Sunday, November 6, 2016

Cherry Guavas, the Side Yard, and a Lilac Rose

The Last of the Cherry Guavas
These fruits are known both as cherry guavas and strawberry guavas.  I think they look more like cherries than strawberries, so I tend to call them cherry guavas.  I picked the last of this year's fruits, yesterday, and ate them all for breakfast!  The whole fruit is eaten; there are small hard seeds that are generally swallowed whole.

The cherry guava tree grows in my side yard.  Side yard is actually a fancy name for a strip of land,  barely 5-feet wide, which runs along the side of my house and the wall that separates my property from my neighbor's:

 

The Side Yard

Currently, there are two trees which grow in this side yard (at one time, I had 3 or 4 white oleander trees growing here, but I had to remove them when I needed to replace the sewer line which also runs along the length of the side yard; later, I had a clump of sugar cane growing, but it died during the 2nd or 3rd year of the drought).  The tree in the foreground is a feijoa or pineapple guava tree:


Feijoa/Pineapple Guava Tree


The ripe fruits fall off the tree and lie on the ground until I pick them up; there are still more fruit on the tree:



Feijoa Fruit

The cherry guava tree grows in front of one of the dining room windows:

Cherry Guava Tree

It hasn't done too well since my new neighbors raised the wall from about 4 feet to 6 feet - too much reflected heat, I think, although the privacy is much appreciated.  And this drought has been really hard for it.  There were lots of fruit:



Desiccated Fruits on the Tree

 But they are all desiccated on the tree!

 
More Desiccated Fruit

 And lots of dead branches:

Lots of Desiccated Fruit and Dead Branches


But, there's new growth, which is encouraging:


Fresh New Growth

I will discuss pruning the tree, this winter, with my gardener. 


Further down, between the side yard and the front garden, there is another feijoa/pineapple guava tree.   This tree was showing signs of stress from the drought and didn't bear any fruit, this year, but I've been watering it and it seems to be reviving.


Another Feijoa/Pineapple Guava Tree

There is a third feijoa/pineapple guava tree, growing in the back garden.  The side wall used to be only as high as this metal fence, about 4-feet high. 

The side yard looks very stark, doesn't it?  At one time, I wanted to grow wild flowers, here, but that didn't work out too well.  Another time, I thought of landscaping it to resemble a dry creek bed, but never did it.  Need to think about doing something here.

But, just to show that it is not all desiccated fruits and dried up branches:

Lilac Rose
The lilac rose bush in the back garden has a new flower!  :)

Do you have a side yard?  Is it a narrow strip of land like mine, or something wider?  Do you have anything growing there?  Is it landscaped?  Do you have any suggestions for my side yard?

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for showing us the guava trees and fruit. Your walled side yard has some challenges. It will be interesting to see what you do with it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are welcome. :) Yes, the side yard presents some challenges. It gets neglected because one doesn't really see it, unless one is going to pick guavas.

      Delete
  2. The fruits sound so good.. And the rose is beautiful.. Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Judy. Hope you, too, have a lovely day and a good start to your week.

      Delete
  3. Rose is really beautiful. We have a front garden that sort of goes around the side close to our neighbour's driveway but we don't do much with it. Mostly it is all grass. I admit to not being much of a gardener though I am trying with a small vegetable patch.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you; I love the color of that rose. I used to grow quite a few vegetables in my garden, once upon a time, but haven't done so recently. I am thinking of planting a few things again, though. What are you growing in your vegetable patch?

      Delete
  4. I just love how you call your front and back areas "gardens." So much more charming than calling them yards or lawns as is common here in the South. Your trees are lovely! If it is difficult to grow things in your side area, I think I would be tempted to just fill with mulch and add a stepping stone path. Low maintenance is attractive to me! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Carolyn. :) Yard is probably the more accurate term as it is the term used to describe these areas in planning documents, etc. I used to have a front lawn, but now have maybe 10 blades of grass growing there! I rather like your suggestion to mulch the side yard and put stepping stones. I will talk to my friend who does the garden for me and discuss it with him.

      Delete

Thank you for visiting my blog and commenting. Your comments are much appreciated. Please comment in English. Thank you.