Rewarding patience.

So, last year I planted some rhubarb in a forgotten corner of the garden.
This was a real exercise in patience.
For the first year there was no harvesting, I just removed any dead stalks and hoped that it would be happy enough in it's new home.
Thankfully it has done amazingly well, this part of the garden gets no sun in the Autumn/Winter months and then only a few hours of sunlight the rest of the year.

 

 

Finally, we can now harvest our first home grown rhubarb!

 

On Sunday, I picked just 2 stalks.

I didn't really have anything in mind as to what to do with it but I just got a huge kick out of picking it.

 It didn't go to waste.

I used this well loved recipe for apple streusel cake from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook (great book!) and replaced the apple with rhubarb. I looked on line and I found a recipe that coated the rhubarb in sugar  before pouring onto the cake batter, so that's what I did.

 

I only used one of the stalks, which Dave said wasn't enough. So 2 stalks and it is spot on.

 

Yesterday, it was finally time to say goodbye to the plants I've been growing on for friends, almost 80 individual plants in all.

I did a lot of research, looking at height and spread, where best to plant etc.

Also had to try and identify some of the plants, strangely the permanent pen I used for the plant labels wasn't.

 

 

This is just some of them.

So, last evening, I helped my friend to plant some up.

It was lovely to finally get them in place and I wished them well and a long and full life (yes, out loud).

 I couldn't resist, today I made sure I passed by the garden and checked up on them. They looked just fine.

On Sunday I'll be back to do some more planting up and work on their garden.

It is nice to have more space in the garden now though.

 

I know everything is all a bit out of whack this Spring, but in a way it's been quite nice because it seems like more trees are blossoming at the same time than normal.

I think it was maybe Tuesday, round these parts, that many trees seemed to be at blossom perfection.

That moment when the blossom looks plump and fluffy and there wasn't enough breeze to dislodge it.

 

 

Our tree in the back garden, on Tuesday.

The photo doesn't quite do it justice.

 

Have a great Bank Holiday.

 

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