22 varieties of fruit in our new garden!

Meyer Lemon

I have just made a list of all of the different kinds of fruit trees, bushes and plants that I could identify in our new garden and was amazed at the number; 22 in all! So much variety, I am so happy. 

There are 4 different kinds of berries:

- Blueberries, which are flowering at the moment, on last years' growth. The previous owner told me that they harvested 5kg of blueberries last year off the three bushes. The bees and the tiny wax-eye birds are pollinating the flowers at the moment and are loving the pollen and nectar after the long Winter. Once the flowers are pollinated, they drop off the bushes leaving the fruiting-body behind to develop into yummy blueberries for us (and the blackbirds and thrushes no doubt) to eat.

- Thornless Blackberries or similar berry? One side of the house is filled with berry canes that are now just beginning to flower. I cannot tell from the plants which type of berry they are, but I like all berries lol. The question is, should I be cutting out the old canes now and just leaving the new canes in place?

- Raspberries. Just 3 canes of these starting to show Spring-growth.

- Orangeberries, these are trailing along the ground at the side of the house, near the lavender and raspberries. I don't know if the previous owner was successful in getting any fruit off the orangeberry plants. They are supposed to be temperamental when it comes to fruiting here in New Zealand.

6 different kinds of citrus tree:

- Lemons, fruiting now. They are Meyer lemons, large, yellow and juicy. Quite different in lemony-flavour than Lisbon lemons. Lovely to use a slice in a cup of tea, to use in some cooking recipes and of course, baking. Lemon meringue pie comes to mind, yummy!

- Naval Oranges. We have just finished picking the last of these. There is only one orange left in the fruit bowl now. They were delicious, juicy and full of flavour. Much better than shop-bought ones.

- Blood Oranges. These weren't successful in producing any fruit this year and there are no flowers on the tree. The leaves are yellowing. The tree looks as if it has been neglected. Dad and I gave all of the citrus trees a good dose of citrus tree fertiliser, plus some Epsom salts for all of the yellow-leafed citrus. I read that yellowing of citrus leaves is due to the lack of magnesium.

- Clementines. Again, no sign of fruit or flowers and they have yellowing leaves. Hopefully the treatment we gave them this week will revive the trees.

- Limes. There are two of these trees. One looks healthy and has lots of new leaves growing on it, although it only produced 3 limes this year. It looks like it is a young tree, so maybe this is why it didn't produce much fruit. The other lime tree is huge, there is a lot of fruit on it, but the fruit is very lumpy and bumpy, plus the leaves look green but are deformed. I don't know what could be wrong with it. 

- An Unidentifiable Citrus Tree. This is one large citrus tree, very healthy and full of flowers. It didn't produce any fruit this year. It will be exciting to find out which type of fruit it will have. I only hope that it isn't grapefruit. Unfortunately, neither mum, dad, nor myself can eat grapefruit as it is contraindicated with some medications we are on.  

3 types of stone fruit

- Peaches

- Apricots

- Plums

These fruit trees look old and they haven't been pruned properly, so we shall see what happens with them. The plum has a tiny bit of blossom starting on it and the peach has just finished flowering. There is no sign of life on the apricot tree yet, although it may be too early for it to flower. We have given all of these trees some fruit-tree fertiliser to help them along.

9 other fruit

- Apples. Still dormant after the Winter.

- Pears. Also dormant.

- Figs. New fig leaves have sprouted at the ends of the branches, all are looking fresh, green and good.

- Yellow-fruited cherry guava. There are some little green, unripe guavas on the bush and a lot of new leaf growth. The blackbirds are very interested in it.

- Rhubarb. A few leaves have come up now after the Winter.

- Passionfruit. There is a lot of new passionfruit-vine growth, which looks very promising. I will need to tie the vines up to some stakes before they start climbing up the bushes or the wind damages them.

- Quince. This looks like quite a youngish tree. It still had its plant label on it. The label was only slightly faded, but it was starting to cut into the trunk of the quince tree.

- Feijoas (Pineapple Guava). New flower buds have appeared on the tree, I hope that they will develop into fruit. 

- Olives. There are 2 olive trees. One lost all of its leaves during Winter. We had the wettest Winter on record here in Auckland this year. The soil became waterlogged. I doubt if the tree has survived. All you can see is bare branches. We will leave the tree where it is, just in case it is still alive, but I very much doubt it. The other olive tree, in a drier part of the garden, looks healthy and full of green leaves which is a relief.

I am enjoying keeping an eye on the fruit plants growing and also learning how to look after them. A new hobby for me. We are so lucky to have them in our garden. 

Now I need to find my lemon meringue pie recipe and start baking!

See you again soon.

Hugs, Rose xxx

We have moved to a new house!

Hi everyone, after such a long break in posting, I am back. The year 2022 to early 2023 was chaotic to say the very least. The biggest thing that has happened is that we sold our house and 10 acres that we lived in for over 40 years. 

We bought a house on a 1/3 of an acre of land in the next village. Dad was finding it difficult to manage the upkeep of the old house and land. He is now 93 and things got a bit too much for him. The new garden has established trees, bushes and fruit trees around the perimeter, a large deck to sit on and a lawn which dad can manage with his ride-on-mower.

Mum had an accident in the kitchen at the old house last year. She fell and broke her sacrum, at the bottom of her spine, and ended up in hospital for 11 weeks. While she was in hospital she caught Covid and other bugs which prolonged her stay. Mum had rehabilitation to get her to walk again, with the help of a walker, and she is now able to get around again. She was discharged from hospital on the day the furniture was moved into the new house and didn't manage to get to say goodbye to the old house. But she loves our new home.

Shortly after moving, dad caught double pneumonia. He started off feeling unwell and went to bed, then the next morning he stayed in bed, which is very unusual for him. I took his temperature, which was high, and he complained of pain in his side. He didn't think anything of it, but I insisted on taking him to A&E and he was admitted to hospital for 11 days. Dad's recovery was slow, but he is much better now, though he gets tired after pottering around in the garden and keeps needing to have breaks.

And as for myself, I thought I was just worn out, getting very tired and in pain for no particular reason, until I was diagnosed with Chronic Pain Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The diagnosis upset me very much, but I have now come to terms with it and am learning to pace myself so that I can do things that I enjoy again.

Today the clocks were set an hour forward, for daylight savings, and it is the third week of Spring which is my favourite season of the year. 

I am enjoying seeing our trees coming back to life with blossom and bright green leaves after a very rainy and stormy Winter. This is the first Spring in the new garden, so it is exciting to see what plants will come up. 

The flowerbeds are all in shade or semi-shade in this garden, so we need to plant shade-loving flowers in the gaps. We brought cineraria seedlings from our old house and they are doing very well as you can see in the photo above.

We also moved white irises, golden arctotis, yellow phlomis, white hellebores, purple tibuchina and freesias here. 

I spent some time this afternoon in the garden, with dad, planting some nicotiana seedlings which we had bought. It was pleasantly warm outside (16 C) and had just stopped raining, so I decided to take some garden photos to show you. I don't know the names of a lot of the plants here. The pink flowering bush above is just starting to flower.

 The light lavender flowering bush above is very pretty, It looks like it is a small tree that has fallen over because there is a tangle of horizontal branches behind it. The pink flowering bush to the right is a camellia.

More unknown plants. I think the green clumps of leaves may be arum lilies? I won't know until they flower! We planted a small bay tree in the plant pot and I am still deciding where to put it. It is in a sheltered spot at the moment while it recovers from being transplanted.

 This is a lavender coloured hebe and to each side of it you can just see pink hebes starting to flower.

There is a flower border full of lavender, at the side of the house, under-planted with dichondra silver falls. I need to weed this section as there is oxalis spreading along the front, smothering the dichondra. 

Above are more arum lilies in front of a yellow flowering shrub. And at the front, left of the photo is a rhubarb plant just coming up.

I hope that you are keeping well and enjoying the season that you are in, like I am. I would love to hear from you. See you again soon.

Hugs Rose xxx