The many joys of fruit trees

Last year I was lucky enough to secure a property with a good size garden with a wonderful selection of well-established fruit trees. Having lived here for almost a year I have had a chance to enjoy each of the different fruit as they have come into season.

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The last owners maintained a veritable orchard and market garden in the back garden. My garden has oranges, lemons, olives, nectarines, peaches, figs, apricots and two varieties of apples and pears. Most needed a good prune when we arrived as they had become overgrown.

I decided not to spray the fruit trees or provide any extra fertilisers for the trees and they have produced bags of fruit. Much of the produce I have had to share with the local bats, birds and assorted bugs. The birds and bats were however a great guide to the readiness of the fruit on the tree, very handy to novice fruit growers like myself.

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I have had to become a master of preserving fruit, making jam and curing olives, to keep up with the supply.  My favourites so far have been the peach jam and the pear butter. The peaches have been our success story, with many servings of apple pear or peach crumble, jars of preserved peach sections and the wonderful peach jam. My attempts at curing the olives did not go so well. I started with a huge pile of olives, several buckets in fact, but only ended up with enough properly cured to fill one jar. After some trial and error, I found dry curing with rock salt worked the best.

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Another benefit has been the ability to share the produce from our garden with our neighbours, family and friends. Handing over a bag of fresh organic fruit is a great way to meet and make friends. It seems every visitor I have had in the last 2-3 months has gone home with a small bag of fruit or a pot of jam or marmalade. Excess fruit has also been handed over to volunteers for the school fete to make into jams and preserves for sale.

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Throughout summer the fruit trees also provide spring blossoms, a great deal of shade in summer, and as they are deciduous, allow the light in during winter. Having a fruit tree is a little like magic, if you have an empty fruit bowl in the kitchen, you can just walk out to the garden and return with an armful of delicious apples or peaches. What could be better.

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If you think garden and your fruit bowl could benefit from some fruit trees  and would like some help getting started contact us via the link below.

Geelong Laneways

Central Geelong is an amazing place waiting to happen. While the economic identity of the city is undergoing a significant upheaval, Geelong’s urban landscape echoes the past and calls out to a new identity for the city.

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Blessed with an extensive and diverse network of laneways the inner city is a place that you can find the essence of Geelong as a city. While we all can enjoy the convenience of the large shopping malls dotted throughout greater Geelong region, with crisp white walls and air-conditioning, there is something a bit lifeless and homogenised about a shopping mall. Getting out and walking about the streets and laneways of inner Geelong is a great way to get to know the city in time and place. I took some photos on a recent walk through inner Geelong to record the details of the journey.

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Geelong Laneways spaces

I set out to take the scenic route and explore the inner workings of the city, the spaces between the buildings. Throughout this walk I found a highly urban landscape full of rich texture, history, art and space, not usually associated with a city which prides itself on its parks, open space and beaches. These elements all provide a layered experience of the city; signs for businesses long gone, doorways and thresholds worn with a hundred years of footsteps adjoin modern utilitarian components of the city. Complex urban landscapes like inner Geelong lend themselves easily to the telling of stories, real or imagined, about the lives lived amongst these places.

 

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Geelong Laneways texture

The nice neat façades on the main street frontages give no indication to the eclectic nature of the laneways behind. These are the stripped back spaces left over when buildings are being designed. These spaces are often more intriguing places in a city and have a level of honesty often lacking in the more public veneer of the city. Designers sometimes try too hard to impose new and fresh spaces that can take years to gain a sense of character and place for their inhabitants. By slowing down and having a fresh look at old surroundings we may find the beginnings of captivating spaces just waiting to happen.

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If you think you might have an intriguing outdoor space waiting to happen feel free to contact us to find out how we can help you get the most out of your garden.