Every gardener has their treasures season to season. The Evereste crab apple tree probably tops my favourites list because she covers all of them. Here she is, caught this week in the evening sun after a day of buffet and bluster, hail, wind and downpour. Already much of the blossom is ‘blown’, and whether any fruit has set, we’ll have to wait and see. The apples that come in the autumn are small and russet-blushed, an inch or two centimetres at most, but each one image perfect; doll’s house apples in other words. And after we have admired them for many weeks, the winter weather then softens them enough to make them a valuable food store for the blackbirds and pigeons. We watch them from the kitchen door.
A tree of many pleasures then. Here she is a couple of weeks ago, the blossom just opening:
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And this was last September (in the midst of an early autumn gale), the apples freshly formed:
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Evereste is also queen of that unruly quarter, the-garden-over-the-fence aka the guerrilla garden, caught here early one summer’s morning. Its content changes every year:
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And in winter there are many new scenes:
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And so yes, the apple of my eye:
Lens-Artists: Gardens Please visit Amy’s very lovely gardens. She is hosting this week’s theme.
Tish Farrell 
All wonderful! 😍
Thanks, Laura.
Beautiful. Nice series of pictures.
Thank you, Ian.
truly lovely in every season
It is, Beth!
We had a Crab Apple in the old place and it was alive with bees when in blossom. Like yours the weather always seemed to turn when the blooms opened and fruiting was hit and miss.
Have a good weekend Tish.
Happy weekend to you too, Brian. We have WARMTH today. Hope you do too.
Nope, wind’s back in the north!
Oh dear. I don’t think our warmth is lasting either. Lots of rain ahead and more random weather. However, the Met Office does say that the clouds will be ‘more organized’ later in the week. Make of that what you will 🙂
Oooh, this is a beautiful stroll through the seasons with the apple of your eye. 🙂 I love all the apple photos but most of all that changing summer scene. ❤ Guerrilla garden, perfect name too.
So happy this hit the spot. Thank you, ManjaMM.
Crab apples are such wonderful trees and the fruit of this one really does look like a miniature apple! I am considering a couple of the dwarf ones for my birthday to go in containers – nowhere in the actual garden to plant any. I used to see one in Ludlow growing in a container and it seemed to do very well. I hope they are tough enough to withstand the storms!
So did you plant everything in the Guerrilla garden? Is this the bit over your fence at the side of the field? Or the front bit?
The guerrilla garden is over the fence on the edge of the field. I have planted things there that wouldn’t fit in the garden, but quite a lot of things seem to arrive by themselves, aquilegias, purple toadflax, foxgloves and wild daisies. Other things take over or disappear, so you never know quite how it will look each year. I don’t really do much to it apart from a bit of weeding and chopping down the dead stems. The field of course wants to reclaim it, but the Michaelmas daisies seem to mount quite a good defence against couch grass. I’ve also started a similarly random planting along next door’s fieldside fence, at their request. We had the landowner’s permission, and there’s anyway a public footpath alongside the back of our properties so in summer it’s rather an asset for passing walkers.
As to small crab apple trees in containers, they should be fine. I have a lovely little weeping tree by our front steps. It doesn’t seem to grow much even though it’s in the ground. Loads of blossom though this year.
Your attempts to enrich the field boundary sound excellent and how lovely that next door has asked you to do theirs, I am sure the flowers are appreciated by the walkers passing by.
I think ‘Tina’ is a good upright crab apple and ‘Royal Beauty’ a weeping one.
I bought Royal Beauty for my sister. It’s a nice little tree.
Beautiful photo captures of the crab apple tree flowers. These apples look delicious. The landscape of the the-garden-over-the-fence is breathtaking! Thank you, Tish for this enjoyable tour. 🙂
My pleasure, Amy. Many thanks for the prompt 🙂
Superb. Love the back lit blooms.
That caught my eye too, Sherry 🙂
That is one beautiful tree. Gorgeous photos.
Alison
Definitely one to love. Thanks, Alison.
The crab apple is beautiful 🙂 We used to have one outside our front door, a street tree, but it got diseased so the council cut it down. They planted another tree in its place which is nice enough. I haven’t been able to ascertain what it is, but it’s no crab apple and also still pretty small so we miss our old friend! I love the randomness of your guerrilla garden too!
That’s sad to lose your crab apple tree, Sarah. I suppose the Council were taking care not to plant with the same species because of potential disease revival.
The rosy apples certainly make a pretty picture
I am v. fond of their rosy looks 🙂
Very clever approach this week Tish. Who’d have guessed my favorites would be the images from winter?! The birds are wonderful among the fruit/seeds, and the snow image is stunning.
Thank you, Tina. I found myself ‘drawn’ to the winter scenes too. It’s most perverse of me. As if we haven’t had enough chilliness here in the UK.
What kind of apples are those? I never seen them clustered like that.
They are crab apples, Julie. The garden varieties we have now have been bred from wild apple trees which tend to be very large trees. They are very acid, but can be used to make a jelly. Delicious on toast or croissants.
I love all these shots, Tish. When blossoms fall, it reminds me of spring snow. I miss the great variety of apples in the Midwest, but we do have citrus here, so perhaps a tradeoff. The citrus trees here had blossoms much earlier and smelled divine. Not a huge fan of doves, which abound here, as they’re much like pigeons although the ones we have make a lot of noise (mourning doves.) I really like the garden-over-the-fence shot.
I love the scent of citrus blossom, but know what you mean about dove/pigeon non-stop cooing. We have too many pigeons around us. They never seem to stop making more!
Ah – we’re looking for a tree like this… Wonderful, Tish!
It’s such a lovely little tree, Mike, and 3m height max.
Beautiful photos! The crab apple blossoms in our neighborhood are ‘going to town’! Beautiful trees.
Thanks, John. How lovely that you have lots of crab apple trees in your vicinity.
stunning, and looks like you are going to have another great year with all that blossom
I hope so. It depends if the bees and bugs had a good forage.
So lovely Tish. You have posted crab apples before, and now I really feel like planting one! Your guerilla landscape is gorgeous.
There are lots of lovely varieties to choose from, A-C – all different sizes from small (3m) to huge, upright or weeping, fruits of differing colours and sizes. Some have fruit which is particularly excellent for making crab apple jelly.
Ah, the jelly ones for me please! Or that small size one – having trouble with climbing higher nowadays.
Yes climbing is out for me too. Actually with crab apples they are fine for making jelly when they’ve fallen off the tree after the first frost.
I would think they are – good you told me…
Beautiful! Crabapples are the only apple to really grow in zone 3a in Alberta.
That’s v. interesting, Amy. Too much frost at the wrong time for eating apples perhaps?
Usually winter kill, even burlaped trees can’t survive 2 weeks at -40 😦
Oh dear!
Oh these are truly mouth watering 🙂
Their looks are bit deceiving, Hammad. They would be very sour to eat raw. But good for making a jelly conserve.
Fruity images.
Lovely to see all the seasons.
Thanks, Jennie.
You’re welcome, Tish.
So wonderful to see a year in the life of a tree…