Wild Hope Homestead

The fruit trees are doing things. Good, fruity things. From the dining room window I have been eyeing up the developing apricot fruits with beady eyes. So, the ‘hacked fruit tree’ is an apricot after all. It must be a self-fertile cultivar. The ‘squished fruit tree’ and the ‘tall, gangley fruit tree’ are both sporting little green plums. Aha! Oh, I can barely wait for some of this fruity goodness.

Meanwhile, the mature citrus trees in the orchard are still recovering from the effects of hard winter frosts. At first I thought they were suffering from a horrible disease or pest as I’ve never seen big citrus trees so harshly affected by frost before. The grapefruit, lemon and orange trees lost almost all their leaves and the fruit rotted. I guess the frosts were a bit harsher our here in the country. The tangelo tree is a little more padded by its mates so wasn’t affected much. Now the grapefruit has a nice flush of new leaves and the lemon is also staging a comeback. As for the orange tree, well, I fear it may be a lost cause. It has a few green leaves but not many. The main branches look like they have a fair bit of fruit tree borer so maybe it’s just too weak. And the oranges were so nice! Oh dear. I need to have a closer inspection.

The citrus tree pruning is my garden procrastination task at the moment. Once I get going I actually enjoy shaping and tidying the trees but it is a lot of effort. So far I have finished pruning the grapefruit and have done most of the lemon. I think what’s really driving my procrastination is actually the giant feijoa tree. It’s lurking in the corner there like a gigantic shadow, waiting for me to finish pruning its mass of big branches and tiny branches alike. Yes, I think that skulking giant is the real problem…