Ah, Spring is (almost) in the air...

The weather over the weekend was lovely and sunny for a change, so obviously the garden was the place to be! With a council green waste collection next week, there was some serious pruning to be done.



DH took down a couple of big branches out of an umbrella tree, cut down a Port Wine Magnolia (beautiful tree, but in the wrong place now and not getting enough sun) and dug out the stumps of two Hibiscus I cut down the day before, whilst I cut out a couple of huge agaves to make way for the water-lily bowl (which we moved to free up some space for our future wood-fired oven), and dealt to the lemon tree.

The bottom branches of my dwarf Meyer lemon were so laden with fruit this year that the tree was leaning to one side, and many lemons were actually sitting on the ground, resulting in many rotting and being chewed on by snails, so I chopped out all the lower branches (about half the tree), fertilised it with old chook poo and mulched heavily with sugar cane mulch.

The lemons that came off the pruned branches are going to keep me busy for the next couple of days:

About half as many again ended up in the compost bin sadly, as they were rotted or mummified on the bush. A real shame, but I am going to have trouble keeping up with this lot I think, let alone what is left on the tree.

Naturally, after all that work the supervisors needed a rest:


Now I get to contemplate this empty space in the garden where I removed the two hibiscus. They were pretty (and provided screening from nosy neighbours) but the area is too shaded for them now, so out they came:


This area gets part sun, part-shade, so I am thinking it might be an ideal spot for my ginger, turmeric and galangal this year? The biggest drawback though is the the surrounding palms are shallow rooted, and digging up root crops each year is liable to do them some damage... I might have to resort to big pots or foam boxes? Not the most attractive solution, though is it?


Ah well, it will certainly make them easier to harvest.

Finally, as you know, at the moment I like to check the tropical apple trees that are currently flowering each day for signs of swelling that might indicate future apples forming. Well, check it out:


Yeah, baby.


Now I have my fingers and toes crossed that I get more than just these two :-)