06/10/2025
There’s a saying that the best fertiliser is the shadow of the gardener.
My granny had a garden crammed with plants of all kinds, and she scoffed at the idea of a green thumb. “There’s no such thing! All it takes is to remember that plants are living things, and to notice when they need something, and care enough to do something about it.”
Two days ago I noticed that my almond tree was covered in little baby almonds, silky and silvery in their smallness among the green of the new leaves. I hastened to get a net for it, and put it on yesterday afternoon. Today I was noticing how much the nuts have grown in only two days, and the leaves of the trees are bigger in the afternoon than they were in the morning.
Someone else came to admire the growing nuts today. I heard an unusual sound in the nearby tall trees. In due course I saw that it was a pair of galahs. They sounded and looked surprised and annoyed. Their crests flared up and down as they squawked and burbled. They took a turn or two around and over my orchard trees before leaving.
There are windows of opportunity in natural cycles. Harvesting herbs in the early morning, collecting seeds after they are finished being green and have become ripe, yet before they are fallen off or eaten. Picking or netting fruit before the birds get it. Birds mostly have faster and better eyesight than humans. If you are looking at fruit and thinking, looks delicious, needs a tiny bit longer- chances are a bird will have also spotted it and will get it sooner. Birds mostly get up before humans. I couldn’t count how many times I missed getting plums because birds or possums got it first.
I’m quite pleased, that this time, I got the net on the tree before the birds stripped the tree.
11/07/2025