Do you like cherries ? You want to plant a cherry tree in your garden !
First thing: Make sure you have well-intentioned neighbors and that tey already have a cherry tree at home ... Yes, because to harvest fruits, you need two (cherry trees) ... The tree needs friends to make cherries ...

Obviously, you know that the cherry pits are the beginning of small cherry trees... But you must be lucky .... If you just send its nucleus in the air, you have a chance among x that it will get in a place nice enough to grow. If you notice a little tiny plant, you only have won half the battle. You will still not have good cherries. Because to get soft and sweet fruits, the tree has to be grafted.



Otherwise, more simple, just go buy a cherry tree at a nursery and plant it in the right season (from November to February) ... Don't forget to think about the place it will take when adult (a cherry tree occupies a very important place... 15-20 meters high, do not plant it too close from your other trees !).

Cherry tree is native from Persia. Romans popularized it in our lands. When Japanese appreciate the cherry blossoms for their white flowers, we love it here mainly for its fruit.



Tips around cherry trees
At night, do not walk under the cherry trees... Elves are found of these trees, they like to dance under it by moonlight ... Be careful... People who danced with them never came back... If you want to join them, it will be your last dance.
Japanese have lots of symbols connected with cherry trees and eroticism... cherry blossom is compared to the short life of the samurai. They tattoo it to represent female chastity ... The cherry is very erotic ... : fruits are compared to the lips of a lover ... The juice when you bit it looks like a bleeding ...

Other properties
The cherry wood is used for making musical instruments. Traditionally, the leaves were harvested and added to infusions for people suffering from diarrhea. Or dipped in wine to relieve cough or gout. Cherry tails are known for their diuretic power. ... And pits for water bottles .... Everything is good in the cherry tree!!

Read this article in French : Conseils pour planter un cerisier dans un jardin : planter en deux pour récolter des cerises

If you 're trolling through the region of Brocéliande in small Britain, place of the Arthurian romance legend...you can stop and admire an ancient tree, thousand years old ...



My name is Eon Guillotin and I am thousand years old. I am an oak tree, over 20 m high and nearly 10 m in circumference.
I was born during one of the passages of Halley's comet ... in 1144, but I hardly remember, it's so far back and I was so young ...
Eon the hermit baptized me ... He took refuge in the Brocéliande forest. He has lived near my young branches like a highwayman... and he got caught and did end in a dungeon in Reims in 1148 ...

200 years later in 1352, I was already centennial, I saw this fratricidal battle between Bretons, the Battle of Mauron which pitted French and English soldiers... or another one that took place in 1364 and opposed our countrymen again …

Until 1370... another battle... a famous one when Lord Duguesclin besieged the castle of Comper and made fire and sword ... The castle has been dismantled in 1598 by King Henry IV when visiting Britain (Go visit it, it is not far ...).



During the French Revolution ... I saved the life of a man Guillotin. That's my second name! It was not safe to be a believer at the time. The priest Guillotin was chased by the Sans-culottes (knee-breeches... meaning the poorer members of the Third Estate). He hid in my trunk.
The anti-clerical soldiers arrived in front of me and didn't see Guillotin : a huge web had been woven on my trunk. Notre Dame de Paimpont had become a spider to save this priest and it saved him.

If you knew what I know... all the laments of love that I've heard, the first kisses I've seen, the owls I've saved, the thunder I have supported, all the kids that climbed me, the cows that I have protected from the sun (the heat wave of 2003, remember), the birds I've nested and the births I have helped and the fear I've had hear when carpenters are seing me as tables or floors ...
My old bark marked by time could tell you so much ...

Read this article in French : Arbre remarquable de 1000 ans : le chêne à Guillotin

Why should we have an hazel in our garden ? Or at least in our surroundings... Along a canal for example.... It is nice in September to go and collect the fruits.....

The hazel bushes are very useful ... Yes, yes ... and they have many advantages ... and are used to
- occupy your children during the Sunday rain
- train you to do the diviner
- enjoy the German Christmas shortbread cakes
- be a great teacher and show your children the Nutella is done, (kidding but Nutella buys tons of hazelnuts -13% of the chocolate spread ...)

Early history
The little shrub ... fine and delicate ... becomes a tree with many branches when growing. 8000 years ago, whole forests of hazels were covering Europe ... And then the climate changed and 500 years later, the trees were hunted by the oaks, elms and other limes... Briefly, our prehistoric forest has disappeared ... except in Poland where it remains in the Bialowieza National Park ...

I digress, I digress ...
It is not an endangered species...There are still hazels in our country.

Why plant a hazel tree in the garden?
- To collect hazelnuts
- To have an hedge that protects the crosps against the winds
- To know if you have dowser's gifts! (it works, my man has the "gift", just use a branch of hazel cut like a fork and wait !)
- To avoid the lightning when it is planted near a house (this was said once, but I did not try)
-To play on Sunday with your children

When will it get nuts?
Druids gave me the answer with their alphabet of trees. It's the 9th, 9 as the number of years for a tree, a hazel to bear fruits. Harvest in autumn.

Otherwise the main producers are Turkey, they dominate the market.

How to keep the nuts?
Be careful to keep them because very often someone, when you're not around, will enjoy them for you...
Harvest and dry on a dry place.

Read this article in French : Noisetiers et noisettes : de la haie contre les vents au Nutella

You want to try recipes with walnuts, well learn too about the tree that produce them. It is a nice one…



The walnut tree comes from Asia and is known in France for several centuries already (800). Charlemagne wanted it throughout his empire and thanks to him it was spread out in Europe ...

The walnut is native to warmer lands (Asia), he does not like the cold weather. When it blooms in April or May, the flowers do not like frost ... Otherwise the precious harvest of nuts may be compromised ...

Nut is very nutritious: 60% fat for 20% protein. They were advised for women seeking fertility ...

The walnut tree has a nasty reputation ... We strongly advise against taking a nap under its shadow ... not for fear of receiving nuts during your sweet rest, but rather because under it, vegetation grows with a lot of difficulty. The grass is sparse and the flowers wither. If you want to plant with a walnut tree around, do it but at a certain distance.

The tree can life 70 years to … 300. It produces walnuts with 20-25 years… It is 20 to 25 meters high.

In the Middle Ages, people used the walnut oil for massage to relieve pain of rheumatism or arthritis: 4 to 5 kg of nuts per 1 liter of oil ... Peeling and peeling again and again.

Walnut oil is very good, very tasty ... but it turns rancid very fast.

For longer storage, it must be stored in a cool place, away from light in a dark bottle. It helps by adding a few grains of salt in the bottle.

Use it as seasoning, as salad dressings, it is excellent, it can not stand to be heated.

The walnut wood is highly prized by carpenters. The quality of its wood and itsdark color are valued for furniture, table, desk, library ...

The walnut is a producer of nut husks : the green envelope that protects the fruit. The liquid it emits is used to produce inks for dark stained wood.

Inside the husk, the shell hides the edible part : the kernels.

The nuts have interesting nutritional benefits : they provide good essential fatty acids (the so-called omega 3 and omega 6), vitamins and minerals (especially magnesium).

Want to try my recipe : mashed potatoes and nuts in the oven.

Read it in French : Le noyer un arbre remarquable à planter dans le jardin