My Imperial Mandarin Tree

It’s been such a different year since the drought finally broke.  I’m noticing it especially with my mandarin that’s now laden with fruit.  The tree is actually struggling to contain all the fruit it’s put on.  With good consistent rainfall throughout the growing season coupled with a trailer load of horse manure (courtesy of a considerate friend), the branches put on about half a metre (half a yard) growth.  Pretty good considering it’s a dwarf variety. Abundant flowers followed and now the new lanky growth can’t hold the weight of the fruit.

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With over 100 mm (that’s 4 inches in the old scale) rainfall recorded in my own backyard over the last week I think webbing between my fingers and toes may become a permanent  and necessary addition.  We’ve had the month’s average amount of rain fall in just the first 3 days and there’s no relief in sight for the next couple of days anyway.  My poor garden is sure to suffer. Read the rest of this entry

Cockatoos – you might think they’re great but to me they’re nothing more than avian trouble-makers looking for something to destroy, vandals of the feathered variety, the hoodlums of the air!

We’ve been eyeing off some great looking passionfruit each week at the Greengate Community Garden anxiously waiting for them to ripen fully.  Last Monday I arrived only to find that a flock of white destroyers had attacked our crop and left the place strewn with carcasses like a battlefield. Read the rest of this entry