that you merely have to step out into. . . You won't ever have hummingbirds at your fuchsias while in France. They're a "New World" phenomena. You do have those brilliant hovering moths with the long curling proboscis that my husband and I once thought were hummingbirds — we don't have those here, as far as I know. They look like the teeniest hummers ever!
Mary: Even on the West Coast, they can be very bold, and we would often see them behaving as you describe, in our island garden, although we never offered food beyond what they found in the flowers. But as I wrote to Lisa above, this garden poses some unknown questions for them. . . .
Anonymous: We have one Liberty apple tree and two Scarlet Sentinel. The containers are about the size of a half wine barrel, maybe taller — about two feet high, and about the same in diameter. I wonder about pollination for your pear trees — frustrating, isn't it?! I waited fifteen years for a Hydrangea petiolaris to bloom in my old island garden — only happened the first year when I brought it home from the nursery. It may not have bloomed yet, and if it does, I won't see it. . .
I too read that you can eat fuchsia berries and found that we have some – will give it a go. My little plot has provided so many nasturtium seeds which I am collecting and drying for next year. They have loved our hot August and September weather, climbing and cascading where they can. And my tomato harvest…very small, but ripening in a hot bedroom window. My daily chats with the potted members of the family are, I am sure, beneficial to their health. To mine, at least.
Thank you for the details of the apple trees!