Our lemon tree

by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

in Cape Town, South Africa

Poor embattled tree. House had tenants for years. One idiot WIREd the tree to a stake! The following tenants left the branch to grow over the embedded wire.

I can always pick a lemon from our tree

Lemon tree wired to that stake in 2014

Discovered Treasure for June is the established lemon tree. Permaculture food. I can pick a few lemons from our tree year round!

Discovered Treasures in our False Bay garden
Lemon and carob trees
Shrubby Marble Chips and Plectranthus

Your chosen plant for June?

Pam in the Poconos has picked a vase of mock orange for its fabulous scent!

Donna in Upstate New York brings dusky pink milkweed to her caterpillars and hummingbirds. 

Reaching for the sun in June 2014

When I first saw the tree, it was overwhelmed by next door's hedge pouring over, and a pair of Australian brush cherry monsters (from That Hedge). One feisty branch was reaching up for a corner of sunlight, and remains the most vigorous.

Lots of lemons in July 2015

We had the invasive aliens removed. We removed the stake and I cut the wire. I removed the dead and entangled branches, one by one, giving the tree a chance to recover. I lifted the elbowing and shouldering and poke you in the eye lower branches, also the way too high to pick from branches battling to sun. As I harvest each fruit, I tidy THAT branch.

Focal point from the washing pergola

Once the Ungardener had laid the paving slabs, the tree had to be altered to fit. For months he muttered about being whacked on the head by lemons as I waited for harvest.

Focal point from the path around Froggy Pond

I have a final ugly elbow and a fresh set of reaching for heaven branches. I have achieved a graceful interesting trunk with a twisty fan of branches. A focal point, both when you step out of the kitchen and gaze down Cornish Stripe through the frame of the washing pergola to a glimpse of mountain, and when you walk down the other side to Froggy Point where the barrier of That Hedge is a backdrop for my lemon.

With a necklace of inherited violets and my Felicia
mulched with citrus peel

Our tree has bugs or fungus beneath the leaves, which sunbirds and white eyes appreciate. At the garden club Harry Goemans Garden Centre man explained if you use systemic poison, you must wait 6 months to harvest. Shriek of indignation from the lady behind me. Silent screams from me about 6 months of toxic waste lemons. Why, if you use the lemon zest would you use an oil-based poison laced thru that fragrant lemon oil? Or a systemic poison, IN the lemon juice?!

~~~~~

We went on our first hack (with the Friends of Silvermine every first Saturday). Black wattle seedlings (from Australia) already as tall as I am a year after the fire. I pulled the smaller seedlings and have the, wrapped around my arm for traction, bruise to show for it. He used loppers and a bow saw (how strange was that to carry them into a nature reserve!) with poison on the stumps. But singing while they worked were the 3 men with tree poppers. I tried - even I - could remove a sapling!

We hiked up and over that ridge
carrying our tools in Silvermine

~~~~~

Cape Town's dam levels are 30%! We hope fervently for rain this winter, but I anticipate more severe garden watering restrictions next summer. Perhaps a simple grey water system to harvest the washing machine water for anything except acid-loving fynbos and pots?

Astroturf?
Green in a drought-stricken country

We live on False Bay. Satellite view shows an alarming patch of 'Astroturf' green, as if the Clovelly Country Club uses the Silvermine River to irrigate its greens. Our priority in a mediterranean climate with long hot summers and a city with a rapidly growing population? Western Cape farmers hoping for rain.

I invite you to join us at Elephant's Eye on False Bay. Please subscribe as you prefer

via Feedly,

or Bloglovin,

Email with Feedburner,

or Facebook

Pictures by Jurg and Diana Studer

of Elephant's Eye on False Bay

(If you mouse over teal blue text, it turns seaweed red.

Those are my links.

To read or leave comments, either click the word Comments below,

or click this post's title. If you are in email or a Reader, first click thru to the blog)