Last week had to do a lot with chipping the pruned branches at the olive grove, then a really bad back pain, and some more chipping when I recovered. But the last one was a pretty cool experience. We had precious help unexpectedly and we were on a small trip as well. Work and pleasure!
The olive grove we had to prune is in the center of the island, about two hours from our place and in high altitude. You see, we had to wait for the weather to get warmer to go up there. Where exactly? Well, the locals say that if you cut a cardboard in the shape of Crete and you will try to balance it on a toothpick, that would be the place.
The trees here have to be kept tall, because sheep pass through the field and shouldn't be able to reach and eat the lower branches. Tricky pruning demanding a lot of thought. Also, accepting the fact that olive harvest will never be easy in this place :)
@fotostef is in charge of the chainsaw as usual, and me of tidying up the chaos.
While working, we had a visit. A pleasant one anyway, but this time also proved to be a precious assistant. Our neighbor had just bought this little monster, that looked as a beauty in my eyes! This sweet monster will eat all the brunches in no time. Till then, some preparation is needed.
This is the result of a small trial. Fast and furious.
I decided to make paths with the branches, to make things easier for our friend, but also to have the precious wood chips spread all around the field. Before that, the sheep will take care of the leaves. I am pretty sure they did a pretty good job in exchange of some manure.
Nothing of what we were doing made sense to our canine companion. He spent two days looking at me this way. I laughed every time I looked at him and he was getting even more confused. At the end he took it as a game, a whole arena with hurdles.
There is a beautiful quince tree in the grove that is now blooming.
A huge fig tree, but we had enough of figs in the last post :)
And for the end a beautiful pear tree.
Only trees, no signs of low vegetation. All eaten by the animals. The fresh sprouts of the thorny briers as well - everything comes with pros and cons.
And since this is a bit of a travel garden post, some photos of the landscape. This is one of the most cultivated parts of the island and the scenery is absolutely different from the one I am used to.
Happy gardening everyone!