Experimental Garden Make Over

It all started with the mango tree. We inherited it when we bought the house. I gazed at it and envisaged harvesting luscious, juicy mangos. My mouth watered, I love mangos.

It flowered profusely, but then the developing fruit all dropped off as they got to the size of a golf ball.

Oh the disappointment…

But I waited patiently another year, then another. Occasionally 3-4 would get bigger, but then just before ripe enough for picking the bats or birds would get them.

So I tried being experimental. It was pruned and fertilised and pampered, but now 18 years later we still have never got a mango from it. I also discovered that I have no photos of the actual tree in my archives only the garden around it…

 

the mango trunk is behind the compost bin

Early photo of the area approx 2013

 

These are earlier photos of the mango tree area. In the left hand photo you can see the trunk of the mango as it lurked behind the compost bin. The right hand photo shows the shady area it created. But I have decided it is time for change.

The mango tree must go. Oh the brutality. This is a very drastic pruning that Jack did, and I am planning to cover the remaining trunk with bromeliads and other plants. But at the moment it looks very forlorn.

It does create another problem all the plants under its protective canopy were tropical shade loving…Within a day the sun had started to burn the tender leaves of the bird’s nest fern and my beautiful bat plant (the big singed leaves in the bottom right hand corner). So I had to perform a quick rescue. I dug a hole, a big one, In another shady area of the garden and it was very hard going among all the tree roots. I had to use a mattock. Fortunately the bird’s nest fern, though a big plant, only has shallow roots. So now it was in its new home and I was so relieved a few days later to see new fronds appearing.Look carefully and you will see the burnt leaves at the back. I did cut them off. A number of other shady loving plants were either given away or relocated. Now I have an empty area of garden to experiment with. It is also in full sun.

 

So I emptied the compost bin and dug it in. Spread over cow manure and a sprinkle of lime topped with trace minerals, then waited for the rains to come and wash it all in.

Now I am going to the nursery to buy some native plants. See you soon…