Soil quality

The Orchard and Bed 1 are making progress. I spent time yesterday sifting both for rocks and roots, and breaking down the soil into a finer loam. Loam might be going too far, but I am working on the soil quality of each bed. They are raked, sifted, and leveled at two rungs below the top, to make way for compost, and manure. A layer of home-prepared compost has been raked into the surface of each, and Dynamic Lifter applied at the rate of a handful per square metre. All was watered in. Compost is going to be in short supply, and a second, and perhaps third, bin may be required.

Will also need a pitch-fork for working over the garden bed, and ensuring that the quality of the soil is more than skin deep. I have also raked over the pathways between the beds. Will wait until Darren has progressed upon constructing the bed for the trellis garden before laying a ground-cover on the walkways. More inclined toward a pine-bark mulchh than a small stone cover. Should be cheaper, too. The trellis garden will look similar to the bed out the back wherein grows a Chinese Star Jasmine, which is cut-sandstone blocks set in concrete. No more than 500mm wide and deep, and probably close to 4 metres in length.

The citrus trees I will buy from Daley's, but they are not all in stock at the moment, and are cheaper to buy altogether. Patience is the name of this game: Lisbon Lemon Satsuma Mandarin Tahitian Lime

I am also tempted to purchase a Kumquat to keep in a pot but need to assess the space left in the walkways after I place the two olive trees, and the fig, I already have. Patience, yikes!

According to the booklet on growing citrus, recommended by Letty, there is a recipe for soil that citrus thrive in. I am still missing a wetting agent, some gypsum, and some poo. The first two I will buy at Bunnings, and the poo I will cadge from Hamish across the road.

Is there a tipping point?

Is there a size tipping point from fruit garden to orchard? Regardless, I am calling this area our orchard. It has taken many hours of hard slog to render it free from the roots of the old fig tree [non-fruiting except for lorikeet and bat fodder]. My guess is it was a Port Jackson fig. The root system is massive, and extensive. Less so now that our slave-gang has attacked it with his mattock, and his axe, and his chain-saw!

I was astounded to see the extensive footings for what is a most unremarkable front fence, but which indicates the slope that lay upon the block in its original state. Taken together with the tier-ing of the rear garden, the block must have sloped by many feet to the south-east as it ran down to Middle Harbour via a catchment of small creeks still visible in the area. Look at this fence - more like a brick retaining-wall. There are seven courses of brick above the surface, and I can see six courses already below the surface. The fig roots that riddled this area have been severed, and there is enough loam and space to plant fruit trees directly into the ground.

For a computer network engineer, said slave has created a terrific 'bed' for our trees: a mandarin, a lime, and a lemon. The rocks has been reused from the original landscaping for gardenias. Indeed, the only new materials we have brought in are the raised beds themselves. Everything else is recycled. I have enough compost ready to go to fertilise the orchard AND one of the raised beds, and hope to have this spread by mid-May.

Now specifically what trees do I contemplate: a Satsuma Mandarin a Tahitian Lime, and a Eureka Lemon. They will get us started. I already have two olives and a Black Genoa Fig. I think one of the olives is for the high-jump, and into its large pot will go the BG Fig. I need to upgrade its feeding. I now have three empty large pots from which I removed murrayas as I already have a hedge of murraya along the front of the house. Into these pots will go a cumquat and two grafted Nelly Kelly Black passionfruit - once I have determined what I will trail them over! And got yet another hair-brained scheme through the management!