When we moved in it had obviously been neglected and was covered in sooty mould (we found this out after taking a cutting to the Bunnings nursery). Anyway, it clearly had no intention of bearing any fruit so Mick decided to give it a bit of a pruning:
Personally, I thought he went a little overboard, but before long it was sprouting everywhere:
It's now far healthier-looking than it ever was and a while ago the flowers starting appearing, followed by their attendant bees. It's all so Gardening Australia!
Naturally enough, dozens of small fruit have since appeared, although it's still difficult to ascertain what type of fruit they are (this is all completely new to me):
I mean really, they could be anything, right?
Well! Mick spotted something high in the tree on the weekend and now I'm baffled. Either we have one of those grafted "fruit salad" trees that produce two types of citrus fruit, or we have a mutant on our hands:
While every other fruit has only reached the dimensions of a large marble, this thing is the size, shape and texture of a mature orange.
It's kind of making me uneasy. Why is it so big? Why is it the only one? Is it an orange or is it the world's largest lime? Did the tree somehow mate with the pumpkin plant (which is still on the march, by the way)?
And while I'm at it, what's a term to describe the opposite of "runt of the litter"?
Stay tuned – this could turn delicious.
No comments:
Post a Comment