My invoice from Daley’s fruit tree nursery says that on 28 October 2019, not long after we started our retrosuburbia journey, in the midst of a drought and just about to be thrown into the worst bushfire season ever, I bought a whole batch of fruit trees for a verge planting. Patience has never been my strongest virtue.
We’ve added another half a dozen trees since, but that first batch included a couple of avocados (a Hass and a Bacon), several citrus (a Meyer lemon, Navelina orange, Tahitian lime, Emperor mandarin), two figs (Black Genoa and Preston Prolific), a Carambola, several feijoas, a pomegranate, japoticaba, and a gramichama.
For all of November they stayed in pots while ash rained down on us.
It hardly seems that long ago. Coming up to three years now. We got a small crop of lemons and avocados last year. But this year, if our luck holds, we could have our first real crops from most of them, and it is very exciting.
The soil here is sandy and nutrient poor, but Coffs Coast waste services makes compost from the green bin waste collection, and it’s cheap. We bought a truckload for that initial planting. Since then, each tree has had topdressing with our home-made chook compost, and a half a bucket or so of diluted seaweed brew every few months. The citrus looked a bit hungry last summer, so we gave each one a half a bucket of diluted leachate from the worm farm with a handful of worm castings added, and repeated it a few weeks later. We have a soaker hose from our rainwater tank laid out through the verge planting, and if it doesn’t rain for a few weeks, we turn it on and empty 4000 litres onto the planted area over the period of a week or so. Last autumn everything was pruned, mostly just for shape. So after that bushfire season’s hard start, they’ve had a fairly nice life.
And here’s the reward. We have both native and European bees, and fingers crossed I’ve got the right pollinators for the avocado varieties. Come autumn and we’ll find out.
I’m enjoying reading your recent posts and re-reading your old recipes.
Thank you Yvonne. I’m glad you like them.
Your trees look as if they are getting ready to produce a bumper harvest. Beautiful.
Hi Linda
A question regarding garden irrigation. My inner city garden (about 8 m sq) is in a Mediterranean climate – mild winters with rain, warm to hot summers with little to no rain. Strong wind in summer. I try not to use municipal water as this is very expensive. I have a rainwater tank of 2500 litres and a couple more smaller tanks of 500 litres. What irrigation method is the most effective to use this precious water during summer? I am not an organized gardener with straight, neat rows of veggies. It is a bit of a rambling garden. Thanks
This is a similar journey to my own. We moved into a new house in December 2018. I planted fruit trees and veggie seeds in the height of summer (ie 40 degree days) and during the first of 2 droughts with bushfires raging in the mountains across from us. We are also off-grid with water and power, so that was an extra challenge. It is discouraging at times, but eventually things start to take off and create their own ecosystem. My garden is still not what I would call ‘flourishing’, but we regularly pick limes, pawpaw, sweet potato, potatoes, figs, tomatoes, and a few greens here and there. It all needs much more attention than what it receives……
Hi Emily, you might find this old post useful – https://witcheskitchen.com.au/surviving-the-frizzle-weather/
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