Early November

Mum's been here for four days and we worked hard. We picked up some compost from Parkvale mushrooms for the roses, magnolias and camelias. Mum was a complete gem and showed us how to dig around the plant and spread the compost. She practically completed the whole of the hedge in front of the cottage. We can now water these plants from the well and at last they are growing. The olive windbreak we put in a month ago, along the north of the cottage is now established. Chris, David's brother drove down from Palmerston North and he and David mowed the vines, the front olives and the north olives. They look great. The grass grows so quickly at this time of year.
The roses, the vege garden, camelia's, windbreak and hedges are all on auto watering now which is such a relief, not to have to hand water these now. David has established a small native tree nursery up by the barn and installed the old totara engrance post as the tap stand. It looks great. David has completed the landscaping around the spa pool.
We sprayed the olive trees twice with Score, dressed in our white suits, googles, breathing masks and gloves. Spooky. I drive the farm bike while David sprays and then we change over. Of course we can only do this when it is completely still and air movement. Its a long tedious job. And we still have peacock spot and the number of olive trees flowering are a little disappointing although lots more than last year. These trees are taking a bit to recover from their earlier neglect, although we can see them growing.