Start of Summer!

Some pics to show where everything's at for the (almost) start of summer.

After an amazing waterfall of pink blossoms, there are actual cab apples on the crab apple tree:

Finger limes are getting bigger:

And the mandarins are holding their ground, despite the loss of all the limes (again) from the two espaliers:

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:

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.

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.

Spring

The enchanted orchard sees its first spring!

The Australian Finger Lime has unusual yet quite beautiful blossoms:



Petite native bees are constantly busy over it, tempted away from the tea trees (the only plants put in by the original owners that we left untouched).

One of the apple trees (the Daleys one, in case you wondered) flowered, but none of the others did, so my hopes of pollination are very slim:



And the weeping crab apple is just a font of joy. I can't wait til it gets bigger and even more gorgeous.

The cost of all these trees was fairly standard, I think. The Australian Finger Limes I've already added to the total. The other citrus (2 tahitian limes, 1 honey murcott mandarin) were $35 each. The maples and one of the blueberries, I already had. The weeping crab apple was $150 and the second blueberry bush was $12. Add another $150 worth of potting mix and clay breaker, plus a new shovel for $65 (the old one finally got too bent by me forcing it into clay), brings the grand running total to a scary $1291.

Planting

If you check the date of the last post, you'll see it was made five minutes ago, but in actual fact the logs were put in by the end of August, and the plants were put in shortly after that.

For each little tree, I dug out as much clay soil as my back could take and filled the gap with potting mix. There was one type for the citrus and another type for the maple trees.

I watered each one with seasol at day 1 and day 14.

The trees that I planted:

Tahitian Lime x 2
Honey Murcott Mandarin x 1
Tropical Apple (2 each of Dwarf Anna, Dwarf Dorsett Golden) x 4
Liquidambar x 1
Japanese maple x 1
The remaining Australian Finger Lime
Weeping Crab Apple x 1
Blueberry x 2

I'll be interested to see if there really is a difference in the healthiness of trees purchased from a nursery (for twice the price) and those purchased by mail order.

One of the Anna apple trees is from a nursery (where they told me mail order trees were dodgy) and one is from Daleys. Admittedly, the nursery-bought one has a straighter trunk, but they both seem quite vigorous.