Guavas

Guava trees generally do well in South Africa, or atleast in the Western Cape, anyway... It is not uncommon to have a neighbour who has a tree, if you don't have one yourself. My brother and sister-in-law have one at their new home and it has already rewarded them with bags full of fruit. Sunett, my sister-in-law gave me a bag and told me how to bottle them with syrup. So easy!...and what a treat for dessert with a bit of plain yoghurt or cream!

First, sterilise your glass jars by boiling them for a while in water on the stove. I also dip the lids in the boiling water towards the end to make sure they are clean. You then peel the ripe fruit and take out any bad fruits from the batch. [Don't be shocked if you find a little worm from time to time]... Cut your peeled fruit in half, put them in a pot, just covering the bottom and fill with water, just covering the fruit. Now add sugar, more or less the same as how much water you used (i.e. 2 cups of water = 2 cups of sugar). I tried it with brown sugar and it also worked well. Now boil and stir from time to time. It shouldn't take very long, just a few minutes before they are done. Once done, bottle them and add the syrup. Don't fill the fruit right to the top of the jar because you need a bit of room for the syrup. [Sunett says she saves the left-over syrup to use in a next batch.] Next, Sunett is going to teach me how she makes guava jam! Will let you know how that goes! :)

3rd and Final Attempt at saving the Bay

I am really struggling with the precious little Bay Leaf tree. It was in a pot and after a while the leaves started going brown and falling off. The stem then turned black from top down. I repotted it with lots of bonemeal and compost/potting soil and found that there were grubs attacking the roots (those fat white worms with yellow heads!). The bay did not recover, but I could not accept that it was dead so, this weekend, I have now replanted it in the ground (where the dead conifer was, next to the olive trees). I know it is probably a lost cause (no sign of green in the stem at all!), but I am hoping for a miracle! Oh, well, will have to wait and see! In meanwhile, I'm trying to grow an avocado tree from a pit, and if I succeed will plant it there if bay dies.

Olive Trees

Ma, you will be proud. I've finally cut back the two young olive trees you planted for me in September last year (Sept 2010)! As you know, they were branching out all over the place and looking more like bushes than trees. At one point I was worried about them because their leaves were going brown, especially the one, but they seem to be on the mend again. Only thing is I cut back the one that is growing slower more than the big one so it is looking a bit pathetic at the moment (not including a pic of that one!). It was tough because I had to cut branches off right at the base (almost below ground level). Luckily at the last minute I thought to remove some of the soil where I cut (at the base) so that those cut openings could dry out (don't want rot to set in!). AFter a nice warm dry weekend, we are expecting rain again, so hopefully the little openings have had enough time to seal naturally.