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Well, I've been oggling the Vesey's catalogue again...
<*sigh*>
It's unfortunate. I really can't justify spending that much on flowers, even when I'm getting half of them for free. My garden's pretty full, anyway.
I do want to get a new blueberry bush. I have a Bluecrop (maybe) bush. Or at least a bush that comes in that height.
Unfortunately, I don't know if my surviving (I think) blueberry bush goes with the 'bluecrop' label I found blowing around my yard.
As such, I have no idea what type I should get as its companion (you need to bushes - different varieties of the same height of bush in order to get the cross-polination to work).
I am thinking, again, about sustainable-hobbit-style housing and the ammount of land I would need to have a meadow[1] full of berries and flowers and herbs, an annual vegetable garden, and a forest-garden full of fruit and nut trees (and other trees as well).
So, let us see...
Trees:
Two sweet chestnuts (we're far enough north that the blight shouldn't hurt them)
Two-Three pine trees of the sort that grow in our neighbourhood and have good, big, woody cones that make such wonderful kindling.
One juniper tree
One-Three cedar trees
Half a dozen paper/silver birches (aids in composting, drops kindling like mad)
Two big old weedy-poplars (may drop kindling/branches like mad)
One-Two Sugar Maples
One European Mountain Ash (Rowan -- should be okay in this climate... I think)
Two-Three service/saskatoon berries
Two-Three honey-berries (blueberry-like fruit, honeysuckle-like flowers)
One 'black beauty' elderberry tree.
Two lilacs (white-edged purple 'Sensation' and blue-purple 'President Grevy', ideally.
One-Two cold-hardy Magnolias (such as "Anne Magnolia", although I'd prefer white to pink).
One high-bush cranberry tree (I think)
One-Two Hawthorns (optional)
One crab apple tree (optional)
One dwarf (if possible) Cortland/MacIntosh apple tree (optional)
Fruiting Shrubs:
3+ Red raspberries
3+ Black raspberries
3+ Purple raspberries
3+ Purple Flowering Raspberries (edible ornamental!)
3+ blackberries (optional[2])
1 Black currant
1 Red currant
1 white currant (optional)
1 Gooseberry (optional)
3 Northblue blueberries
3 Bluecrop blueberries
3+ Billberries
3+ Ground Cherries
3+ Hardy Roses (possibly as a hedge along the front lawn to keep the dogs off) - likely Morden Centennial, mixed with Jens Munk (both are 3'-4' high. A William Baffin hardy rose could probably be pruned into a very lovely rose tree, given that it grown 8'-10' high. :-)
1 Red Flowering Dogwood
Non-Fruiting:
One Bridal Wreath Spirea
Lots of ostrich ferns
Ideally, most of the fruiting bushes would grow on the roof/walls (think of a geodesic dome, covered in terraced earth, with windows and maybe a balcony/veranda... Just to give you an idea. :-)
With enough patio and garden space around the house to grow (perenial) flowers & herbs and annual veggies (Squash!!! And beans, peas, and a couple of other things, but we all know where my loyalties lie when it comes to the vegetable patch), before the trees closed in. :-) There would be more trees on the north-facing half of the house than the south-facing, in the interests of a windbreak, but also because the annuals need the sun a bit more (and the trees will probably get taller than the house... at least some of them will).
Anywhoo. That's about where my brain is right now. :-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)
[1] Do 'meadow' and 'mead' come from the same word, do you think?
[2] I'm not sure if they grow this far north, or if I'm mistaking black raspberries for them... Hm...
<*sigh*>
It's unfortunate. I really can't justify spending that much on flowers, even when I'm getting half of them for free. My garden's pretty full, anyway.
I do want to get a new blueberry bush. I have a Bluecrop (maybe) bush. Or at least a bush that comes in that height.
Unfortunately, I don't know if my surviving (I think) blueberry bush goes with the 'bluecrop' label I found blowing around my yard.
As such, I have no idea what type I should get as its companion (you need to bushes - different varieties of the same height of bush in order to get the cross-polination to work).
I am thinking, again, about sustainable-hobbit-style housing and the ammount of land I would need to have a meadow[1] full of berries and flowers and herbs, an annual vegetable garden, and a forest-garden full of fruit and nut trees (and other trees as well).
So, let us see...
Trees:
Two sweet chestnuts (we're far enough north that the blight shouldn't hurt them)
Two-Three pine trees of the sort that grow in our neighbourhood and have good, big, woody cones that make such wonderful kindling.
One juniper tree
One-Three cedar trees
Half a dozen paper/silver birches (aids in composting, drops kindling like mad)
Two big old weedy-poplars (may drop kindling/branches like mad)
One-Two Sugar Maples
One European Mountain Ash (Rowan -- should be okay in this climate... I think)
Two-Three service/saskatoon berries
Two-Three honey-berries (blueberry-like fruit, honeysuckle-like flowers)
One 'black beauty' elderberry tree.
Two lilacs (white-edged purple 'Sensation' and blue-purple 'President Grevy', ideally.
One-Two cold-hardy Magnolias (such as "Anne Magnolia", although I'd prefer white to pink).
One high-bush cranberry tree (I think)
One-Two Hawthorns (optional)
One crab apple tree (optional)
One dwarf (if possible) Cortland/MacIntosh apple tree (optional)
Fruiting Shrubs:
3+ Red raspberries
3+ Black raspberries
3+ Purple raspberries
3+ Purple Flowering Raspberries (edible ornamental!)
3+ blackberries (optional[2])
1 Black currant
1 Red currant
1 white currant (optional)
1 Gooseberry (optional)
3 Northblue blueberries
3 Bluecrop blueberries
3+ Billberries
3+ Ground Cherries
3+ Hardy Roses (possibly as a hedge along the front lawn to keep the dogs off) - likely Morden Centennial, mixed with Jens Munk (both are 3'-4' high. A William Baffin hardy rose could probably be pruned into a very lovely rose tree, given that it grown 8'-10' high. :-)
1 Red Flowering Dogwood
Non-Fruiting:
One Bridal Wreath Spirea
Lots of ostrich ferns
Ideally, most of the fruiting bushes would grow on the roof/walls (think of a geodesic dome, covered in terraced earth, with windows and maybe a balcony/veranda... Just to give you an idea. :-)
With enough patio and garden space around the house to grow (perenial) flowers & herbs and annual veggies (Squash!!! And beans, peas, and a couple of other things, but we all know where my loyalties lie when it comes to the vegetable patch), before the trees closed in. :-) There would be more trees on the north-facing half of the house than the south-facing, in the interests of a windbreak, but also because the annuals need the sun a bit more (and the trees will probably get taller than the house... at least some of them will).
Anywhoo. That's about where my brain is right now. :-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)
[1] Do 'meadow' and 'mead' come from the same word, do you think?
[2] I'm not sure if they grow this far north, or if I'm mistaking black raspberries for them... Hm...