For the first time this month we've had a drop or two of rain. Not much, barely enough to wet the ground but with the sky being overcast and the drop in temperature we might get a proper shower later today. And sprinkles though they were, there was enough to collect in droplets on the wild rose and acacia leaves.
 |
| droplets on acacia leaf |
Niall and I have a love-hate relationship with the acacia. The honey bees love them; most of the honey sold is acacia honey--just check the label the next time you are in a supermarket [in France] and so for that reason we don't want to eradicate them totally. However, the trees themselves are thugs--they seed like mad and have huge nasty thorns.
 |
| rain drops on wild rose bush |
So in the end we have compromised. We kept one youngish established acacia tree--probably son of the older rather poorly specimen we had dug up; but we are still waging war on the seedlings left by the removed tree. And although raindrops on an acacia leaf are very pretty, getting snagged by a thorn while taking the photograph is no fun, so no reprieve--the seedling will go!
 |
| very young cherry tree |
6 comments:
I watered our flowers yesterday - I know, precious water shouldn't be wasted on flowers - but they were looking so thirsty!! They are left to fend for themselves for 80% of the year.
Who knows, apart from the odd 'sprinkle' when they will get any amount again.
We will be back in the UK tomorrow and I haven't done a fraction of the work I was planning to do for school.
I blame the weather............
Nothing wrong with watering your young trees when they need it. I miss the cherries in our French garden... we had two huge trees. No such luxury here!
@Gaynor: Haven't done any prep for school either :-) ........... of course it's the weather's fault! Nothing to do with me ;-)
@Craig: exactly--if we didn't the young fruit trees would die. They were only put in last November and aren't established enough yet.
Whatever was here already always had to fend for itself and is well established. Hope we don't get a water restriction order.
I felt a pedantic Australian need to put a word in about acacia I'm afraid. Australians wouldn't recognise the tree you refer to as an acacia. Real Acacia is called Wattle in Australia and Mimosa in France. What we have here is Robinia pseudoacacia, known as Black Locust Tree in its native Virginia I think.
@Susan: I know it's properly pseudoacacia and didn't like it when I knew it as Black Locust Tree as a kid either!
But over here [well NL,UK and Fr anyway] Joe and Joanna Public--and that includes me--calls it Acacia and 'proper' Acacia Mimosa.
And if you'd asked me what a wattle was I'd have thought of turkeys and not a tree at all :-)
Beware Robinia Pseudacacia - you'll have a thicket before you know it. Acacia wood is used widely in France for fence posts and as a hardwood, and you see Robinias all over the place, once you get your eye in. They're in flower at this time of the year, like a rather watery laburnum, and you see them all along the motorways.
For England and Wales it's just avoided being added to the banned list under the Wildlife & Countryside act (do not introduce into the wild) unlike such other garden favourites as Rosa Rugosa and Rhododendron Ponticum. It is on the banned list for Scotland. See the Plantlife website for more details (www.plantlife.org.uk). Not a friedly plant (that's the word verification)!
Post a Comment