Hello From Tasmania

LEMON TREE VERY PRETTY

From September 1999 to September 2013 I had a lemon tree outside my study where for eight hours a day, on average, I read and write, edit and research, and do online blogging & journalism.  This particular lemon tree was one of the most prolific in this small town of about 5000 in northern Tasmania. this town is "the g-spot" I sometimes think of this beautiful island state.  A neighbour across our street---Reece Street as it is called after the farmer who owned the property some forty years ago--- expressed to me her jealousy, her envy, of our tree. 

As I sat in her lounge-room chatting with her and her husband, she said she has been trying to grow a lemon tree for some time and unsuccessfully. I enjoyed those 14 years of lemon-tree-gazing, taking-in at the same time: the variously coloured sky, my wife’s little garden, the telephone pole across the street, the birds on the wires, the branches, the flowers and grass, the occasional sound of a car or truck, or child or passer-by.-Ron Price, Pioneering Over Four Epochs, 26/11/'05 to 27/5/'14.

Day after day as I sat and pondered,

and---wrote about the several and

various exigencies of the times,

there also sat, firmly rooted in the

soil of this ancient land, a fine lemon

tree.  Just outside the window of my

study, perhaps five feet from the glass

and screens, its branches reaching over

the garden path up as high as the books

and files in my study here just a few feet

away with their own bitter-sweet contents. 

Regularly pollinated by bees, the flowers

turned into hard, green lemons and then

bright yellow globes with juice for all

who wanted to squeeze out their gifts.

Yes, a few feet away ideas dropped,

pollinated by the bees of desire, memory,

imagination and, perhaps, those mysterious

dispensations of Providence. There was a

brightness there too and a bitterness of taste

which brought out the best in life’s sweetness.

For not everything can be sweet, not all the

juices and wines of our days can have that

pleasing taste on the buds and blossoms of the

mind and heart which register the meaning,

the import, the felicity, the facticity of it all.

I could not eat of this tree, not because it was

the tree of knowledge which began with Adam,

but because it cannot satisfy or appease the hunger.

Like death, though, this tree had a sweetness

that derived from life, its tests and trials,

its tribulations, the breaking of hearts,

the very groans I utter. Yes, these vicissitudes

of fortune, these bright globes on the green

tree which grows in the land of knowledge

are at the very centre of reality—yet so few

desire them at all. How strange! How pitiful!

Ron Price

26/11/'05 to 4/2/'15.

PS As I updated this prose-poem this lemon-tree has had to be cut-down since it acquired some disease. Citrus trees are common in backyards all over Australia, but the challenge is that they suffer from many pests and diseases. It’s important to know what signs to look for, how to treat them and how best to feed citrus for a healthy tree and great fruit crops.

A lemon tree that has lost many leaves and has dead wood might well be sick. My wife pruned any dead wood off to encourage new growth. Problems can also be caused by a severe lack of water, but my wife was a faithful waterer of the garden. Citrus trees need lots of water. In Adelaide apply about 3 to 4 centimetres of the equivalent of rain each week from spring until autumn. The way to see whether you're doing this correctly is simply to use a cup, turn on a sprinkler and see how long it takes to get 3 to 4 centimetres of water in the cup. Elsewhere around Australia use commonsense. Feel the leaves. If they feel cool and thick, the tree is fine, but in hot weather, if they feel dry and leathery, the citrus probably needs a drink. My wife, as I say, was a commonsense waterer.

 
A hole in a citrus tree indicates a more serious problem. It's caused by a borer. Borers are the schoolyard bullies of the plant kingdom. They attack the weakest plants and those under stress. It does not mean they will spread to other trees. For recent holes take a piece of wire, and jam it down the hole to skewer the borer. But for a tree riddled with borers and other problems it might be better to remove the tree and plant a healthy, new one. Plant it a little away from the old tree and in a couple of years you'll have a great crop of lemons. My wife tried everything but, in the end, had to put the tree down like an animal. Its leaves and branches are now on the local tip.