Vegetables and Berries Grow

 In July the weather is gradable. Sometimes the sun shines all day and sometimes it’s cloudy and raining. Summer rain is warm. Vegetables and berries grow by leaps and bounds. 

 Juicy and sweet wild strawberries

 

 Horseradish

Look at this horseradish. It blooms and its small white flowers are loved by bees and bumblebees. The horseradish has already grown long leaves. There are a few holes in them - the snails ate it. I collect the snails and throw them away. When I harvest the cucumbers, I will put the horseradish leaves in jars and make pickles. Horseradish leaves give cucumbers a slight spiciness. Some people collect horseradish roots, grind them and make a seasoning. I don’t know how and prefer to buy a jar of ready-made horseradish seasoning.

Sorrel grows here. It is a perennial plant and begins to turn green as soon as the snow melts. I collect sorrel leaves several times during the summer and make vegetable soup with sorrel. Yummy!

 

These are black beans. They grow quickly and bloom now. They have large pods and each of them contains 4-5 black beans. I use them as a side dish for meat.

 

These are red beans, very productive. There will have 6-10 pods on one bean bush. I collect the bean pods, dry them and take the beans out. In winter I stew or make a bean soup.

 

I sowed vegetable seeds in the greenhouse as soon as it became warm. Now I am harvesting juicy lettuce leaves, dill, parsley and coriander. Every day there is a green salad on the table.  

 

Dill and parsley

 

Now every day I watch how cucumbers and tomatoes grow. The tomatoes are still green, but growing quickly.

 

 Cucumbers are very tasty, juicy and slightly sweet.

 

Cucumbers, dill and parsley

I can't walk past a pea bed without picking a few pods. Peas are sweet and tasty. I want to freeze some of the peas and save them for the winter.

 

Sweet peppers are ripening

I hope for a good gooseberry and red currant harvest. The bushes are full of berries, they are sweet and sour.

Do you like fresh vegetables and berries? Do you grow any of these?

Viburnum Common

Many of you are familiar with viburnum thanks to the wide distribution of Viburnum Common (Viburnum opulus). In the wild, it can be found in the forest at the edge or clearing. Viburnum is also grown in front gardens, near summer cottages, and even in urban plantings. 

 

However, there are other types of Viburnum. These are viburnum burejaeticum, viburnum furcatum, viburnum  dentatum, viburnum lantana), viburnum wrightii, viburnum sargentii.

One Viburnum Common grows in my garden and is an unpretentious shrub that responds with gratitude to the simplest care, giving in return bright flowering, lush autumn foliage and an abundance of beautiful and healthy fruits. 

My viburnum, like others, is very decorative. It blooms with its white, pinkish inflorescences. Flowering is long-lasting, sometimes extending for two to three weeks.

 

Viburnum has large, up to 12–15 cm in diameter, umbrella-shaped inflorescences, consisting of two types of flowers. 

I just recently learned that in the center of the “umbrella” there are small tubular fruiting flowers, from which berries are subsequently formed. And along the edge there are larger and brighter sterile ones, the main task of which is to attract pollinating insects.

 

All viburnums are good honey plants. In autumn, they are in the brightest colors from yellow to carmine red. One poet compared the viburnum bush to a burning campfire.

 

I know that the fruits of viburnum are edible. Their juicy red berries lose their tart bitterness after frosty days. Then I collect them, sometimes make jelly, jam, puree, and also dry the berries.

 

Do you have viburnum in your garden? What variety is it? Do you use its berries?

 My video about a park in Stockholm: