Sunnier days
Monday August 11th 2014, 8:59 pm
Filed under: Friends,Garden

My next-door neighbor was walking past my house as I was coming out and we both stopped and chatted a moment.

They always plant quite the garden, but it had not been very productive this year; maybe, he said, it was that they watered it less in the drought. He marveled though at how much brighter and sunnier it is there now that my tree folk have done their work.

“Maybe it was my trees that were the problem,” said I, with a new reason to be glad the problem ones are gone now.

“But they were there before.” He was ever the diplomat.

“But they were taller this year than ever before.”

He conceded the possibility.

Then I told him the story of the Page oranges and that a three-year-old Page tree was on its way here and it was fun to watch his face break out in a huge grin like that. I knew they’d planted their own orange and nurtured it and watched it come to fruiting and he knew how much I was going to enjoy that process.

I forgot to tell him, though, that this was going to be one tree that wouldn’t shade his garden like the ones that are gone: there will be no twenty towering feet high and twenty across but rather half that at most. But then, he probably already figured that part out. And that our trees will help each other be more productive, self-fertile or no.

And here I am writing about Pages again because I can’t do anything else to make that new tanangelo come any faster–hurry, tree! I’m waiting!


7 Comments so far
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Sunny, fresh oranges, right off your own tree! That is something to look forward to, even if it takes awhile…maybe especially if it takes awhile!

Comment by Pam 08.12.14 @ 7:56 am

one of the things I loved about living in California was being able to have fresh fruit so easily — looking forward to seeing pictures of that tree!!

Comment by Bev 08.12.14 @ 9:17 am

I was out walking in my neighborhood the other day and saw that one of my gardening neighbors had put up a sign in front of their vegetable plot: “Garden of Weedin'”. (I love it!)

Comment by RobinH 08.12.14 @ 12:20 pm

So much yummy and sunny content in the last few posts. I can almost taste that tangelo and I sure can see that grin!

Comment by twinsetellen 08.12.14 @ 5:45 pm

I must – MUST – find time to visit more often. I find such comfort here. Your writing is like my shawl and it’s just what I need to feel warm when everything else online is making me feel cold.

Comment by Momo 08.12.14 @ 5:45 pm

Your tree joy – and good neighbor blessings – are infectious.

Comment by Channon 08.12.14 @ 6:55 pm

Since many trees are as large underground as they are above, it’s possible that there were roots from the trees you removed creeping under the fence. Your neighbor may now need less water to grow things in that corner now.
I so love the idea of being able to pick my own fruit in season! We tried planting fruit trees, and found that we had to spray to get edible fruit. Uh, no…. Please keep on letting us know how your garden grows!

Comment by carol telsey 08.13.14 @ 8:12 am



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