You can never have enough...

[Oh_hunnihunni]

We have crab apple street trees along Victoria Road, but they are on the steep side so a little risky for me to forage there. That is where my original seed came from. The other side is gingko trees, and the houses are mostly glorious old villas with lovely gardens so it is a joy to scoot along the road really slowly taking in all those treasures. My crab apples are dropping now, very round flattish fruit this year as the tree matures, not a heavy crop, but this year is a bit hard on apples, next will be better. I planted it on the fence line where it should escape the all too frequent chop by the contract gardeners, and a few feet from another apple tree on the neighbours side, which I hoped would help with cross fertilisation. Being a bit of a wild guess as far as genetics go I am rather pleased with it. It is late to drop its leaves and they turn a lovely golden in early winter, one of the last to go. The flowers are quite a decent size, single whites, but the leaves break at the same time so it isn't as showy as some of the grafted true varieties. It also suckers, though I suspect that might be a response to a bit of less than careful weed eating around the base. It is a delight though for me, a bit of personal history being a few years in the pot and then another thirteen here, it reminds me of another kind of life, so I guard it from threats from our arborist. Though I have to admit the one who has the contract now is a good one and he and I are of like minds when it comes to birds, bees, and the glory of trees, so with luck my crab apple tree will outlast me.

I do look forward to seeing that awful port a loo being removed from under it though!