Anyone know what this bush is?

[toomuchtooold]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knew what this is - is it Juneberry? We bought this house nearly a year ago and I'm just getting round to trying to sort out the garden. Took this pic in July -would love it to be edible fruit as one of the kids is mad for blueberries. I'm thinking if I can't identify it for sure I will just have to eat a few this coming summer and see if I get I'll...

[bilbodog]

Not sure - doesn't look like edible fruits though. I'm sure someone else will come on with the answer or you could show this picture to a local garden centre or nursery to check.

[shovetheholly]

I could well be wrong about this, so wait until someone who knows stuff turns up, but it looks a bit like an amelanchier (aka Juneberry, shadbush, saskatoon berry) to me! In which case you can eat the berries. It should have beautiful blossom in spring too. It is our tree recommendation on here!

[toomuchtooold]

Oh I do hope so shovetheholly! It would be awesome if there was already something in the garden the kids will eat, as it's going to be hard going to get anything else planted this year (its a bit of a jungle). We do have a nice wee garden centre up the hill so I will do as you suggested Bilbo -might take up a cutting when it blossoms (any day now, as it is ridiculously warm).

[shovetheholly]

It's a lot of work at the start, but (like any challenge) if you divide it up into manageable chunks and do a bit at a time, you'll be surprised what you can achieve! Maybe just start with a small bed? If you're interested in edibles, then fruit is quite easy. Get the soil right (lots of compost and manure), keep on top of the weeds (little and often is way easier than leaving it) and rhubarb, currants, raspberries, gooseberries, and even fruit trees will give you a lot of reward for comparatively little effort. Over the next few months, all of those plants will be super cheap in the discounters - Aldi are especially good.

[toomuchtooold]

I am actually in Germany so I will check out Aldi here :-) The garden is a monster and it's a bit overgrown - I'm hoping to get the shrubs cut back to a decent size, try and rescue the lawn and deal with a couple of invasions of ivy and brambles. And a herb garden and stick in some raspberries for the kids. Oh and stick in a composter. It's going to be busy!

[shovetheholly]

I love the sound of a monster garden! It sounds like it's going to be just wonderful.

Lawns are more resilient than people think - provided you're not bothered by the odd weed, you can just mow regularly throughout the growing season (starting off with quite high cuts) and it'll come back!

[toomuchtooold]

Thanks, you're making me feel more enthusiastic too! Got the composter up this morning and pruned back a massively overgrown elderberry and something else I can't identify. Tomorrow is stripping various bits of ivy and bramble and, lucky me, a bit of a long grass cat poo hunt. The buggers don't even run away when I go into the garden - they think it's their own personal kingdom/toilet

[shovetheholly]

Wow, at that rate you'll be completely on top of it in just a few months! (Hope you've got some nice thick gloves for tackling those brambles tomorrow).

Once the grass is cut, the cats will not be so inclined to use your lawn as a loo - they'll go in your nicely dug beds instead! (Hopefully they'll bury it, but you never know). They really love being in overgrown jungly gardens! I guess it feels very natural to them.

[toomuchtooold]

I've actually slightly run out of things to do! The brambles are cut back - can't really eradicate them as they come over the fence from a bit of waste ground but at least they are down - most of the big bushes have been cut back, and I've put down some cardboard on the bit I want to plant on this year. The herb patch is pretty much ready to go, still needs digging over a bit - the other bit for the rasps is still covered in couch grass and stones but I'm hoping the cardboard will suck some of the life out of the grass before I go in and dig it over. I was hoping to do proper sheet mulching where you put down newspaper and compost and let it rot in but there's not enough time I think so I will have to do some actual digging!

I've found out that Lidl is the place to go for cheap plants here - 3 raspberry plants for 15 euro, that'll do me :-)