esrosedotblog

STUMPED

I mentioned that we are having the annual pruning done.

Sometimes I think that the people who have no leafy trees but palms and some non-leafy desert plants have the right idea. They don't have to do annual pruning. But that feeling only lasts a little while.

The heat and fertility (add water and stand back) here creates incredible growth. For back-east boys, this is phenomenal. I mean feet of branch; not inches.

But, the people who built our house planted trees and more trees. We have a male and female carob. Yes, they mate.

We have pepper trees, banana trees, citrus trees (three plus two in pots), we have olive (with blossoms and olives if we don't spray) and we have the California oleander to say nothing of our really wonderful orchid tree.

All of them need to be pruned. It takes a crew of two, two days plus some helpers for a few hours to clean up and work with some heavy lifting and sawing.

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our mostest, favoritest, oldest grapefruit trees. It has been withering for a few years and was down to a minimum leaf growth. It could not even protect itself from the high ultra-violet sun. So we cut it to the base.

We watched. We felt sad. I had a few sniffs.

We did everything we could to keep it but it was over forty years old and that is the life span.

Now, when it is all over and the pieces gone, there is a nice open space out there and it is possible that we will not replace it at all.

We were going to put a smoke tree in. Gardener Paul says that they come in huge three by three tubs to hold the gigantic root they put down to get started. The above ground plant itself is about two feet high. It would take years to grow to any height. We could be gone first.

Desert plants grow slow. Another reason for desert plants and palms.

But we have trees! Our predecessors planted them. And we prune them every year. Severely. And that is fine with us because they are beautiful (if messy) and the shade is great in the summer.