Operation rabbit recovery

Last year around this time, rabbits wreaked havoc in the grove nibbling on the bark of the little trees. Some of them were nearly ring-barked, to the extent that what was left of the trunk/bark wasn't enough for the trees to recover from the damage.

Apparently this is somewhat of a spring problem. The bark on the trunks turn sweet in springtime, making it a lovely snack for animals. This probably also explains why the possums are chewing the bark off our apple trees! Amongst others. So, if you've got sheep grazing your grove, now would be the time to move them out. They too love the sweet bark and will nibble on your trees this time of year.

The little trees that were nibbled last year, made new growth lower down the trunk. In most cases this new growth were much more vigorous than the original tree. So, maxing out my own nerves, I decided to chop off the damaged trees to let the new growth become a new trees. Phew. That was one of my bolder moves in the grove.

Downsizing our damaged trees in the hope of having more productive ones in a few years.

RoundUp

Or in our case Weed Out won the battle against grass and weed around the trees. I know I've previously  swore high and low never to use glyphosates around the trees, but you know you've lost the battle when you physically can't keep up against monsterous grasses and weed. The kind that reaches heights that are way over your head (or rather my head, which is not that far from the ground, I might add).

The result gives me tremendous pleasure - seeing all those bad prickly weeds slowly die!
:-)

We pain "stake"ingly made the wrong decision - 18 March 2012

After only nine months, our organic stakes (which we were promised would last 10 - 15 years in the ground) proved not to have made the grade. They are rotting off at a rate and the slightest wind blows them over.

So the search for new, thicker, taller, treated stakes started again. I contacted David and he immediately came to the rescue (thanks David!). He offered his secondhand stakes at a very reasonable price, se we opted to buy some from him and fetched the first batch in middle March. The car can unfortunately only take that much, so we will have to make a couple of trips to the Kapiti Olive grove.

The stakes are about a meter long and without sharp ends. After Gerry sharpened most of the first batch, we started hammering them in. Again quite a tedious task and hard on the body. But we are very happy to now also be able to tie the trees up a bit higher, since a lot of them bent over with the shorter stakes, looking like question marks and growing into weird shapes. In my infinite wisdom I thought the only reason for staking trees, is to prevent root-shake. But it turned out that the trees grew so fast that they quickly reached three times the height of the old stakes! And with all that growth, the main stems are fairly thin still, and not able to hold the canopy of the tree upright, hence strong winds and last year's snow snapped some of them in half.

An 83km wind also blew over some 20 odd trees recently. The tiniest ones that were still staked with bamboo, suffered the most. A lot of the bamboo stakes also started rotting in the soil and snapped off.

We started fixing the worst-off trees first, using our first batch of new stakes, but we definitely need to make another trip for more stakes soon.

The original short stakes and the new solid taller stake. Much better.

Compost mulch - two flies with one slap :) - 12 January 2012

Yes, I know, 'two birds with one stone' is the correct English for the saying, but that sounds so mean, cruel, really just conjures up terrible thoughts of dead birdies. Wait, maybe when the birds start stealing our olives, I might change my mind about them. As is currently the situation with the possums. They look so cute and cuddly, but they really are a pest. Fortunately then don't like olives, but they eat just about everything else including rose buds! One friend suggested that I start a little possum grave yard, which might not be such a bad idea after all. If I spread them nicely, marking the spots for the next batch of olives trees, they can serve as compost. And as another friend then said - that's what she'd call compossum! 

With our imminent SA visit and being out of the country for 50 days, we thought that mulching with compost around the trees should at least keep the weeds sort off at bay. Boy was I wrong - it grew like crazy! But that aside, we ordered six cubes from The Landscape Yard and started hauling buckets full of shit up the hill. What a mission. Fortunately our friends, Brian and Trish, came to the rescue, helping us one morning to make a huge dent in the mountain of compost.

Within 5 days the job was done and dusted. And what a pretty sight - a freshly mowed, clean of weeds and cared for grove.

The dung beetle at work! Not as effective as the real McCoy though ...

6 cubes - a fairly significant heap of compost.

Ready for action.

About one cube to go.

Should do something about the pavement ...

Isn't that a pretty sight?

One of each - 2 January 2012

I've decided, just for fun, to buy one of each type of olive tree that I can lay my hands on. It should make for a nice experiment to see how the different trees are doing in our area. We allocated an area amongst the other fruit trees where all the odds and ends are planted.

So far our 'one of each' collection includes:

- Pendolino
- Leccino
- Rakinos
- J2
- Chemlali
- Signore
- El Greco
- Koroneiki
- A mystery tree - one that was here when we bought the land.

Then there's my other curse which forces me buy nearly dead trees in an attempt to "save" them from fatality. As part of that we also have 4 Barnea, 2 Verdale and one each of Frantoio, Ascolano and a J5. The latter 4 also make up the bulk varieties of our grove.

The search continues.

One month later

Wet feet in it's extreme form. Shortly
after 104mm of rain over a weeks time.

With Arbor Day something of the past and winter in full swing, our little babies are taking a bit of strain. I'm not sure which is worst; the rain rendering our clayish soil very soggy in parts of the grove, or the wind blowing the trees sideways, breaking some branches and even snapping one in half!

What can I say ... the wind is not playing nicely.

We have now officially joined Olives New Zealand and I can't wait to get my nose into their growers manual. Although we might be doing things a bit unorthodox, unconventional and probably not 'traditionally correct', we are trying to make the best of the resources and knowledge we have, with a bit of luck and gut feel thrown into the equation. It will be a slightly different story if you approach olive growing purely as a business opportunity (and having the money to do so!); searching for property/land that are suitable in all aspects, from soil to wind and frost, to north facing slopes, the correct gradient, big enough to plant the trees 6x6m apart for mechanical operations, with shelter belts, etc.

Unfortunately we are not in the position to buy "ready-made" land in a traditionally correct area (we will be the trail blazers for this area since we are the first growers around here that I'm aware off :-)), but instead are just making-do with the tiny patch of land we have.

We also did not "rip" the land and we did not lay irrigation systems, neither did we invest in more water tanks, at least not for now. This will all come with time, as will the knowledge of pickling olives, health&safety issues, as well as the extension of the house to become a workplace for the processing of the olives. Having fruit bearing trees is not something that happens overnight, which is why we wanted to get the trees in the ground as quickly as possible. We tried to make the best of the situation by enhancing the soil as far as possible and we will continue to do the best we can with the resources and knowledge we have. As mentioned before, this is more a process of the heart than a process of the mind, but we are trying not to make blatantly dumb mistakes.

The days are slowly starting to become a tiny bit longer again, being past the shortest day and longest night, but it seems as if the coldest temperatures are still to come. We've had a couple of nights where the temperatures dropped below zero, but the days are mostly fine. The trees seems to be growing? I spotted new growth that must have happened over the past two months or so. Is this normal?

The past week has seen 104mm rain, which is great for our water tank, but bad for the olives where we haven't had the time yet to do something about the drainage. This we need to address quickly as 20 or so trees may suffer from wet feet. The past summer has been very dry and we might well have water problems come summer, but hopefully we can make a plan with additional water tanks before then.

Taking things little by little and tackling the problems as they come. Eating the elephant, one bite at a time. :)

Making use of a break in the constant rain to
quickly straighten up one of the very tall trees.

Horrible, horrible norwesterly. Snapped one right off.

I decided to try and mend the snapped stem.
Probably not going to work, but it's worth a try.

Trying to save the poor thing.

Arbor Day (times eleven) - 5-16 June

“The whole Mediterranean, the sculpture, the palm, the gold beads, the bearded heroes, the wine, the ideas, the ships, the moonlight, the winged gorgons, the bronze men, the philosophers - all of it seems to rise in the sour, pungent taste of these black olives between the teeth. A taste older than meat, older than wine. A taste as old as cold water.”

- Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990) ‘Prospero's Cell’ (1945)

Two hundred fifty-five trees to plant. Two people. One garden fork. One acre of hill. And the winter and rainy season on its way.

The last couple of weeks have been a marathon session, turning paddocks into "workable" land for an olive grove: mowing lawn, clearing out patches of grass, carrying loads of 25kg bags of compost, limestone and gypsum up the hill, digging holes, planting trees, hammering in stakes and tying trees to stakes for some sort of protection against the wind (of which we have our share, being 2kms from the windfarm!).

From dusk to dawn, we were slaving in the orchard taking it row by row and tree for tree. Isn't that how enormous, seemingly impossible tasks are handled? Little by little. One by one - eventually you get there. And at the end of it, I'm always amazed at what one person (or two in this case) is capable off. Whether you walk 800 kilometres in 26 days or plant hundreds of trees in a couple of days - things are almost always more do-able than you might think.


A couple of photos to show the process:

Gerry trimming knee-high grass.

Taking a coffee break between heaps of grass that still need to be raked to somewhere!

Marking the positions of the trees with blue spray paint.

The paddocks after all the grass were mowed and the markings in place. The "before" picture ;-).

Preparing the hole for the very first tree to be planted. A J5.

Mixing in compost, limestone and gypsum.

Hopefully this tree is marking the start of
big things to come.

The first row of J5's starting to take shape.

J5's ready and waiting.

The first row halfway up the hill. Gerry staking
the trees as we go.

Halfway through the process.

Beautiful little J5 trees on top of the world!

Collecting garden tools at the end of a hard days work.

Staking the last tree for the day just before sunset.

At the and of it all - 11 days later on a lovely sunny afternoon, we popped a bubbly between the trees
to celebrate the new olive grove.

The "after" photo. :-)
This is the grove as it stands now. From the left: (not seen in this picture) 5 Ascolano trees right at the top.
Second row (Sevillano planned) still empty, the next three rows are more Ascolano's, one row Frantoio, then two rows of South Australian Verdale, another empty row (future Picholine) and the last three rows with J5's.
11 rows in total except for the 5 extra trees at the top (Tharfield included a couple of extra trees
in the batch we bought from them).

It's been a couple of days since planting and the rainy season is upon us. We spotted hundreds of earthworms crossing the road, presumably trying to get away from the soggy soils (?).

The stakes are high!

Realising that the little Manzanilla trees of last year have outgrown their bamboo stakes, we decided to upgrade to two hardwood stakes per tree. I really don't like it when trees are tied up against one stake, not being able to move or "breathe" at all. The trees have to toughen up at some point, and giving them a bit more leeway seemed like the logical option. Trees are in any case not supposed to be staked indefinitely. Just the first couple of years to keep the roots intact while they develop strong stems that can withstand gusty winds. What you don't want is "root-shake" - the tree swaying in the wind until damage is done to the roots. And since we are about 2kms, as the crow flies, from the wind farm, wind is unavoidable.

The downside of two stakes per tree was that we immediately doubled the expense. We saw an advert in the Organic NZ magazine by Growing Things and decided to give them a go. They sell, amongst others, hardwood stakes that are untreated (organic if you like) and should last 10 to 15 years in the ground. At least that is what they claim. Mike Ponder, in his book "The Good Oil", mentioned that the hardwood stakes they used only lasted a year in the ground ... I really hope this is not the case.

Gerry helping to carry the stakes to our car.

Gerry and Jan between heaps of different stakes at the Growing Things warehouse. 
I think the ones we got are beech wood.

Hammering in 200 stakes in one morning is no easy feat! It resulted in a number of nasty blisters. :-}

Grove layout

After much consideration, the final layout of the grove is now fixed. I have included supplier names to see how the different trees "perform". They will all get the same treatment/care, although none of them might get the right treatment! Hopefully this will not be the case. :)

Kalamata is off the map at this stage, but not for good. I will add these if and when we can source them as time goes on. They will be planted towards the left of the Manzanilla block.

Sevillano (Queen) and Picholine (the classic Martini olive) still need to be sourced.

Literature

Having difficulty finding enough relevant information on the internet, we reverted back to good traditional old books. I realise that it would have been the right thing to do my homework first and I'm probably doing everything wrong (I'm sure the experts would say) - planting the trees and then trying to gain some knowledge about the subject, but as everybody knows: when passion kicks in and the heart takes over, the mind and rational thinking takes second place :).

Gerry sourced most of the books on TradeMe, secondhand, and we bought one new from Capital Books in Wellington. They are:

Producing Table Olives - Stan Kailis & David Harris (Capital Books)
The Good Oil. Growing olives in New Zealand - Mike Ponder
Pruning and Training Systems for Modern Olive Growing - Riccardo Gucci & Claudio Cantini
Olives the New Passion - Genevieve Noser
The Olive Book - Gareth Renowden

All Kiwi and Aussie related, with some of them published by the CSIRO and others by local growers. This should keep my busy for a while, so excuse me while I go do some research.

New arrivals! From Tharfield/Incredible edibles

Oh oh oh! I am like a four year old on X-mas eve! So excited, I battle to hide the silly grin that seems to find it's place on my face whenever my mind wanders (almost 100% of the time) to our newest little babies.

The new batch of trees arrived this morning. The delivery guy met us at the Summerhill shopping centre, since he is driving the longest truck still legal on NZ roads :), and struggles to make tight turns and manoeuvre on narrow farmroads. No problem, we said, and shortly after seven, we starting to unload from Transflora onto Aokautere Fun Cargo!

The trees are probably about a year older than the ones we got from Plantgroup, but also a bit more expensive at around $9/tree. We ordered:

25 x Frontoio
50 x Ascolano
30 x J5

They delivered four Ascolano's extra - kind of them and we're very grateful.

The result of the larger trees was that we had to make two trips to get all the trees home. And while I was driving the first batch, Gerry was unloading and waiting for my return in the parking lot, probably looking like he was selling olive trees! :)

But they are beautiful little trees and we are so much closer to completing the planned grove. Still need to find some Kalamata, Sevillano and Picholine.

Early morning in Palmy with the sun only starting to rise.

Very friendly delivery guy, Charlie, passing on the trees to Gerry.

Car, uhum, olive tree guard at
Summerhill shopping centre.

A very happy chappie in the back of our car
amongst the new trees.

Carting 105 trees around the "farm" is
no easy task!

My preciouuuus!

30 J5 trees.

25 Frantoio's.

50 Ascolano's.

They are currently sitting next to the water tank where they are best protected from the wind
until we get them in the ground.

Plantgroup NZ

Surprise! This parcel was waiting
on our stoep/veranda when we
arrived back from a short run.

Okey, so we finalised the tree list, started to source suppliers and bought some trees.

:) Happy days!

Our trusty supplier (Plantgroup NZ, Hawkes Bay) who supplied the 100 baby Manzanillo trees last year, again came to the party. We ordered another set of 100 baby trees - this time 25 x Ascolano, 25 x J5 and 50 x SA Verdale. They charged us only $350 for the lot, delivery included! We've decided to expand on the supplier list a bit and some of the same varieties will be sourced from other nurseries.

Tharfield is another nursery who will supply a batch and Gerry also got a couple on TradeMe from a supplier in Napier. More on this later.

We're still searching for suppliers for Picholine, Sevillano and Kalamata to complete our grove.

Little trees, all tucked in and packaged for delivery.

And more. :)

J5 trees. Fortunately they were labelled. I would never know the
difference between the varieties!

Ascolano. Or Ascolarno, as they are sometimes referred to.

South Australian Verdale.