Twenty Kilograms of Apples

It's March and the Enchanted Orchard is looking rather grim.

I'm too sad to post pictures of my blueberry bush, which, after giving two or three punnets-worth of blueberries over summer, was killed by the February heat wave in which a week of over-forty-degree maximum temps took a serious toll on the garden.

I still don't water the front garden. It's survival of the fittest. Apparently blueberry was not sufficiently fit.

So I console myself remembering the 20kg of small, perfect, crisp apples that I harvested in early December:



Next time I will be more stringent about not only pinching off all but 3 or 4 fruit in a cluster: The weight of the apples on this branch broke it off, sadly:

If we price apples at $5 a kilo, I guess we can then subtract $100 from the running tally. Also, 250g of pink finger limes, retail value $10, and the blueberries worth about $15.

The mandarins remain small, hard and green, but show no sign of dropping off the tree, despite the heatwave. Hopefully they will ripen at some stage!

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.