Calamondin Tree

A Calomondin Tree

Our friends Charley & David brought this orange tree for us as a present
The fruits can be used to make marmalade and I imagine other culinary uses
It can be kept on a bright windowcill or in a conservatory
Also it can stay in the garden for the summer so long as the temperature stays above 5 degrees.

Close up of two fruits

It seems very abundant at the moment so hope I don't kill it!

July in the Garden ~ Flora & Fauna!

Lesser Known Bay Tree Fruit Monkey!


Today we spotted this unusual addition to the Fauna count in our garden
We believe it to be the Lesser Bay Tree Fruit Monkey
But we could be wrong!

Here it is in close up; an escapee from Marwell Zoo maybe or one of the front bedrooms of next door's house!?

Blueberry Bush ~ July

This evening we constructed this fruit cage from Percy's design idea

Not too intrusive but lets the sunlight in

Hopefully we will defeat the hungry Blackbird
We've got quite a good crop and the berries are just beginning to ripen

Olive Tree

Small Olive Tree
July 1st 2010

This is the best show of flowers we have had on our little tree
Considering it was under 6" of snow on the patio in January it's quite amazing

Olive Blossom on our little tree

Previously when we've had buds they've just dropped off
I don't remember seeing flowers actually open before
I wonder if we will get any olives....

Front Garden ~ A Winter's Tale

January 2010
What a snowy scene in the front garden!

Me on the verge having been for a walk

Snow lying after many days and piled up on the garden to try to clear the driveway a bit.

My husband on the verge outside the garden

We had nearly 8" which fell in two days
~ Very unusual for south Hampshire ~

Front Garden ~ A summary

Front Garden

So far I haven't had much, if anything, to say about our front garden.
It is quite small just alongside the driveway in front of the house.

We have, so far, resisted the temptation to brick it, concrete it or tarmac it and especially not gravel it or shale it.
We have kept it with its square of grass with borders around; when we moved in there were 9 huge orange Mombresia plants around the lawn.... and nothing else!! We think there had been a tree in the middle but the only sign of that was the slight hollow in the ground.
I dug those up and then used to plant regimented rows of Salvia & Lobelia or French Marigolds but this proved to be a lot of work as the soil in the front is quite sandy and so the plants needed huge amounts of watering in the summer.
We planted a Winter Flowering Cherry many years ago and then surrounded it with cyclamen and then replanted the borders with small spreading Geraniums, various Fuschias and eventually some summer bulbs, like small alliums.
There are also a large number of white 'Bluebells', English, of course, another import from my parents' Devon garden. We have Snowdrops and a few Daffodils.
One of the borders, alongside the drive, was grassed over at some point so we stepped out onto grass from the passenger door rather than onto mud!
The border under the window was part turfed to provide a small bed which has some beautiful white Hyacinths for the early Spring then for the last 4 years has had Californian Poppies right through the Summer into Autumn.
Three years ago the Cherry Tree had grown too big; well not the actual tree but the roots!! We had 4" diameter roots heading straight for the house!! So we took it down and dug it out and replanted a baby one. We returfed the lawn at the same time as many of the roots had been quite shallow and messed the lawn up.
We like the Cherry Trees very much and will just watch this one.
I will sort a few pages of photos to show the front garden in the depths of this last very cold and snowy Winter and then some of the flowers through the Spring and into Summer.

June ~ Fruits growing

Nectarine Fruits

These fruits are just about the size of a large pea
Sadly we must protect them as once again as with the Filbert Nuts we find the squirrel prefers them under-ripe rather than not at all!
We get peach leaf curl on this tree but this year I have sprayed and it is less of a problem.
Next year I will spray earlier and get the ladder out to reach the tops of the branches.
I think maybe as it gets stronger it might be less susceptible.

You can already see the peachy/nectariney shape to this one.