Almond Tree Trimming

Our Almond Tree in our Yarden has seen it all.  It could be as old as the house itself, going by what people who have been associated with our family since its construction in 1911 have remembered.  Whenever old relatives who have not returned to this place where they had been in their younger days in the 1920s, 30s and 40s met me they would inquire curiously if the Almond Tree was 'still there'!  They referred to it as 'tree'.  Most of them were from 1930s and 40s which testifies that it was already a tree at that time.   See a part of the tree in all its glory in the 'greener months' of 2008.  Pictured left with the house.

Terminalia catappa [click] is the botanical name of this Indian Almond variety.  It sheds leaves twice a year, in March and September. 

The tree had grown tall and higher than our first floor roof.  What is seen in the pictures above and left is new growth. When the leaves grow full and lush, it provided absolute shade underneath. 

Its branches had spread far and wide and the fallen leaves, flowers and fruit would clog the balcony pipe. 

 A huge amount of leaves would come down in the space of a week or ten days, twice a year.

 That made me this.

With the property getting divided into two in 2009, there was now limited space for composting, though I tried to do in the available space in one corner near the Aegle marmelos [Bilwa].  [Pictured left].  It was too much volume to handle now.  What to do?  In the summer months, much of them were useful for the hearth but in the September fall they are not fully dry as it is the rainy season.  Difficult to burn. When we came to live in this property in 1998, the volume was double. This picture shows the pile after the tree was pruned and the digital camera had come.  I could manage the mountainous volume by composting them in a large pit near the mango tree, now not in our portion of the plot.

The best option was to reduce the tree branches to about half so that there would be less leaves to handle.  A wood cutter was summoned. The electric wires had to be disconnected during the operation. 

The wood cutter and his son Murthy did the job.  Murthy further did the cutting of branches smaller for our firewood. This is the area where a new house has now come up. Picture left.







After removal of the higher branches and half of the main trunk, the tree was now this size.  See the top right portion of this picture taken in 2012 when work of the new house was going on.











The red leaves before fall is always a joyful sight against a blue sky, esp. when they were lit by the sun.









I cut up a leaf for fun.

The tree bears fruits.  Sometimes, breaking the fibrous nuts is worth the effort.  Raw almond has its taste.    

 Its flowers and fresh geeen leaves also made an interesting subject for photography.











Many birds chose the high branches of this beautiful almond tree to rest in the shade of the huge leaves.  Now the high branches are gone.











It is a favourite tree for the tailorbirds to make their nests.

The Weaver Ants too were fond of these huge leaves to build nests folding up the leaf or joining a few leaves together.

 The tree top was clearly visible in this satellite image from 2010.  Red circled.

Now see it closer, from the topmost balcony of the house.  All those leaves would come down! They were the new growths from the new branches. See how lush the growth is.  I could break the branches with a hooked knife attached to the tip of a long bamboo pole. Even then the leaves were too much for me. 

I decided to further cut the branches of the tree to allow more light in the Yarden and also to have lesser leaves because there was no proper method of disposing them now. It was this size and one large side branch needed to be cut. 

My friend Ramu gave me a beautiful saw with a telescopic handle. The one in the above picture is now sawed down with that. I had sawed about 75% but suddenly got doubtful about where it would fall, though my estimate proved to be near correct.  I made an SOS to Ramu to come for help.  He arrived in ten minutes, in spite of being busy at that very time.  "Hey, is that all, why do you fear?"  It was no SOS to him!  He sawed the remaining portion for a couple of minutes.... THUD!  And went away on his errand. 

The branch fell on the arch making it crooked and ugly.  The arch was a gift from my friend Meera, another plant lover. Now my garden plan may change for the front yard because of this not unexpected damage.

The branch and the arch in one frame - fish eye lens - taken a few days earlier.  This is probably the last of the arch images in its original shape. 

"See the saw."  An Indian saw the German Saw. Here it is!

It helped me make firewood size pieces also, easily, without much effort.  When we have the right tools, things get a lot easier.

This is what remains now, but I expect it come back. And this time, I'll be ready with my tools to shape the way I want without the tree causing problems but I'll see that some tailorbirds would make nests by April next when it is their season. 

I had made my own leaf plate too once just for fun, by joining about 7 leaves and had my lunch on it.   

This post turned out to be a mountain out of a mole hill!  Thanks for reading.

New Tomato Support Idea

I was looking for ideas for supporting my tomato plants.  The internet is the obvious source. Only last year I came to know that supports for tomato plants are absolutely necessary, when I actually grew 'on purpose'.  Earlier, these volunteer seedlings would sprout at odd places, esp. where the kitchen waste was deposited.  But the plant was ignored.  It would touch the ground and it would rot.  When I saw other gardeners on the internet grow tomato so effectively, I thought of giving it a shot having planned the new garden, [serious garden!] for 2013.  Many beautiful ideas are available. But my formula is to use what is on hand, as much as possible. 

My friend had given me a number of hanging pot frames.  I was not using many of them.  When I was hanging around in the Yarden scratching the head for some way to use them, a brilliant idea flashed.  I had recently took out from the pile a few iron rods from construction left over material.  I wanted to make a plant support with it.  The idea now was to fasten these hanging pot frames to this iron rod which serves as a tomato frame.  I pushed in the two ends of the rod into the ground.  

I had made a 'vine support pole' more than ten years ago, from a PVC pipe and many junked pens. This was lying around unused. I now fastened some hanging pot frames to this passing the pipe through the centre so that there is space around the pole for the plants to spread leaves.  I fastened 3 of them about 15 inches apart. Since the plant had already grown 4 feet tall, I carefully inserted the very tender plants that were 'workable' through the spaces.  It should work well. 

Watching out for the next few weeks how they grow, now having more light.

Fish Eye View of Yarden

A new fish eye lens has been added to the paraphernalia.  Anything new asks for experimentation trials. Went around the Yarden with Canon 550d with this attachment. It is funny with the corners but it covers a lot of angle. The human face will be funnier when taken from a closer range. 

standing at the front door, I saw this. 

Went to the opposite end at the front gate. The rock-wall on the right where pots are kept was built by me some months ago. On the left, the stone trough with water lily, hibiscus, podranea can be seen. Almond tree and Fiddlewood tree, scooter shed... mail box at the gate....

Sitting on the pondside bench I saw what you are seeing now.  But did you also notice my knees? To the right would be my Yarden. 

Entrance to my Eden. Bird bath, trellis gate [repurposed], offset of the house on the left. 

Standing there, turning back...pond on the left, house on the right. All three trees are in this.  Aegle marmelos, Fiddlewood and Almond. Now you see why I cannot have any other plants there.  But the banana and papaya plants are near the Aegle, beyond the pond.

My Eden is flanked by the two tiled sheds you see in this.  The fish had flown higher and settled on top the adjacent new house. The street from where much nuisance is caused is on the left.  It was a morning and so there are hardly anyone. Garbage was out of the frame. 

Let us enter the Eden Space.  Full view! The fish sees both sheds on either side! 

Took this shot standing the tomato plant on the left, out of view. 

Going back further.... 

Cosmos Picotee colours in one frame.

Another view. The passage is on far left, "outside" the Eden area. 

This is from the other end at the trellis gate. Passage on the left now. 

Green door... the garden tool shed I built myself.  You will see it soon in my Junk blog. Standing at the back door side, I see what you see.  Hope you were able to locate my Eden from here!! Do not get distracted by the contents in the shed that is glaring at you!! :)

When I am not found anywhere outside, I may be in here.

Or most likely to be here. The reclining chair on the left is calling me!

August Updates - Colours!

After the July rains, how fast plants have grown!  The last I posted was 12 days ago.  Now let us see how the Yarden looks like.  Tomatoes are yielding nicely.  A small harvest.  But there is one wax tomato posing in this basket.

Tomato plant is obscured by the Morning Glory from this angle taken from the offset of the house. The bicycle wheel is ready to take the vine which is supposed to grow up the wall. I have relocated Antigonon tubers, but they do not seem to be showing signs of recovery.  Some other flowering vine will be planted if Antigonon fails.  Profuse flowering of the pink MG.  Never expected this would do so vigorously. 

The Holmskioldia is in full bloom, a treat to the Sunbirds and Tailorbirds. The jaquemontia when it grows up just about where the orange spray bottle is hung, it will add some blue.

The yellow now.  First time I'm growing Gaillardia.  My local friend Ramaswamy gave his extra seedlings.  I gave him Evening Primrose and Butterfly Weed.

That morning glory again, closer view.

Yet again, posing for my own camera. Ten seconds to click the button and stand like that.  See garden colours. Purple Thunbergia, reddish tomatoes, Holmskioldia reds, Pinks, Gaillardia yelow and different shades of Picotee Cosmos.  It will take some time for the Gladioli to bloom. The plants are obscured by tomatoes from this angle..... the camera was on the rain barrel.  

Star Jasmines are in bloom at this time. It is beside our front door. We call it 'jaaji' in Kannada.

For the arch at the pond-side bench, I made space for Clitoria double purple. I had to move the stone bench a little further.  It had been placed there in a hurry some months ago. Slowly things are happening.  

On the left of that arch, I have this.  The Jaquemontia will climb up the arch and the butterfly weed should form a bush.  This is the Clitoria.  The pot on the bench you saw has it.  I will maintain this short by pruning. 

See the old grinding stones.  I have 6 of them.  This is the bed left of the bench.

I have to see how well I will be able to control the Evening Primrose.  Growing fast!  Texas Star Hibiscus died. In the pot is a set of Tuber Rose extra bulbils.  Others are in the Gladioli bed.  Thithonia seedlings are coming up in the pots. Will be moved away. 

Next to Gaillardia, I have planted Zinnias. Right bottom you see Nicotiana mutabilis - 2 out of four plants seen.

I throw away my clay pots only when they cannot hold any plant.  If the bottom half is good, I continue to use them by carefully chipping off the portions where the pots break.  So, shallow pots are enough for smaller bulbs of Rain Lilies.  Here are the pink variety. 

With a hope of getting Senecio confusus [Mexican Flamevine] I set about two nurseries. One was closed.  Proceeded farther to another only to be disappointed. But to make the child in me not to cry for that, I bought Pentas and Verbana, both supposed to attract butterflies. But where is the space in the Yarden?  I decided to plant the Pentas in two pots.  Verbena waits for its ground until Sunday next. 

A new small garden bed

Running short of space for garden plant beds, I had started to look around for other possible areas.  The new Jaquemontia needed to grow beside the wall or an arch.  So I had chosen the one beside the pond, but the ground was occupied by something I could not decide where to keep them.  They were the small stones/gravel, mostly quartz, unearthed while making other beds in the front yard. I had stored them in an unused tyre planter.  I removed the stones into cement sacs and tucked them under the bench in the scooter shed. When the mind is calm, fresh ideas flash. Click on picture [taken in May] and see area circled in red. 

This is the closer view of the same area after I made the changes and also planted the seedlings in the new bed. 

The Jaquemontia should climb up the arch with its lovely little blue flowers. I thought this is the best place to grow Asclepias tuberosa [butterfly weed], sent by Dee from the USA. It should give orange blooms and is expected to grow up to 3 feet.  I read in some site that 3 have to be planted together for a striking effect.  I planted four.  In between, I planted two Evening Primrose seedlings which were extra.  So if all goes well, there will be blue, pink and orange.  Dreaming!  

Also see the table. The stand is from my old neighbour.  The tabletop is a junked concrete lid that was once covering the opening of the tank. I also used the sanitary pipes and two grinding stones beside the low stone slab bench.   Not in the frame is a little Mango plant which I intend to grow only up to medium height mainly for its leaves that would be required for the festivals. My friend Krishna Rao gave me this idea of self-sufficiency w.r.t. mango leaves. It is still small as of now. 

Today, I prepared a nylon wire support for the Jaquemontia climber in other two places. In one place, I drove a nail to the wall  one ft. from the ground, tied the wire to it and connected it in a 'V' to the wire fence on the compound wall.