Garden: Tree Trimmin'

It's that time of year, again.  Trimming up the olive tree so it doesn't look like an olive bush.  Per various reputable and not-so-reputable sources, a new tree should be trimmed up over the course of three years.  This is year 2.  Here's the hired help.  Don't laugh, they work cheap, if not for very long.

Sun spot in the bottom corner.  Unfortunately, cropping it ruins the effect of seeing the before.  And, the trees been trimmed, so there's no taking another before picture.  This blogging thing is harder then I thought.

And, the after.  Not too shabby for a guy with little to no clue.  Next year, we'll trim it up one more time and, hopefully, it should actually look like a tree.  Go figure.

I also can't figure out what kind of olive it is, but this year it gave another hint in that there are no olives.  So, it's bi-annual.  Hopefully, it's bi-annual and I didn't neuter it somehow.  Don't tell me all olives are bi-annual, either.  With me thinking I have a clue and all.

An Update on the Olives

The olives have been curring for six weeks, now since we harvested them.  We tested the ones being cured in water and the result was "bitter and watery."  The salt cured olives were just "bitter".  We dumped the water cured olives since I figure adding more water to something that is watery was a loss cause.  I put the salt cured back into cure for another week and we'll try them again.

I still am not sure what type of olives these are.  They were completely black on the tree and have now turned a more pinkish purple after curing.  And, both the water and salt cured looked identical, so I don't think it was the method that affected the color.  I'm thinking it's either Mission, Lucaca or Santa Caterina.  It's now safe to say, since I've typed that, it will end up being none of them.  Onward!

Weekend Chores

Quite exciting weekend in that some gardening actually got accomplished.  Even more exciting since the word "Garden" is in the title of this blog.  I believe that's called a win-win.  I always like to throw in a bit of business terminology that makes my stomach turn.  Anyway, on to the gardening...

We got about halfway through trimming back the lavender.  It's the first time we've trimmed these, and they are coming up on year three.  They look a bit butchered, but I'm hopeful they bounce back.  We didn't touch the one's that are blooming, such as the one in the upper right of the picture above.  We'll hit the second half next weekend.

As you can see, the 13 or so lavender have kind of grown into one large mound of plant.  Which, of course, was the point.  I love it when a plan comes together.  Especially, because it happens so seldom.  Not that it comes together, more that we actually have a plan.

Next up was something I have been concerned with for some time.  The trimming of the olive tree.

Of course, I didn't take a picture of it before I trimmed it.  Remember the whole "we rarely have a plan" comment?  This would fall into that category.  (Actually, fine reader, you really should substitute the "we" with "me" or "I", as my lovely wife always has a plan.  I just stumble along.)  Here is a picture of the olive from a few months back:

As you can see, it was really more of a bush.  Now, it's more like a tree bush.  I hacked off about the bottom two feet.  Next year, we'll hack off a little bit more, and then it should really look like a tree.

In the meantime, let's all light a candle and hope it doesn't die.

Olive Harvest 2010

Saturday we headed out to the front 40 (not acres, mind you, more like square feet) for our very first olive harvest.  Now, we only have one tree, so let's not make this out to more then it is, but it was still quite exciting as it was the first thing we've ever really harvested.  I don't consider the occasional tomato or the instantaneous eating of a somewhat red strawberry by my son to be a harvest.  So, here we were:

Kiki hunting for olives.  She did pretty well, once she understood we didn't want the ones on the ground.

My son really got into it.  Especially, when he figured out he would need a ladder.  That was great fun.

We still have no idea what kind of olives these are.  So, we're sticking with "black".  We harvested these fairly late, December 4th, so nearly all of them were black.  And, when I say nearly I mean 99%.  From what I understand, olives can be harvested from September to December, with the greener olives providing a different flavor then the more mature black olives.  Whether or not this is correct with our unknown variety, I don't know.  Next year, we'll be noting on the calendar to harvest half in October and the other half around Thanksgiving.  That way, we'll compare the difference between harvesting at different times.

The pot is actually lower in the grass, so it looks like less, but according to the NASA-like accurate bathroom scale, we got around 8 pounds.  And, yes, I remembered to subtract the weight of the pot.

We did some research online as to the different ways to cure the olives.  Since, I didn't want to go out and buy anything exotic, meaning stuff that wasn't already in the pantry, we're curing the olives using two different methods.

Half of them we are curing in plain water.  Olives in, water in, that's it.  My father-in-law is doing the same with his olives and changing the water once a week.  I've read the water should be changed once a week and I've read it should be changed daily.  Being realists, we're going with the once a week approach.

The second half of the crop we're curing using a brine.  One quarter cup of salt to one quart of water.  That will also be renewed once a week.  Both of these methods should yield edible olives in three or four weeks.

Water bath on the right, and brine on the left.

Once we're done, my family will have a taste test and let both of you know how they turned out.  You see, I can't stand plain olives, so they will all taste terrible to me.  However, everyone else eats them like candy, so I'll leave the tasting to the experts.

The Front, Stage 1, aka, "The North 40"

Alright.  Here it is.  The first part of the yard shown that does not consist of a single plant.  This is the first section of yard that we are tackling.  Now, as I have stated previously, our yard is not large by the standards of someone who lives in say Alaska.  Or Montana.  Or Siberia.  However, by the standards of the state of California, the yard is pretty decently sized.  Now, I haven't been able to muster the courage to show the entire yard.  I'm still compiling my list of caveats related to each possible picture I could show.  It's quite an ugly site.  In my defense, though, I did not have much to start with.  I believe that would be caveat one.  As a breach to that defense, and as my wife would quickly point out, I am the king of demolition.  I remove everything that could ever want to be removed.  However, I'm not nearly as diligent in the reconstruction process.  The yard, unfortunately, has suffered the brunt of this problem.

So, what we have decided is to tackle the yard in pieces.  That will limit the area we need to concentrate on.  Our plan is actually to create a series of rooms within the property, so dissecting the yard actually fits quite nicely into that plan.  This is what we decided to tackle first.  The front yard off the driveway.  On the sprinkler system we inherited this was labeled the "North 40".  I've decided to stick with that.

Prior to this, the area consisted of lawn.  Next to gophers, lawn is the one thing in this world I despise the most.  Dictators of third world nations who rule with an iron fist are a distant third to these two items.  Within the lawn, there was an ornamental plum tree and a Magnolia.  Now, I have nothing against either of those trees, there were two issues (one with each).  The plum was planted too close to the knee wall.  The magnolia tree was the free city tree that came with the newly constructed houses.  Meaning, every house all the way down the block has the same tree, in the same spot of the yard.  They're Stepford trees.  That wouldn't do.  So, they were the first two trees to come down.  The battle with those stumps is a story for a different occasion, while drinking a different cocktail then I am currently drinking.  And, yes, all bloggers drink when they blog.  Or, at least they should.

The new area consists of the Pigmy Date Palm to the left of the second picture, which is the only surviving item from the previous regime.  It's named Bob.  Different story.  We then have the olive, which is in previous posts.  The small slope is covered with lavender, fourteen in total along with three Italian Cypress.

Two types of Agapanthus are up against the neighbor, the Sprinkler Maven.  The two largest are Agapanthus 'Lily of the Nile' and the three smaller are Agapanthus 'Stormcloud', which are supposedly cobalt in bloom.  Looking at the picture, I'm not sure how that will look against the lavender.  I'm not fond of my blue suit with lavender pocket square nor lavender socks, but I digress.

The front of the yard is rimmed with Boxwood Green Beauty (buxus microphylla japonica).  Capped on two ends with Golf Ball Kohuhu's (pittosporum tenuifolium), which is better seen in the first picture scarred by the leg lifting neighborhood dog.  If anyone knows of a way of electrifying foliage, I would be willing to pay for the information.  We had a third Kohuhu; however, the Sprinkler Maven made sure one didn't survive the liquid onslaught.  Once they grow into a solid wall, I'm hoping it will look quite spectacular.  Sweet Jesus, I left the weeder in the picture.

Here is the line up of boxwoods, along with our drip system.  Yes, I understand that is should be buried, but do keep in mind, I have the memory of a gnat.  Ask my wife.  If I bury it now, it is guaranteed that I will slice through it each and every time I dig a hole for a new plant.  And, in this space, we imagine there will be at least another twenty plants.  That's twenty repair jobs.

Also, note the boxwoods are set back away from the sidewalk.  We're going to put a ground cover between it and the sidewalk.  We have decided the mulch is ugly.

Lastly, we have three mirror bushes, two Coprosma Repens Marble Queens:

And, one Coprosma Rainbow Surprise:

Lastly, my God this is long, I need to go get another drink.................lastly, you will notice all these plants are small.  This is a very, very, very, very young garden.  The lavender and cypress are a year old and everything else (olive in June of '09) has been put in during the last couple of months.  We have a lot of plants that need to be acquired and a surprising amount of patience to wait for them to grow.  I'm actually going to attempt plants from seed soon as a way to fill the space while still being able to afford food.

The Olive

It's difficult to tell, but this will eventually be the piece de resistence of the garden.  In the front yard, just to the right of the house is our olive tree.  Although, it looks a lot more like an olive bush at the moment.  It does measure around 11 feet tall and maybe 8 feet wide.  It just went in last June, so we're waiting until this fall to begin trimming the bottom branches to make it actually look like a tree.  Come November, one would actually be able to see the multiple trunks.  There are five.

It is fruit-bearing.  Unfortunately, we have no idea what type of olive it is.  We'll have to wait for the first fruit and then ask someone who knows about these things.  It's the one item in the landscape we did not plant ourselves.  It was the best money I ever spent, as I watched the gentlemen from King Landscape wrestle it off of a trailer and into the hole.  A 36" box, I learned, is out of our area of muscle power.  When asked what type of olive it is, the landscaper scratched his head and said he didn't really know.  Since this tree will last a lot longer on this earth then we will, I guess there is no harm in waiting to find out.

Next up this weekend is some work on the vegetable garden and some planning of the bed this tree, along with the lavender previously discussed, lives in.  Our goal is to have this whole bed planted by the spring.  I think we'll miss it by a few weeks, but should get it in before the heat arrives.  Stay tuned.