The lemonade tree which although laden with fruit, failed to provide me with a decent, ripe lemon yet this season. Every time I checked fruit just beginning to show a little yellowing (you may remember from a previous post that you can't wait for the lemons on a lemonade tree to go yellow as by that time they are rotten) they haven't come away easily indicating they aren't yet ready. However when I come back on my next day off to check, they have split from the rain, or are lying mouldy on the ground under the tree. The mouldy fruit has become a problem, firstly because it's attracting fruit flies and secondly because the mould is a type of virus that then affects other fruit when the spores are dispersed on them, either by wind, water splashing etc.
I haven't been able to easily get to the fallen fruit to clear it away as the tree was so overgrown, it's branches forming a natural cage around the area, and grass and weeds making it difficult also. So in desparation I have given the tree it's first good prune in the now almost 5 years I've been there. Gone now are all the branches that grew haphazardly in all directions, gone are the branches so laden with fruit they were hidden amongst the overly long grass and overgrown weeds. Instead it's a mere shadow of it's former self, more streamlined, free of renegade tendrils that had sprouted from an unknown base graft, complete with needle like spikes along their reaching arms, free too of the swollen gall wasp stings that left new growth misshappen.
Once that terror was tamed I then had access to the ground below, cleaning up all the diseased fruit and disposing of it, removing the grass that slowly chokes the life force of these trees.
And while on a roll, hacking down the choko that once again is flourishing creating the beginnings of it's own mini jungle like atmosphere. Once again this year it's overtaken everything, growing along the fencelines, reaching out to snare the branches over unwary trees, crossing my gardens steathily on the ground hidden by weeds, or more obviously using stakes like a superhighway. My little pruning shears, already warmed up from the adrenalin of the assualt on the lemonade tree went into overdrive and in no time had tamed it back to something more orderly and controlled.
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| The choko reaching out to ensnare an unsuspecting Gooseberry bush. |
That was Friday gone, Saturday I watched it pour rain all day, frustrated that I couldn't get out into the garden and do more, but inspired by my companion planting book I'd rediscovered.
And then today, with the sun out again, with everything clean and refreshed, I took my seed collection outside and contentedly planted Broad beans accompanied by Spinach and Beetroot in one bed, and Peas bedded with Radish and Turnips in the other. With a final flourish of confidence, stakes were thumped in and lines strung ready for this new growth to begin and take hold.
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| Useable lemons and chokos from the day's cleanup. |
