MANGOES AND MORE

Just as my mother had told me on the phone - the mangoes are magnificent. So are the peaches, pears, plums and apples. She bought many, many lengths of stupid dripper line to water her fruit trees when a small sprinkler used to do a much better job with an infrequent, deep watering. If you had mango trees like these wouldn't you water them? Mangoes you buy in Adelaide come from the Northern Territory and are sprayed for fruit fly and, no doubt gassed to ripen. We pick these fully ripe and my mother sits out on the lawn and devours the whole thing in one big messy frenzy !








As I touched this peach to photograph it, it fell off into my hand. My peaches are only half this size. The land where she lives should never have been sub-divided for housing. Imagine how good those old market gardens were that surrounded us when I was growing up.











Last year the nashis were fabulous - after many years of not producing anything. This year there was only 1 nashi but, as usual, the others pear trees are laden.











This sunflower soars way above the others and is at least 8 feet high. Always plants have very strong stems in her garden. Bulbs that flop over in mine stand strong and firm in her's.





One day we will have a members visit there. I asked her and she relunctantly agreed - she doesn't think her garden worthy of visitors.

The Rare Fruit Society is having a feijoa and guava competition, in a couple of months, to find the best tasting, water efficient and productive trees in Adelaide so they can take cuttings and propogate them. My mother's feijoa has never been watered and produces the biggest, most luscious fruit by the million. I am going to enter it in the competition this year and then everyone can share its success.