06/04/2026
I think every weekend should be a 4 day weekend; you really can get a lot of gardening done in that time!🤣🤣🥰
🍋🍊Easter Sunday morning I spent doing some citrus pruning in the front garden - a tiny bit of tip pruning and shaping to my mandarin - and also keeping the Lots of Lemons in check. I had to prune off some of the Lots of Lemon flowers, so I did what I'd seen in Vietnam, which was bring them inside and decorate the house ! I'd never thought to do this before, but on the street in Hanoi I saw many people selling the very fragrant citrus flowers, probably cumquats and pomelos, for Lunar New Year (Tet festival). I asked our guide what people did with it and he said it was to keep your house smelling nice and to decorate! So here, we are, lemon flowers inside in a vase 😍.
Later in the afternoon I got to a big job I've been putting off: pruning my larger olive in the front of the house. The first few years, I kept it trimmed and shaped perfectly, then, well, life ...and it's missed at least 2 years of pruning 😭😭😱.
So the pruning is not perfect, but long-handled pole saw, and handheld battery chainsaw, and it was mostly done by darkness. (It took another 2.5 hours to mulch it all up today!) It could do with a few more spindly branches removed up top, but it will do for now.
I'm also debating whether to remove a pomegranate that I have next to it, to give the olive more room and better shape. For this weekend I just pruned the pomegranate right down to think about it further. It's a long story, but I have 2 pomegranates in this location and they have never fruited. These were purchased at Bunnings, and I'm beginning to wonder if they were ornamental varieties! Generally pomegranates take about 3 years to fruit, but these have been in the ground at least 5 years, more likely 6. (I also had another pomegranate in another part of the garden that fruited insanely well for about 4 years , but was bought at a fruit nursery....) I think I better look for the tag that came with these ones, and see if there is any hope for them! Another problem is that a ringtail possum has completely denuded the leaves on 3/4 of both pomegranates. 😭They are deciduous but at this time of year they should have leaves. Sigh. I'm surprised they are so delicious to possums given they have so many spikes, but here we are. Suffice to say, I need to rethink if they are working for me here.
Anyway, one issue at a time, and as all gardeners know, a garden is never finished, so there's time to rethink and change things further in future. Right now, my pruning hand needs a rest 🤪
