Morry justifies his existence.

Remember when I bought Morry the white weeping mulberry? He was expensive, and I wasn't sure if he'd be worth the investment. Well, a year later he in no way resembles a cubby-house yet, but check out the fruit!  Granted they are not large, but the are prolific and delicious... Unlike the English mulberry I planted five years ago which grew like the clappers but had hardly any fruit, and those it had were small, dry, and totally tasteless. 

A half-finished corner

A day spent digging, until the weather came in, at least. Doesn't look at all spectacular, and the lawn is a little worse-for-wear (since it's had half a tonne of soil and rocks on it for the past six months), but very happy to have that little white cherry tree (centre) in place at last.

For those playing at home, that assortment of twigs and trees from left to right is (not including the trees right along the fence): the grafted weeping mulberry, dwarf white cherry, thornless lemon (at back), my beloved Moorpark apricot (largest), and the dwarf black cherry (far right).

Underneath so far, and so small most are almost invisible, are a couple of volunteer broad beans, three Salvia leucantha, two Penstemons (I think "blackbird" possibly, cuttings from an unknown variety in my mother-in-law's garden), one surviving peony (forget which), "Munstead Wood" David Austin rose, a prostrate caper, some Gaura from self-sown seedlings transplanted from the front garden, "Sandford" raspberry, and far too many Oxalis pes-caprae (Sour Sobs) that I just can't seem to stamp out. That seems like a lot, now that I make a list, but there is more depth to this area than appears in this 'in-progress' shot. And, let's face it, I tend to over-plant. 

From Saturday, there'll be a couple more plants in here because it's ROSES COLLECTION DAY! Wheee! 

Meet Morry

Perhaps I need to rename my blog to 'Gardener on a Budget,' or 'The Bargain Hunter,' or maybe just 'The Cheapskate.'

Today I picked up a lovely little grafted mulberry (Morus alba 'Pendula') for the bargain basement price of $99, down from $150. It's grafted at about 160cm or so (about 5') I think, so it's also much cheaper than the $225-295 price I was staring down the barrel at for a taller grafted standard (180cm, or 6') that I was considering for my green-cubby. 

Of course, today I was 'just looking' in the nursery and hadn't planned on getting anything, but this tree was calling my name ('Katie, Katie, buy me, buy me! Look how straight I am, and look how wide I am at the top compared to the others, and I'm on sale...') so my quick browse became a shop of 1 x tree, 1 x bag cow manure, 1 x bucket Seamungus, 8 x long stakes (two to keep my tree straight, and six to use to form a guiding boundary for the cubby). Yep, a bargain ;) 

I think I'll call him 'Morry.' 

More on my idea

So, this idea, sprung upon while watching Miss 4 playing in the fallen leaves of the beautiful Japanese weeping cherry trees in the Mt a Lofty Botanic Gardens, is to plant a weeping grafted standard tree in the backyard which will eventually grow into a living cubby house for the kidlets. 

I've been researching all sorts of options, and talking to people in a couple of specialist tree nurseries around Adelaide. A weeping cherry would have been perfect, except I'm told they are very slow growing (damn) and would probably hate my hot-spot hilltop (double damn). Most other options (eg weeping crabapple, weeping apple, Japanese maple etc) would also be too slow, or too narrow etc etc. I have reluctantly settled on a weeping (grafted) mulberry. My reservations are two-fold: Firstly, I'm just in the process of taking out the black mulberry I planted three years ago because the fruit was rubbish and not at all like the mulberries I remember, and because the yard has evolved and there is no longer room for such a potentially large tree (especially one with tasteless fruit), and secondly I'm a little concerned that this eventual cubby will look like the Tombliboos house from that kids' TV show Miss 4 insists on subjecting us to every evening. 

(Image from http://exigenomicon.typepad.com/exigenomicon/2012/01/what-i-think-about-during-in-the-night-garden-.html) 

Image from http://ozmummy.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/in-mulberry-tree.html)

Mulberry trees do tick quite a few of the required boxes: they are comparatively fast growing, suitable for our dry climate, and have edible fruit (yes, even the white mulberry I plan on planting... fingers crossed). 

So worth a punt, I think. And I wish I'd thought of it three years ago when I first planted that mulberry. 

More garden ramblings.

Did I mention that I've planted a couple of my trees? I can't remember because it's quite late on a Friday night and my brain stopped functioning within five minutes of putting SP to bed. Anyway, the Moorpark Apricot and my Mulberry treeling are finally in the ground, taking their spots in the lawn (such as it is, mostly mowed weeds). They both got planted into the soil with generous scoops of compost (out of a bag because mine's not usable yet), cows'manure, blood and bone, and this expensive 'mulch 'n' feed' I got talked into by the man in the nursery. Then more mulch 'n' feed on top, then peastraw (still to come on the mulberry, quite hard to get anything finished in the 30 minutes allocated to you by a sleeping baby).

Here's my beloved apricot right in the middle.


And of course, my little mulberry. Not the best picture, with the leaves blending in the background, but you get the idea.


In other news: I have a fruit! My very first snow pea. It's only about an inch long but I am disproportionately excited about it.

The bluebells are flowering and here are the obligatory photos, Such a lovely translucent violet to them. And check out the rose bushes behind: they have gone mad!



And finally a gratuitous cute shot of SP helping bring in the laundry. Only seems fair since she creates so much of it!

New Baby

I got a new baby in the post last week, all snuggled into a box and tucked into shredded newspaper, and now she's sitting on my breakfast bar, waiting to be planted. This is my black mulberry tree, and I am ridiculously excited to have one :) Memory here: one of my mum's work colleagues farms on the Eyre Peninsula. It's hot and dry; the family live in a giant tin shed. The adults put down tarpaulins on the ground and shake the mulberries from the tree, which is enormous. We kids gorge ourselves on the dark fruits and run in and out from under the tree's overhanging branches. It's another world under there, cool and dark and light-dappled. Now I have my own treeling, and whilst I don't think I'll let it get to it's potential 10 x 10 meters, it will take it's pride of place in the middle of the lawn.


In other news the air is becoming warm and the garden is blooming. The old rose along the fence, near the letterbox, is shooting into life with pink-blushed leaves. At least one nasturtium has shown it's floral face, and it is a golden yellow with red cheeks, and I have my first correa flower gracing the rose garden.