Kiwis are fun to have in a garden but, like fig trees, they put on outrageous quantities of growth and require a fair amount of pruning. I prune in January and again in August to relieve congestion in the rambunctious spring and early-summer growth.
The pruning also helps to expose the fruit as much as possible to sweetening sunlight. I like the look of a neatly trimmed kiwi arbour, and thinning the vines allows the attractive clusters of fruit to stand out for admiration and the pleasures of anticipation.
A great virtue of kiwis is that they can stay on the vines until the first frosts. Thank goodness. The season is busy enough with blueberries still to harvest, plums and apples to process, plots to clean and bulbs to plant.
I'll be looking for a garden centre that has a new novelty crocus called Orange Monarch, in bronze-flamed orange. It's a sort of crocus colour equivalent to the gorgeous and ever popular Single Early tulip Princess Irene. And if you're buying bulbs for a beloved, new also are a double flowered hyacinth called Prince of Love and a dramatic deep maroon lily-flowered tulip called Lasting Love. There is much to captivate at garden centres these days.
While you're cruising the flower-bulb scene, consider the summer heathers, in particular Calluna vulgaris, the "heather of Scotland." Depending upon the variety, the bloom time can be from early summer to late autumn.
I greatly admire these heathers, and love the time in late summer when the plants I have spring into flower. I have begun planting them against huge cedar stumps in the back garden. The sun-bleached stumps show off the flowering bushes nicely.
A Calluna vulgaris 'Spring Torch' has grown to rise above the stump in a full, bushy form, now all covered in rosy mauve. Its bloom time is August to October but it puts on another colour show in spring with red and pink shoot rips. Many of these heathers have colourful spring or winter foliage.
I try to look for small heathers rather than the big ones in 15-centimetre (six-inch) wide pots. I find the small ones settle in far more successfully and in more shapely fashion.
Blueberry sauce. With the abundance of blueberries this year, I've been exploring new and simple ways to enjoy them. Tucked into one of my old cookbooks, I found a magazine article on blueberries. One of the recipes was for Spiced Blueberry Sauce, which I've been enjoying over yogurt or ice cream.
The sauce is simply blueberries simmered with fruit juice and spices. The recipe calls for one-half cup frozen apple juice concentrate to each cup of blueberries, but I use pineapple juice, which I usually have on hand. The spices are one-half teaspoon cinnamon and two dashes of cloves to each cup of blueberries. If you wish, the sauce can be thickened with a little flour, cornstarch or tapioca starch dissolved in water.
The soft life. From time to time, I lose things in the garden. Most recently, after an afternoon spent up an orchard ladder picking figs, I could not find my gloves.
A few days later, as I approached the fig tree for another picking, there was a squirrel perched atop a post for the fig support. The creature was sitting on my gloves, munching intensely away on a fig held in its paws.
I'd doffed the gloves in the middle of picking and put them onto the nearest post. It was not with the intention of keeping the garden's wildlife thoroughly comfortable as they share in the garden's bounty.
GARDEN EVENTS
Rose meeting. The Mid-Island Rose Society meets Monday at 7: 30 p.m. in the lower floor of Lantzville Heritage Church, 7244 Lantzville Rd., Lantzville. Join with other keen gardeners to learn about and discuss key gardening tasks, tips and problems. Guests and new members are welcome.
Plant identification and culture. The Horticulture Centre of the 91原创, 505 Quayle Rd., Saanich, offers new and experienced gardeners and those new to Victoria this on-going, yearlong course with Diane Pierce. Plant identification and culture runs one Saturday a month and can be joined at any time. Classes can also be taken one at a time. Participants learn about 30 plants with descriptions, cultivation requirements, general maintenance and landscape uses. Cost for the year for members is $350, others $490. To register call 250-479-6162. hcp.ca.
