In the beginning ...

In August 2010 we bought our first 100 Manzanillo olive trees (single stemmed babies of about 30cm high) from Plantgroup NZ on TradeMe at $3 per tree. A month later we've cleared an area, prepared the soil with gypsum, compost and limestone and started to plant the little things in rows of 2 metres x 3 metres apart.

The planting process took around three days. This is what they looked like.

The area that was cleared is about 50m up against the slope by 12m wide.

We've added carpets around each
little tree to protect them from weed
and to keep the soil moist in summer.

Staking them quickly one Saturday
afternoon when a gail force wind
threatened to blow them all away.

This is what they looked like after being in the ground for about a month.