WELCOME JULY

Welcome to the second month of winter.  Last week provided a week of much needed rain and this week should be fine, but much colder.  The olive grove has been a little neglected, so this week should be an opportunity to get up there and into the pruning.  I have pruned about a third of the 70 trees and pruning also includes weeding and checking the drippers under each tree.

On the weekend we picked the last of the limes and the first of the grapefruit.  This poor little grapefruit tree is about 1 mtr high and has at least 20 large grapefruit.  The one for breakfast was delicious, juicy and only had 1 seed.  The oranges are also ripening, but may be at least another week.

All the citrus trees have quite bad black spot, so I will have to get up there and thin them out and use some white oil which seemed to clean them up last year.

The nearly one year old grape vines are all losing their leaves, so I am presuming when all the leaves have dropped that they, too, will have their rather vicious pruning back to 2 buds.  The fig tree is also nearly bare and the walnut is back to stalks.  The 2 avocados and macadamia are looking really healthy as are the apples.

We have purchased some portable electric fencing so that we can let 'the boys' into the grove to eat the pasture, but keep them away from the trees.

And now for the new 'bug' - I have been educated about slaters.  I have watched these little hard backed creatures first eat my petunias, then my peas and finally my fledgeling tomatoes.  So when I was to plant this bed for the fourth time - with snow peas and broad beans, I was going to prinkle around a powder which the nursery told me would eliminate my little friends.  However when I read the label, it said not to put it near plants you are going to eat.  I have instead used ash from the fireplace around all the plants thinking perhaps it might inhibit the night stalkers.

Celery bed

 
In another raised bed I had to harvest all the spinach as the RLEM (red legged earth mite) had started to get into two of the plants.  Last year they ate all the leaves of my potatoes in the ground, so I am very  wary of them.  Unfortunately no one seems to have a cure for them.  Their taste so far seems to be for soft leaves, so they have not touched my celery, which is not far from harvest.

Finally the rain has brought some rather creative hair styles for the alpacas.  The huacayas usually have this springy little "bonnet", but when wet you can really appreciate a bad hair day.  Also see Scrumpy on a fair weather day when he looks much more elegant.