Feb - Olive & Crepe Myrtle

Outstanding Olives

Magnificent Crepe Myrtles

Planting

 Work lots of Groganic into the soil when planting and water in throroughly. Make sure the soil is kept moist for its first year.

While olives are extremely hardy, there is one thing that will kill them and that is wet feet. If you live in an area with high rainfall and poorly drained soils, make sure you add lots of Garden Lime to the soil a few months before planting, and idealy, create a 30cm tall mound to plant into.

Care

 Fertilise using Organic Pelletised Fertiliser in spring and in autumn to maximise your harvest.

Prune after harvest to encourage an open chalice shape. Remove any dead damaged or diseased wood, inlcuding branches that cross eachother.

For old trees, a more severe prune can be done at the begining of spring.

Harvesting & Storing

Olives are harvested in autumn just as the green fruit begins to swell. They need to be treated with brine before they can be eaten as they are extremely bitter straight off the tree.

To preserve your green olives

• Using a knife, slit each olive twice.
• Put your slit olives in a glass pickling jar. Pour a salt-water solution over the olives. Make sure that the salt water solution completely covers all of the olives.
• Change the salt water solution every other day for at least two weeks.
• Drain the salt water and fill up the pickling jar with water and add pickling spices. Quantities will depend on the amount of olives and the size of the jar.
• Pour olive oil over the olives to prevent mold from forming. Leave the olives in a cool dark corner for at least two weeks to pickle.

Black Olives

• Proceed with the same method of drawing out the bitterness of the olives by soaking them in salt water.
• Layer the olives in a pan or container. Sprinkle rock salt between the layers.
• Store the olives in a cool dark corner for several months.
   

Crepe myrtles are beautiful and hardy trees perfectly suited to melbourne's hot summers.

They produce stunning clusters of long lasting flowers over the hottest months of summer, have gorgeous autumn foliage and beautiful bark, making them appealing all year round.

Planting

When planting mix through plenty of organic matter like Groganic. Water thoroughly and make sure to not let your tree dry out at all for the first year it is in the ground.

Care

Feed in the spring and autumn with a quality organic slow release food such as Organic Pelletised Fertiliser.

In winter give your tree a light pruning to remove any dead, damaged or diseased wood and to maintain size and shape.