Our fruit trees

One of the things we wanted to do when buying our 'forever' home was to grow our own food. We do however live in an area that has very little topsoil and is renowned for its bad soil. This could be a lesson in futile frustration or we could be pleasantly surprised, only time will tell. So I wanted to show you the fruit trees we have put in here and the ones that were already here.

First off I will show you the trees and vines that were already here. 

This olive is well established. It had a few olives on it this past year. My mother in law took them to add to hers in the brine. I don't like olives, so I am not all that fussed about having one. I spotted the king parrots in the branches one day having a feed of them. There was also a second one growing here in a bad spot.
We gave it away to a relative.

Olive Tree

 

Close up of leaves

This sad looking lemon near the pond was crying out for some care. It is riddled with gall wasp. I have cut back as much as I was advised the plant could handle. A lot more needs to be removed and I have purchased traps to hang in Spring. It has had some nice new growth since I have been tending to it and we have managed to pick a few lemons. It appears to be a dwarf variety to me, but I am unsure.
My sister suggested I pull it out and start again, but I like the challenge of bringing it back to health.

Can you see the Daffodils growing at the base?

Gall Wasp infestation on the lemon tree's branches

Two passion fruit vines were here when we arrived also. One is looking not so healthy. We did get a few fruits off it, but it needs much attention if it is going to bear us much more than that.

Poorly growing passion fruit

Hail damage from Christmas storm

Yellowing leaves

The second vine was growing at the base of a tree and I have wondered whether it self seeded there. I moved it before reading that they do not like being disturbed. It is still alive though, so we will see how it goes.

The Passion fruit I moved

This poor vine I planted myself. It was going so well until a pesky slug ate the main runner out of the top. The slugs have eaten most of the leaves and it is going yellow. Maybe we will never have luck with passion fruit here?

The one I purchased that has been eaten by slugs

This well established nectarine was here too. It is a little bit hidden here next to the peppercorn, pittosporum and gum trees. There was some fruit on it, but the possums or maybe rats got them all before we did. I have pruned it a bit and I have been adding manure to its base and spraying it with copper. Hopefully we might see a better crop of fruit this year.

Pic to come sorry

This next tree is the first of a couple of pomegranates we have planted. This garden is up near the patio and had a mix of natives and herbs in it. We removed the Prickly Moses growing here. It was a horribly spikey plant that just did not suit our garden, or our children. I thought the pomegranate would look nice here. It gets pretty flowers and gorgeous fruit. Being deciduous, it will let light in during Winter and provide shade for the other plants in Summer.

Pommegranate

Here we have two apricots planted in the same hole. They are positioned next to the pomegranate. These fairly established trees were removed from my mother-in-law's garden. They have fruited before, so hopefully they continue to do so. I have planted out some Amaryllis Belladonna under them. These came from my mother-in-law too and hers grow well under the apricot tree.

Apricots sharing a hole

This is a fig. My in-laws are Greek, so this is a staple at their place. They have a few of them growing. Hubby took a cutting from the red fruited one he loves. Not sure where this will eventually go, let's see if the cutting strikes first though.

Fig cutting

This is my first attempt at creating an espalier formed fruit tree. This is a plum tree I grew from seed. I think I am training branches that are too low to the soil, but it only had three and I wanted to see how it went. It is just getting its new leaves now. I will see how it grows before deciding what to remove next.

Having a go at espalier

Here is our Kaffir lime. We have planted it close to the pond, eek, hope we did the right thing. It is close to the path too. Maybe I can keep it cut back to suit the space?

Kaffir Lime

Next is our Naval orange. Down near the clothes line and close to the fence. I am going to train this one to grow flat too, hence why it's so near the fence line. It has three good leaders to start me off.

Navel Orange

The second pomegranate in the bottom garden. This one has more of a trunk than the other one. They have both been grown from seed, so it will be interesting to see how they go.

Pommegranate

Not far from the clothes line and near the Olive, we planted our dwarf apples. We chose a Granny Smith and a Pink Lady and put them in the same hole. The children like these two varieties and so do I. Hubby would like a Golden Delicious, if we can find some more room.

Dwarf Apples sharing a hole

This Avocado is yet to be planted. I have been umming and ahhing about where to put it. I chose a Bacon and have also planted numerous Hass seeds around the place. If I can get any fruit I will be rapt as avocados are my new favourite.

Bacon Avocado

Here is our banana passion fruit. I haven't eaten one since I was a child and I used to love them, so hopefully we get some fruit and my children enjoy them also.

Banana Passion fruit

Another tree we have grown from a seed. This Loquat survived the Christmas hail storm and a blistering hot day that saw it lose most of its leaves. It seems to be liking its new home in the front garden. Can you see the new leaves on their way?

Loquat

Finally, our newest tree, the Mariposa blood plum. My in-laws picked this up at the market a few weeks back and we have planted it on the Western side of the house, near the Cordyline Stricta.

Mariposa Plum