My fruit tree row

 I've had the hardest time committing to where I should plant trees. Really, it's not a huge deal because I can easily move them while they're still small.

But I've settled on this little hill in front of the house being my fruit tree garden. It's great because I can see it from the kitchen window, it's close enough to the tap and most importantly will give us some much needed privacy!

What I didn't plan on was needing a fence around it, so I now need some defined borders so I can add a fence (that looks and stands up better than my quick fix).

Originally the fence was to stop the hares...

But now the birds have found my garden! The currawongs and magpies have been stealing tomatoes and strawberries, they're not too bad, but the cockatoos are so destructive and will destroy plants and trees.

So instead of getting trees in the ground, now I'm painstakingly measuring, marking and planning the perfect garden bed in order to install a proper fence. And according to my new plans, the sublime tree is in the wrong spot, just when it's starting to look happy and start flowering!

Between the wildlife, pets and a three year old I'm lucky if I get to eat anything grown in our garden!

A little orange tree

 I've been making progress with my garden planning, as well as changing my mind and moving a couple of trees! But so far my method of planting them in this horrible ground is doing well, I suppose the true test will be after a full year with all the seasons.

My process is as follows:

• Dig a big hole (width is 4 times the size of the pot and the depth is the same as the pot)
• Add a whole lot of mushroom compost and mix in and break up the clay soil
• Plant the tree about 20cm above ground level, mounding with mushroom compost/soil mix
• Create a ring around the edge of the hole (I mainly use the clay soil for this part) 
• Cover with mulch

The little ditch around the tree is necessary as it is so dry here that the water never gets a chance to soak in. I tried a mini swale with the elderberry I put in the chicken yard but it couldn't compete with the possum traffic and the gum tree. Next was a panama berry using a little ditch all the way around and it's doing great, although to be fair it was a small healthy plant that I grew from a cutting. I then planted a sublime tree that was on clearance and desperately needed to be planted which seems to have settled in so hopefully this little orange will do well, if not I'll blame this horrible cold wind we keep getting.

Next project is to figure out a fence for this section, the hares have found this garden and even chewed the top of a mango and avocado seedlings! Currently a very floppy and hastily set up chicken wire fence is keeping everything safe, although the magpies have been eating the strawberries so maybe I need to consider bird netting as well...

Jam

 I bought a tiny little cumquat tree from Bunnings last year, and it kept insisting on setting fruit so I finally gave up pulling them off. And it gave me enough for 4 small jars of jam! 

The rosella is finally fruiting, and doesn't seem to be stopping! The guineas have really been enjoying rosella leaves so I've started cutting off the lower branches for them. 

The cumquat jam was no problem to make, and is the perfect texture, I'm not really sure I like it though so I might not make it again. This is the recipe I used.

The rosella jam however, I burnt the first two batches. First thing I noted for next time was to let it settle longer before putting it in the jar as it turns out it was very frothy and needed to be skimmed. Second is to add the extra water to the seeds next time as it has ended up very thick. Last time I made it I did not have this much trouble, I'm blaming the stove in this house! If you'd like to make some, I used this recipe - that site is also a great place to buy seeds.

An english mulberry tree

 When I went to visit a plant nursery, I was looking for maybe a mandarin or a few natives, I definitely didn't plan to bring home another mulberry tree!

Terrible photo I know, but this is an English Mulberry which has very different leaves to all my others... obviously I had to buy it! So I've got the cuttings from my black mulberry we had at our old house, the native mulberry and this new english mulberry.

And then Ray went to "Coles" and bought me a weeping mulberry for Valentine's Day! And yes he did go to Coles on his way home, I was wondering what was taking him so long!