Looking forward

After battling for a frustrating two hours with the previous post - and eventually giving up on ever sorting out the font size and formatting, I've decided to move on.

This is something I DID enjoy today.  Checking all the fruit trees for spring blossom - even though it is still officially winter here.  It's hard to believe when daytime temperatures are consistently around 20C.

The oranges, lemons, limes and cumquats are all in flower.  There was a fat bee busy at work on this espaliered lemonade tree. 

As long as we can provide enough water, there should be a bumper crop this year.  There are already some egg-sized fruit at top left.  And only last week I picked the last of the previous season's fruit.

This was the tree last year when it cropped for the first time.  In front are chilli and sweet basil plants.

                        

The fruit-fly traps with their attractant of May oil are are a real success.  The bottles are full of both dead and live insects.

The recycled plastic bottles each have a band of yellow tape around their lids.  It is the yellow colour as well as the scent of the oil that attracts these little fruit-sucking critters.

         

There. Now I feel better!

Comments

[Sonia]

Beautiful orchard!
Have a nice weekend!

[Tabor]

Good idea on the bottle. Maybe I can try a version of that next spring when we get our insect implosion.

[Lee]

I love this time of the year with all the citrus trees bearing their beautiful, succulent fruits. I can't get enough of them! Your garden looks great.

[Ronni Bennett]

Summer is coming to an end in Maine and it's felt like fall already for the past ten days or so. One of the terrific things I just realized about knowing a gardener on the other end of the world is the tips I collect over my winter, your summer, for my garden next year.

I have no idea if I'll need insect traps on my small deck garden next spring, but what a great idea. Just one question: what is May oil?

[Linda]

I've enjoyed your writings. I loved the start on your list of 100 things... I agree with many!

I tried to find what "May Oil" is as it sounded like a great preventative measure for a lot of different vegetables. I'm in Central Florida and probably have a different list of aggravating pests, but I think your bottle trap might suit a lot of different species with just a bit of altering.

What is May Oil?

Thanks,
Linda