Child of the Planet

Time has come to clean up and fertilise the fruit trees. First up, I threw down some seaweed and a handful of Roc solid fertiliser, over which I've laid down cardboard to kill off the grass. Horse shit on top to hold everything down.     First buds have appeared on the Granny and the Braeburn     The holes in between the trees have already been filled with friends green-waste and now I'll spread mulch over the top when I have it. My aim for this year is to keep as much moisture in the soil as possible.

Over the winter, I've been helping out people in the community with their pruning jobs. Most have been elderly and unable to scale ladders and drag branches around. I take the green waste away (which helps them out as the local tip 'charges like a wounded bull' for green waste) and I have accumulated a decent pile.    This week a mate helped me reduce it all to wood chip.

This week I noticed that sections of bark seemed to be peeling away on the granny smith tree. The exposed wood beneath looked like it was dry and dead. I put a photo up on FB and received suggestions such as salt spray from the beach, possums, slugs, or canker. Canker seemed the most plausible. After a bit of online research, pruning out the effected wood seemed to be the best option. The trees are still in their dormant winter phase so removal of extra wood shouldn't be too traumatic for them. I  pruned the bejezzus out of the granny and two other trees that seemed to have the same problem.    Whilst pruning one of these other trees I discovered a tunnel had formed down a branch. I found something similar when pruning the lemons earlier this year. I cut down far enough to expose this little yellow grub. Turns our that is is a lemon borer. It's a bit bigger then I expected. I doused each tree in neem oil to discourage other pests.   

All three vines have now budded and are furiously sending out shoots. Curious to see how meany flowers I get this year? The vine west most vine was the last to bud, and I'm hoping to train it along that wire in the back ground.