To get a house. To get a house with a reasonably-sized garden. To get a house, moreover, which has a garden with fruit trees well established - the best of them perhaps a hundred years old and still flourishing. A garden that has been cared for down the years. A dream. But a dream that can come true. For, within what you might call the inner suburbs of Dublin, that is what one young couple have. It's about a 100 feet long and 40-odd wide. Not very spacious, but what matters is that which you put into it - in terms of sweat more than money.
Start with what they inherited in the way of fruit. The hundred-year tree is a sugar pear, producing small red fruit, in a good year, i.e. when the frosts don't come at the wrong time, by the barrel-full. There were two more pear trees, two apples, two plum trees when they moved in. They dug out one apple tree and substituted two modern species. Further, they put in a walnut, two quinces, and an almond. Ambitious. But that is just the heart of the garden. They are into blackcurrants, loganberries, raspberries, a few strawberries, from memory. The star turn of their vegetable plot has to be their crop of new potatoes. The first were eaten by grateful recipients about 10 days ago. The second helping came in the home of the gardeners themselves. After enjoying, up to a point, imported new potatoes, what can one say except perfect. Tasted just like new potatoes used to. Their potatoes are Colleens and, believe it or not, Rattes, these being long and slender.
Work goes into turning out fresh vegetables from your own garden. It is also, they point out, good exercise, and even fun. Naturally, there is also all the other greenery you would expect. Lettuce, rocket, scallions, garlic, globe artichoke, and so many different herbs that the hand became illegible writing down the names. (Left out one new tree: a fig.) A lot of work, but much or all of it, pleasurable. They have looked for the best of advice from, for example, the Rossinver Centre. Yes, indeed, there are places in Dublin where you can get good, fresh fruit and vegetables, but, as we all know, nothing tastes as good as your own produce, just in from the garden, your own garden. Y