We harvested our first ever apples on Saturday.
😃🍎😃
Some of the trees in our orchards are yet to bear fruit, but we were nonetheless able to harvest all this…
Four different kinds of apple and two pears.
Unfortunately, when the gardeners were planting the trees the labels all got removed! So we will spend the next few years trying to match up the trees to those listed on the delivery note. 😉
As it is Monday, I am joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for another Monday vase. The choice of colours for this week reflects harvest time too. We had such terribly strong wind again on Saturday that I decided to cut a few of the remaining flowers from the Sunshine Bed and Herb Bed.
Sunflower Earth Walker
Tithonia
Chrysopsis
Red Zinnia
Echinacea Flame Thrower and Yellow Zinnia
I also used some Helianthus Sheila’s Sunshine and Lemon Queen, some Antirrhinums and a few grasses.
This extra vase was stuffed with pieces of my lovely tall Aster ‘Septemberrubin’ (September Ruby) that had been broken off in the storm… I need a taller support for that aster as it grew beyond expectation to about 160cm. Wonderful!
Have you been able to harvest anything from your gardens this week?
Happy October gardening!
Words and Herbs 
Congratulations on your apple harvest. I remember eating apples from a tree in my childhood home and it’s such a treat. Your vase is beautiful especially with Sunflower Earth Walker and the red zinnia, wow! I maligned my own scrubby aster in today’s post but yours is an excellent specimen with wonderful color and form. Have a nice week Cathy.
We were quite excited about our apple harvest, like two kids at Christmas! 😉LOL! Earth Walker is a lovely sunflower and is still producing new buds, which might even flower if it stays mild. 😃
That is a perfect fall pairing of apples and autumn colored flowers.
😃 And just in time to cheer up my kitchen as the temperatures drop and we have some damp grey days.
Beautiful flowers in stunning autumn hues.
I was feeling quite proud of my apple harvest – 6 apples for the second year running, so I will applaud your excellent harvest.
Thank you! Actually we didn’t get any at all last year, and we do have a few trees that still haven’t produced more than a couple of fruits that hornets got to first!
Fall Splendor at it’s best.
😃 Love this time of year! 🌻
That September Ruby aster is beautiful and such a perfect color. Congratulations on your first apple harvest with hopes for many more to come.
Thank you March! We were so happy with our first harvest! 😃
A real harvest festival..I am sure the room must smell wonderful. The colours are singing too.
And with rainy days ahead those colours are warming the kitchen. 😃
A beautiful harvest bouquet! I love H. ‘Earthwalker’ – such a deep, rich colour, same with ‘September Ruby’ = wow!
The aster really is wonderful Eliza. And Earthwalker is a sunflower I always come back to. 😃
That’s a great first harvest – but what a shame about the labels…not that it would bother everybody, but it would me! I love the autumnal tones in your first vase and Earth Walker is my favourite sunflower – and how stunning your second vase is, stuffed to the gunnels with asters! I am still picking a few tomatoes, which started cropping in June, a great year for them here.
Yes, the labels bothered us too, but at least there are places where you can take your apples to be analysed and the sort specified. We might do that next year. We were happy to be able to at least distinguish which were apple, pear or cherry this year! 😉
Haha, well that’s a good start! 😁
Your very own apples Cathy! How exciting it is when you pick your own and the number of fruits soon increase over the years. ‘Earthwalker’ is a most fine sunflower. Here I have been making pear chutney from our pear tree today and also have some homegrown beetroots to concoct something with tomorrow 😄
Oh, pear chutney sounds good Anna. Maybe I will try that in a couple of years when we have a few more pears. We have enough for snacking this year. 😃 Enjoy your beetroot!
Lovely fall arrangement Cathy that looks so lovely with your apples. They sure do scream all things fall. And those asters are truly lovely. I will have to look for those and see if I can find them here. It seems the shorter varieties never survive, so I may have to try one of the tall varieties.
The tall asters do need a support putting in early on, but I think I have got the right sort of metal supports at last and do love the impact the big ones have on the garden, looking slightly dishevelld as the leaves start to fall. 😃
Cathy I’m very sorry I haven’t written to you in so long, but I couldn’t, I’m very depressed, a lot has happened, too much. I have undergone surgery on September 23 to remove a cyst from my private parts, under total anesthesia. I still have pain, with the inflamed area and with the points that hurt a lot. Today is the first time I have picked up the laptop in more than a month and putting it on top of my legs has been a show until I have found the position where it does not hurt too much.
Cathy but the important thing here is your BLOG. Congratulations on your first harvest of apples and pears! Apple is my favorite fruit and they all look very appetizing! The first vase is divine, magnificent, I love all its flowers but especially the Sunflower and the Red Zinnia. The second vase is spectacular with the High Ruby Aster of September, it is wonderful, I love it. I hope you are in good health. Stay safe. You are a friend Cathy. I wish you the best. Very affectionate greetings from Margarita. xx 😀
Dear Margarita, I do hope you start to feel better soon. You have been through so much over the past year or so. I am pleased you can enjoy my flowers and I only wish I could share an apple or two with you! Look after yourself and take care. xx
Cathy thank you very much for your words of encouragement. You are a friend. If you could email me those two apples, I would eat them !! hahaha With what technology advances the same in a few years can be done. So you owe me two apples !!! 😉😀 Stay safe and sound. Many memories. Very affectionate greetings from Margarita xx
Thanks Margarita! 🍎🍎🍎
beautiful harvest!! and stunning colors! ❤️ Cindy
Thank you Cindy!
my pleasure! ❤️
How wonderful to have apples and pears to harvest! All we have here are persimmons, most of which the critters destroy before we can even think about picking them, and guavas which the critters are welcome to. Your arrangement is lovely and leaves me feeling out of step with the change of season but then it still feels like summer here.
I am sure a ripe homegrown persimmon is a joy as well Kris! I have never seen them here, but used to love them when I lived in Japan where they were fairly common but expensive, like all fruit there. I feel very rich having all these apples and am excited that I can make my own apple purée and strudels! 😃
I love that sunflower, it looks so elegant with its crown of pollen sitting in the dark. Very nice!
I’m shocked to see the chrysopsis in there, I only found out about it a few years ago and just assumed it was one of those native plants which no one really appreciates, since I’ve never seen it anywhere around here… and yet there it is, looking wonderful overseas!
Hi Frank. Yes, I discovered Chrysopsis some years ago and grew it in my old garden too. It will go on flowering until the frosts and I love it for its tall and sturdy structure and late flowers. It also loves drought so is ideal for this climate! 😉
I am a fan of Earth Walker, too and must find some seed! The composition with the apples looks and I think tastes wonderful…the Ruby Aster is a real find.
I am really enjoying that aster Amy, as it has been flowering for almost a month already and isstill going strong. Earth Walker is still lovely in the garden but they are not lasting well in the vase… maybe they were past their best when picked. Hope you manage to get some seed. It sseems a bit upside down to me here in central Europe, but I suppose you would sow them now for winter flowers?
Well, we have native Asters here but nothing like that one…I have been planting seedlings in the garden this week from seeds planted in August and September. Borage, tomatoes and Leonitis. I will plant V. bonariensis, Blue Glitter Thistle, Cleome and more Cosmos soon as the weather has cooled a bit. The Double Click Cosmos have proved difficult to shepard into the garden as the spider mites keep getting the seedlings. It is backwards here and the tropical veg you can grow in summer is a bit, well, weird.
Congratulations on your first crop. They look good and will get better and better! I messed up with our fruit tree labels, but tbh I know which apples I like best and when they ripen, so it works out OK. Lovely autumn vase … I’ve not heard of Chrysopsis before, so I must check those out.
Yes, the main thing is to know when to pick them. Some of the smaller ones could have done with ripening a bit more, but we were greedy! 😉 Chrysopsis is similar to hardy sunflowers but starts flowering later and lasts till December. 😃 Gets very tall but has never needed a support in my gardens.
Great haul Cathy. The apples look awesome. We planted our apple trees this year, and thinned out the fruit so we only got to pick about 10 apples this year, but we’re hoping for a good haul next year.
Can I please ask where you got your wood crate from? We could do with some of those.
Hi there! We didn’t get any fruit the first two years but we were battling against heatwaves and drought (and mice!) which didn’t help. In. retrospect we planted too much at once, but we never expected three drought years in a row… The crate was given to us a couple of years ago by neighbours who shared a bumper crop of apples and pears with us… no idea where you can buy them in the UK I am afraid. Good luck with your trees!
We got lucky with the wet summer and watering the trees was kept to a minimum. We’re hoping for some apples and plums next year. That would be awesome.
The crate situation is crazy. Prices online are silly. We will continue to monitor eBay and other sites.
As an aside, if you or any of your followers would like to win a 1L bottle of Ecoworm’s Soil Extract Growth Stimulant for Trees and Bushes, please head over to the link below – details are in the description: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTHFyRkSPy8
Thanks!
That’s a nice harvest. How old are the trees you have in your garden ? I should really start to give mine some more manure, the soil is so poor on the slope. Beautiful flowers again as well…love it !
Thanks Stefan. Our trees are in their third year. Poor soil here too and drought and mice are a bane, so we were surprised we got so many apples. Maybe our homemade nettle tea helped. 😉😃
I love the vase of asters. It reminds me of something from my childhood that I can’t quite put a finger on. I hope the fruit trees are different enough for you to match the names.
Oh yes, we have a lovely variety of apples and they are all quite different in size and colour, so we are already narrowing it down as to which could be which. Must wait until all the other trees bear fruit for a full picture though. 😉
The flowers are exquisite, but the apples are even better.
😉 I agree!
Wonderful.
Thanks Veena.
Your vase is the essence of fall and will certainly brighten any gloomy day.
That is the joy of these Monday vases Karen… bringing the colour indoors even when it is grey and damp. 😃