Pestguard

Pestguard, which can be purchased from Green Harvest by internet or mail order:

http://www.greenharvest.com.au/pestcontrol/fruit_fly_info.html

...is intended to keep out fruit fly, codling moth, birds, fruit bats and, with any lucks, small children. Action Man knocked up a frame for it:



Apparently only 17% of the sunlight is blocked.



And here are some golden dorsetts, looking enormous compared to last week:



*rubs hands together with glee*

Cost of Pestguard: $160.

I'll add that to the total when the lunch isn't burning.

Fruit Set

So they say you should net the apple trees after fruit set.

Here's the crab apple, last week, showering us in gorgeous blossoms:



Meanwhile, here's the golden dorsett, giving us a good demonstration of fruit set:

Before and After

The house looks a bit more...naked...doesn't it? But that's only until the new trees get bigger!

State of the Tropical Apples, Spring 2010

Likewise, the apple trees have had no fertiliser or watering. Slightly more weeding has ensued than for the citrus. I haven't topped up the mulch but it seems to be holding up well. The one from the nursery has reached the top guide wire and the Daley's trees are less vigorous but not too far behind:



Bees are constantly busy. Maybe I will get real apples this year!



I was planning on getting a very fine mesh net to go over the top and keep out codling moth and fruit fly. I haven't bought it yet because I'm scared it will be expensive. But they reckon it needs to go on right after fruit set, and I'm pretty sure that's not too far away.




The tea tree in the background is a haven for bees. Spring is truly sprung!

State of the Citrus, Spring 2010

So I haven't done anything for my citrus in about 6 months. No fertiliser. No watering.

The answer from the Australian finger lime: I am doing quite well, thank you very much. Here it is covered in flowers:



The espalier lime is also quite content. I did find a single bronze shield-bug on it last week and crushed the stinky thing to its death. I hope more don't show up.



Finally, the mandarin is also flourishing:



Here's hoping for more than one finger lime this fruiting season! And no pests!

Colours

Here are some images of autumn.

The crab-apple changed very gradually. It also got some sort of brown scaly stuff on the undersides of the leaves, so I vigilantly bagged and binned them as they fell.



The liquidambar, on the other hand, put up a magnificent display. I think it's only going to get better as the tree grows bigger:

Ahhh, autumn.

Autumn, Winter, Spring

Time passes so quickly when you're too busy parenting to weed the garden.

I foolishly showed the Small One how to weed, and found myself short a few jonquils, SO I have to supervise her, now, which is fun but not very productive.

We grew pea and pumpkin seedlings from seeds and put in two mini tomato plants. No produce yet, as the cats have been industrious in lying down/ digging up the sugar cane mulch, and it's doubtful what will survive and what will be flattened.

Two small green tomatoes have NOT been pointed out to the Small One, out of fear that she will pick them the same way she picked a few dozen green blueberries once she realised what they were!

Hidden Gifts

Well, I got the fertilising done. What do you mean, march isn't "late summer"? It is, too!

Anyway, I discovered a couple of late surprises. Like this crab apple. Not edible, but very cute. I think it's been stung by fruit flies. A reminder that next year, if I get apples of the larger variety, I had better get the fly nets up quick smart.


I also discovered a Secret Actual Last Finger Lime. I'm pretty sure, it, too, met with a wind accident, and could have ripened more, but it's kinda going red on the outside...and pink on the inside!





Here's the espalier progress.





And the apple trees...the (taller, happier) tree on the right is the one from the nursery. The others are mail-order. Maybe there's a gradient of improved soil nutrients, though. Difficult to judge.

The Harvest That Almost Was

So the end of summer is approaching. Time to tally the harvest of the Orchard in its very first year.

Total yield:

Blueberries: 24 berries
Finger Limes: 1 almost-ripe lime

Yep. That's it.

Grand savings: The cost of 1 punnet blueberries = $3.99

There could have been more, perhaps, if I had watered the garden every day. Here's evidence of the harvest that almost was:




The Small One polished these off as they arrived. It was all I could do to stop her from eating the green ones.




Watching the finger limes grow was exciting! Four of them made it to this size.




Plus there were half a dozen budding Tahitian limes...





...and the same number of little mandarins.





But a hot, dry wind thrashed the trees for three days in a row (yes, we are safe from flood here on the Heights, but it does get windy), and I found all the mandarins, all the Tahitian limes, and all but one of my finger limes knocked prematurely off their stems. Here's what it looked like inside.

A month later, a similar wind knocked the last finger lime down. At least this one was edible. Yum!

So the lesson was perhaps to water every day (like I set out to do in the first place, but life interferes) and/or be patient enough for the baby trees to get some size on them before I start wanting to eat the fruit.

The War on Lawn continues...