Dreams of a Little Orchard

My garden is very small but I love it to bits.  I love being creative with it, trying out new things, watching things grow and gardening with my children.  It's a buzz to see things grow and then to bring them into your kitchen and use them.

I have been looking for a small cherry tree for some time and found one unexpectedly at a local florist.  Little Man's apple tree was growing crooked and taking up a lot of space in our small flower bed so I wanted to pull it out and replace it with the cherry tree.

I sent the boys out with the cherry tree and told them they would have to help me pull out the apple tree.  By the time I put my bags away and got to the garden, they had made short work of the apple tree by digging around it and yanking it out.

I did consider putting it into a pot, but it was too big and bent and they had broken too much of the roots.

We replaced the apple tree with the little cherry tree, some tomato plants and a small kiwi-like vine called "Issai" or Chinese gooseberry which the florist assured me tastes delicious.

The little lemon tree I had bought had finally shed most of its flowers so was also ready to be re-potted into a bigger tub.  I managed to bring home three large pots and two bags of compost by hanging them off Baby's pram.  Both bags of compost got used up pretty quick.

I love looking out of the living room window in the morning and seeing all of my flowers and plants.  The azalea is blooming and the black pansies are also doing well alhamdulillah.

The white geranium is from last year and the soft pink and white looks so pretty

The other thing my mum advised me to do was the cut back the mint I have been growing in the tub as it had grown quite back and would flower soon.  Mint is quite a strong aggressive plant and will spread through the flower beds quickly, so I grow it in a large pot instead.  If you are new to gardening or manage to kill everything, this is a nice herb to start with because it grows anywhere with little effort or care and can be used for so many things in the kitchen.

The variety I have is called Chocolate Mint and smells amazing.  Sometime mint has a strong earthy undertone, this one just reminds me of mint choc chip ice cream.  This pic is after I cut it down to the stems.  Mum told me that if I cut it down it would grow back fresh young leaves in time to use for Ramadan.

So this is my first little harvest from my lovely little garden.  I picked the leaves off and the soft top part of the stems with the leaves still attached and washed, dried and froze them for use in my next batch of mint chutney.

What are you growing in your gardens this year?  What kind of things would you like to grow?