State of the Garden

So before the rain came (again), I took a few pictures of the last of the fruit on the agrilicious trees planted in our backyard in the last year.

There were a few end of season figs that the squirrels had missed, the crop was pretty small overall but the nice lady at Bob Wells Nursery in Lindale told me it's due for a "pop" of fruit. Plus we cut down a nasty old hackberry tree that was giving it too much shade. Once we get volume, I plan to make "Miss Figgy Jam" for my friends.

Both the persimmon and pomegranite trees had blossoms, but no fruit developed. Maybe next year. They should be fine this winter as long as I remember to water them, they are pretty cold-resistant.

I love the citrus trees, no insects, squirrels don't eat the fruit, but they are not so hardy. My Key lime tree was pretty damaged by the latest of last winter's cold and died back to 3 feet of trunk. It now stands at about 8 feet tall, but no limes this year, all of it's energy went into recovering not fruiting. Last year it produced so many limes I had to sacrifice some so the branches wouldn't break.

I definitely had to sacrifice some of the ginormous beautiful-looking (but sadly weak tasting) Mandarin oranges, I only ended up with three very large specimens. My Mexican lime tree had lots of limes, they are beginning to turn yellow, as are my Meyer lemons.

The Meyer tree is planted in a container and I bring it in the house when it gets below 40 degrees, the other citrus are planted in the ground and I will be better about covering them this winter than I was last.

Oh and our newest additions, Popeye and Brutus the Arbequina olive trees? Well, poor Brutus was killed (et tu, Deuce and Tres?), but Popeye has found his earth, with a large fence placed around to protect him from those dratted back-stabbing dogs.