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

What's Blooming in my Garden this Week?

First Spring blossoms

Spraying the Nectarine

There was a Nectarine here when we arrived. It isn't in the best position and there were also another two growing in even worse spots, which makes me wonder if they self seeded from a compost? I will never know, but I am trying to give this one we have the best chance in providing us fruit.
It is positioned next to the Peppercorn tree and under a Gumtree and a Pittosporum. I have trimmed back the dead parts and tried to trim the surrounding trees as much as I can to give it more light.
I am new to fruit tree owning. I had them growing up but paid no attention to their care. I happened to catch an episode of Vasili's Garden back in June, where he gave directions on how to spray for leaf curl. I will explain the steps here.

First of all you need a teaspoon of Bluestone Copper Sulphate

Then two teaspoon of Hydrated Lime. 

Make sure you have the right Lime, ask at your gardening supplies store to be sure.

Measure out a litre of warm water and use some to mix the powders together.

Add the remainder of the water and pour it all into a spray bottle.

Spray the entire tree. This needs to be done once in June, once in July, once in August and twice a month in Spring. Stop once the flowers arrive.

Our Nectarine had some horrible leaf problems last year, let's hope this helps it this year.

Plants that are blooming in my garden this week

Erysimum or wallflowers

 They are so very sweet and have a lovely subtle fragrance.

What's blooming in your garden?

Making new plants from old Part 2

Some more plants I wanted to add to my last post. These are plants from our front garden. We have a few clumps of these Dietes around this garden. They produce lovely flowers on long slender stems. A seed bulb forms and splits open dropping the seeds into the surrounding area. I have found many of these self seeded in the mulch. I have also collected the seeds, but have not tried striking them yet.

Dietes - Wild Iris

Self seeded Dietes

Here is a photo of the flower stem preparing to bloom. These will bloom again many times, so don't rush in and cut them all off like I did. It was only after doing this that I read up about them and discovered more flowers would come.

Flower on its way

Here is a photo of a new bloom emerging from an old stem. Great value flowering.

More blooms on old stems

The next four photos are of succulents I am trying to grow in the rockery at the front of our house. I don't know what any of these are called, so if you can help me out with some names I would appreciate it.

This one came from my mother in laws garden

This one lost all its leaves after I planted it. Looks like it is still alive though.

One I picked from plants growing outside our local Vet

This I believe has pink flowers. It came in a pot with Naked Ladies my mother in law gave me

Making new plants from old

Who doesn't love getting new plants, and who doesn't desire a full garden? Plants cost money though right? This is where making more plants from cuttings or seedlings comes in, and who doesn't love free plants! I have been trying to make new plants from the plants we already have growing here. I know they grow well here too, so that's a big plus. I have been collecting seeds, taking cuttings, foraging for plants that put out root runners from their branches and taking pieces from other people's gardens- like my mother in law's. So I thought I would show you some of the plants I am reproducing this way.


First up I have Lavender. These cuttings were taken from a beautiful large plant we had growing at the front door of our old home. There are two Lavender plants already in our garden. They are a bit spindly and one is planted in a not so ideal spot. Hoping to get my cuttings well established before considering moving or removing those ones. I planted all three of these cuttings into the centre garden in front of our back patio. This is my sort-of herb garden.

I recently cut this one right back to encourage bushier growth

Can you see this one here amongst the strawberries?

The third of my original cuttings. Trimmed right back to encourage growth

This cutting came from one of the Lavender plants already growing here

Next I have Abutilon, or Chinese Lantern. I was not familiar with this plant at all before moving here. This one is growing quite gangly. I am unsure if they should look fuller than this, or whether that is just how they are. Whilst cleaning up the gum tree waste at its base, I discovered that the long dropping branches resting against the earth had sent out roots. I believe this is called Layering. Perfect, new plants! I cut two new plants and put them in the same area that this one is growing. Hopefully they will fill this spot out more.

Our original Abutilon - Chinese Lantern

Long gangly branches

New plant taken from the old one

My second new plant

I have fallen in love with Salvia. Again, this is a plant I knew nothing about before moving here. It's not looking the best at the moment. It is at the end of flowering and a lot of its leaves are turning yellow. You can eat the flowers, they have sweet nectar in their bases. Toss them in a salad for good colour. Our guinea pigs eat Salvia. Leaves, flowers, stems, the lot. They are in bloom most of the year and look lovely.

Salvia Greggii

Nice big plant

I took these plants from the base of the larger one. They are either growing via layering, or maybe it puts up shoots from the roots? Many are growing under the main plant. I just pulled out three and placed them in various spots around the garden.

This one is right near our patio

I planted this one under the gum tree near our water tank.

This final one is in the embankment created by the waste dirt when the pond was dug.

A really easy plant to grow from cuttings is Rosemary. My mother in law introduced me to her method of growing this plant back at our old home. Our neighbour had a lovely bush growing in their garden and she cracked a piece off and stuck it in the dirt in our front yard. Within a few seasons we had our own glorious bush growing. Sadly our neighbour's bush died. I never did take a cutting from that plant, but I had always had one growing in a pot that came with us here. It wasn't really growing that well and I have since added it to our garden. After trimming it up to encourage more growth I popped the waste cuttings in various places around the garden. Let's see how they go shall we.

Rosemary cutting

More Rosemary

These Nasturtiums self seeded down the back garden. About fifteen came up, so I dug them up and moved them up closer to the house as well as putting some in the various other garden plots. These ones seem to have been protected by the gum tree and are doing fine. Some of the more exposed ones got burnt badly on a cold day. They are reshooting new leaves though, so not all is lost.

Nasturtiums

Another self seeded plant I have discovered in abundance here is the pansy. They have been coming up everywhere. I moved these two to the raised bed on the East side of our home and they are growing great there. Something is eating the flowers though. I could very well be the slug that is devouring my Passionfruit vine that is growing right next to them.

Pansy growing well

Something is eating the flowers unfortunately

This is a Euphorbia about to bloom. It is growing under our Banksia Rose. It looks lovely once the flower heads are established.

Euphorbia

Here is a photo pf the new shoots coming up from the base. I am including these here as I had a mystery plant come up in the raised bed on our patio. I am now fairly sure it is a Euphorbia.

New Euphorbia shoots

Here is a close up of it when it first grabbed my attention. I thought it was a weed, but I give everything a chance until I know what it is for sure.

Dew drops in the morning

Here it is with more growth and planted into the garden bed over near the Abutilon

Am I correct? Is this a Euphorbia?