Gooseberry Bush

In August there was a good harvest of gooseberries in the garden. There are thorns on the bush, and I tried not to hurt my hands, I usually wore a blouse with long sleeves. I try to lift the branch with my left hand and collect the gooseberries with my right. This way the branches prick less.

Maybe someone does not know this plant, so I want to tell you. Gooseberry is a small shrub up to 1-1.2 m high, the branches are grayish, covered with thin needle-like thorns. The fruits are berries, oval or spherical, up to 12 mm long (sometimes up to 30-40 mm), bristly. Green, yellow or dark red. Ripen in July–August.

 

Gooseberries are native to Western Europe and northern Africa. As a wild plant, it is widespread in Central and Southern Europe, North Africa and North America. It grows among bushes on rocky mountain slopes. It is grown everywhere in gardens.

 

 

The common gooseberry is one of the main berry bushes. I like to eat them fresh or use them to make jam, jelly, marmalade, and some people make wine from gooseberries. I also freeze gooseberries and they retain most of the vitamins. This is a good preparation for the winter.

When I pick gooseberries, I determine how ripe the gooseberries are, so I squeeze the berries. The ideal berry is not too hard, but retains its shape and elasticity. I have bushes growing with small red and yellow gooseberries. Small berries ripen earlier.

 

Currently, at least 1,500 varieties of gooseberries are known, which are cultivated in all temperate countries. Unfortunately, gooseberries are often attacked by pests.

Do you like to eat gooseberries? Have you grown this bush?

 

My video. Park roses:

 

 

Fruit And Flowers

 

Summer is ending. How sad :(  Flowers at the end of August - September are already different. Delphiniums, daisies, nasturtiums, gladiolus, lilies, clematis etc. have finished blooming. 

It's time for marigolds (tagetes).

It's amazing how marigolds withstand heavy rains! Their strong stems do not sway, do not bend. Dense ornamental leaves and branches are tightly closed and hold each other.

 

On the other hand, the end of summer is a delicious time, apples, plums, pears, veggies ripen. Perhaps in your climate these fruit have long been on your table. Now is the most fruitful time in our northern climate. 

 

I decided to grow this apple tree, attached its branches horizontally. At first, the tree did not like it and there were few apples. Now most apples ripen on horizontal branches. The apple seeds have turned dark and I will pick the fruit.

Insects like the bright flowers of marigolds. Many bumblebees, wasps, bees and butterflies collect nectar from the flowers.

The berries on the viburnum are ripening. I wrote about it here. The berries are turning red and filling with juice. I tried several berries - they still have a bitterness that will disappear after the cold weather.

 

 

 

The tomatoes and peppers are all picked. Every day there are fresh vegetables and greens on the table. I will make a seasoning with tomatoes, basil, black pepper and mint. It will not be too hot.

 

I picked and then will put the green peppers in a dark place so that they ripen and turn red. The peppers could not be left on the plants because of the cold nights that came after the end of August.

This yellow plant is called Ligularia variety 'Othello'. It loves shady places in the garden and blooms in the fall. This bright plant attracts insects.

There are few plums on the tree this summer. Because it got cold in the spring when it bloomed. Plums are all very sweet and will be eaten quickly.

 

I am finishing the story about my garden in September and I hope that the next year will give me a lot of harvest and joy. Nature is generous and does not forget about gardeners.

I wish all the best to you!

Park poses:

Granny's Flowers

 Many of us love fragrant flowers, and phlox is no exception. I recently learned that they are called "granny's flowers." Probably because phlox are grown in a village front garden, cottage garden, used in groups, arrays, flower beds, mixborders, parks since the time of our grandmothers.

 

 The flowers are fragrant, white, pink, red, lilac, scarlet, blue, carmine with an eye in the center.

 

The popularity of phlox is associated with unpretentiousness, frost resistance, as well as bright lush flowering, a unique aroma. Phlox can be used in landscape-style flower beds, in imitations of a flowering meadow, romantic compositions, in shady gardens, when decorating forest edges, in rock gardens, near ponds.

 

 

These unpretentious perennials bloom from July to the end of September, winter well and do not require constant care, like roses.

To tell the truth, I pay little attention to phlox. But they are not offended and bloom in various corners of my garden. I walk past, inhale their scent and think: it is already August and the phlox have bloomed.