Saturday, August 28, 2010

New plantings



'Spring is about to sprout,' as my 4-year-old daughter Ivy said to me yesterday while we were working in the garden together.


We have planted two new fruit trees, a lychee - not sure how it will go with the frost - and a new variety low-chill apple tree.


I have put the lychee right up against the polly water tank, in hope that the tank will keep the surrounding temperature above zero. The theory is that the water in the tank will never drop below freezing point, so the air around is 'might' also stay above freezing point when the frosts hit, although, we had no serious frosts this winter anyway. I will also cover the tree during frost session for the first couple of years and see if I can mollycoddle it along. The children love lychees and so do I. We shouldn't expect to see any fruit for the first three years, I am told.


Now to the apple tree. I don't know anyone who has experimented with low-chill varieties, but when I saw them in Daleys' catalogue (www.daleysfruit.com.au) I couldn't resist. They need a another tree for cross pollination. The tree I bought was a malus domestica, which needs to be crossed with a Golden Dorset or an Einshimer - neither were in stock. I have put it on the crest of the gully to see how it goes, although in the gully probably would have been better in terms of better exposure to frost. I am not sure how many frost hours it will require, but I have an old pear tree here which is a prolific bearer.



I have three weeks of holidays from my job and plan to use a lot of it in the garden.