The climate for gardening in Poland

Fortunately, fruit native to Poland is deliciously sweet. We grow 4 colours of raspberries - do you know which one is the sweetest?

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Honey berries are the earliest fruit in Poland - some varieties ripen in May. But I prefer to wait till June, they are sweeter then which counterbalances their natural bitterness. Yes, don`t be misled by their look similar to blueberries - they have a different taste. I planted two dozen bushes hoping my kids will devour them in handfuls. I was so wrong. :):)

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Growing food would be great pleasure if not for weeds. I already said that I don`t want to use any chemicals so the only solution is to weed manually. Sometimes weeds get so abundant they cover veg cause before summer holidays I have no time to take care of the problem.

This year I scored two failures: corn and pumpkin. Nothing or so little I eventually pulled them out and sowed sth else instead. Hard to say why. Old seeds? Drought? It is all so unpredicable.

I grow our veg in several seperated patches behind the fence.

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Order from the sweetest:
yellow
black
purple
red.

Those yellow ones are already sweet when they are half ripe.

PS. I am picking our first mini kiwi fruit ever. Delicious! Sweet, soft, a little sour. The only problem is they ripen at random so the fruit in the same bunch can be either soft or hard. I read they fall down when ripe but I don`t want to wait so I have to check fruit seperately.

PS 2. Funny. The cauliflowers I planted in April/May and which refused to grow in summer due to high temperatures are developing like crazy now. The same with certain varieties of kohlrabi and lettuce.

PS3 While going for walks in the area, we passed fields of potatoes and took close looks (funny, as a child I was never interested in examining such silly stuff). I decided to grow some next year.

I didn't know you could get yellow raspberries, I've only ever seen red and purple ones. My father used to grow them in the garden and on our allotments.

Look at the photo in post 31 - due to the variety of colours, it is one of my favourite pics from the farm. :):)

Currently, I am still picking red and yellow ones coz mine are of repeating fructification. Roughly, a gallon a week. I see their prices in the market, we save a lot of money. :):)

Merged:

Do these plants grow in Polish climate?

Do or will these plants/trees grow in Polish climate:

Ash trees (Fraxinus)
Koelreuteria
Tree of Heaven
Mimosa tree
Wisteria
Salix babylonica
Coniferous trees
Sequoia
Thuja

@Jojo1
Probably everything but sequoia

If sequioas can get big in Sofia (it can have cold winters, the coldest recent one was in 2012/2013 when it got down to -21), I think they can survive in parts of Western Poland imo.

I've certainly never heard of one here.

There's a ginkgo biloba in the grounds of our building; they can handle some frost though.

We've had trouble with bougainvillea; it has to come indoors in the coldest weather, even varieties sold here, and we always bring the olive trees inside for winter; fortunately they aren't too large and we have high ceilings and skylights. We grew some acacia trees from seeds found in West Africa; there have been mixed results however we brought back plenty of seeds and friends are growing them in various places around the country.

@Zlatko
I actually googled sequoias in Sofia and it was real fun to read but I don't think sequoias as such are common in Bulgaria. Or in cities as such.

I really don't know much about gardening but I guess certain plants may survive in different climates but the climate will probably affect their growth.

In fact, I know so little that I thought ginkgo biloba was the named of medicine my dad took some time ago. @jon357 :)
But I googled it.

I actually ended up in Obi on Thursday and they do have some plants in their offer. Most likely of worse quality than at a gardener's but I bought some lavender :)

My friend ended up buying more as someone actually interested in gardening.

Obi are actually OK for plants, as is Auchan. The best one though for plant quality in Warsaw is the big garden centre in Tarchomin.

I was speaking to a friend the other day; she's grown an avocado tree from scratch; they can't easily grow commercially here due to the climate, however in the right position it's possible to have a decent sized tree.

Surprisingly Kiwi fruit grow very well in Poland. They're vines rather than trees and do well in this climate.

The commie flat is on the south of the tree, so it sees little light during most of the day. It sees some light early in the morning for like an hour or two at most daily.

google.com/maps/@42.7057078,23.3521174,3a,75y,175.2h,111.6t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sQg3Tvlpk_uaZeZ2vHRMJXA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DQg3Tvlpk_uaZeZ2vHRMJXA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D90.64606%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

I think Sofia winters can be harsher than Gdansk and Western Poland?
As for Roztrzeplin wiechowaty (Koelreuteria Paniculata), Budapest is full of it but it's also much more sunnier than Poland. The seed pods look paprika peppers. :)

I wonder if the invasive and hardy Bożodrzew (Tree of Heaven, scientific name Ailanthus altissima) can survive harsh winters in Poland?

@Zlatko
Gdańsk is at the Baltic Sea.
Generally Poland is further north than Bulgaria .

As I said I don't know much about gardening but I guess there are more factors than just the temperature.

@jon357
Funnily enough, I talked with a friend about an avocado tree she'd got and how she actually failed to safe. Not a tree yet, tbh.

But metasequoia does. I have one in my garden - now 2 metres tall but soon it will reach 50.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasequoia

Yes, mini kiwi endures about minus 30. But regular kiwi only minus 10.

Currently I keep 20 mini kiwi bushes and one has already born fruit.

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When it comes to fruit which are my absolute No 1 produce from the farm, I already mentioned raspberries (4 colours), honey berries, Physalis (Inca berry) and mini kiwi.

Now, let`s see other.

Blueberries. It is a relatively new plant in Poland, I remember I first ate them about 15 years ago. Normally blue but one variety is pink - called Pink Lemonade. I had already had 2 bushes but added 5 more this year.

Contrary to blueberries, sweet cherries and sour cherries have always been standard fruit. I remember preying on those fruit in all orchards where I spent summer holidays - once I had eaten too many sour cherries and later puked further than I could see - it was such a colourful peacock. hahahaha

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  Pink Lemonade on the left. Mini kiwi on the right
  
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Another standard fruit in Poland is currents. We have all colours: black, red, white. White current is the sweetest but smallest too.
We pick a lot of them from about 50 bushes so there is a problem what to do with the surplus - my wife or me make cakes with red current or I use all 3 colours to make fruit wine.

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Of course, we mustn`t forget about another must: strawberries. We have two varieties - spring and repeating which bear fruit till autumn. I hope you don`t need a picture. :)

We also grow two hybrids:
- tayberry/loganberry (I do not know which one we have) - a cross between blackberry and red raspberry. Hmm, it is my least fav fruit - its taste is really unappealing.

- currant-gooseberry. It looks like a currant and tastes like gooseberry. I like it.

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5-6 years ago I planted about 25 shrubs of blackberry. I tried to find the best variety that is why I bought about 10 different cultivars. After that time I can honestly recommend Black Satin as the sweetest so the best for direct consumption. It bears big and tough fruit, but not as numerous as other varieties - mostly single. That is why I got more Black Satins and planted them in another place. Those original ones grow partly in shadow coz the trees around them got tall and adundant over the years. In result, the fruit is sour and my kids don`t want to eat it raw. However, Black Satin is sweet wherever it grows - in semi-shadow or sunlight.

This blackberry below is ordinary, not Black Satin coz it has a lot of rather small fruit.

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Funny, but I am the only person who plants and later takes care of flowers in the garden. My wife is completely indifferent to the floral topics.

Do you know any of these?:

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Or these?:

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I can see my friend's birthday flower- bez. I love it too. If I remember correctly it is completely troubless flower. It grows like a weed :)

I love konwalie. If I ever get crazy enough to agree to a wedding it would be my theme flower.

I also like piwonie. Do you have any?

Yes, we have piwonie - peonies. They look good but flowers don`t last too long - only a few days.

My favourite flower. The very pale pink ones are beautiful. I really must try growing some.

Effortless. I replanted one rootstock in several places all over the garden and they grow fine.

Let`s not forget decorative sunflowers

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I'm not a huge fan, partly due to the short flowering season that you mention. have you tried bougainvillea? A much longer flowering season and grows very well in Poland in a sheltered south-facing spot, however we have to bring ours indoors when the first frost appears.

Wow, I have learnt sth new again. I thought I know all flowers but had to check this one. Looks pretty but I read its requirements - too much ado in winter time.

I don't know if this is the right thread but is it true many Polish city authorities are felling trees? With Poland using coal and having so many cars can I plant trees in the patch between the pavement and the road (tree-lined streets are more pleasant)? Do I need municipality permission?

That patch doesn`t belong to you - it is the so called pas drogowy and is the municipal property. I am afraid you need a permission although they might be quite happy to have those trees planted by you.