Yesterday, Richard, a volunteer working with us, and I planted 5 Macadamia nut trees. We bought them from a nursery for $7.50 a piece. Not bad for trees 2 to 3 feet tall. We also put in a watering system that’ll keep them in water until the rainy season gets here. We also have 12 more mangosteens to plant.
It’s always exciting when we plant new trees, especially when they’re trees that’ll bear something edible later on. It’s usually a 2 or 3 year wait but when the first harvest arrives it’s well worth it.

We have 8 Lychee trees and the first year they produced we only got a few lychees, They next year a couple of construction workers snuck them all. The year after that we had hundreds and we ate them by the bucket load. I don’t think you can get sick eating them, nor can you get enough. There’s always room for one more. Amaranth and I like going into the chicken yard with a bucket full. We sit in a couple of chairs sharing some of the lychees with our fine feathered friends. It’s a nice feeling to be surrounded by such an attentive audience.
One of the projects for today will be to move a couple of surinam cherry trees that need more light. When I first planted them they were doing fine but the trees around them grew much faster and blocked their light. Even when you plant trees in ideal conditions you can still have a big variation in the rate they grow. We planted 3 teak trees in the same area. Each got the same treatment but one is at least twice as big as the others. I suppose it’s like children. You feed them all at the same table but every once in a while one just out grows the rest.

We planted some hardwoods last year but they didn’t do well. Some insects just loved devouring their core. They also had a problem with mealy bugs. I finally dug them all up except one that seems to be doing alright. I’m not sure what the name of the tree is. I’ve asked 4 people and gotten 4 answers. Since we live without chemicals we have become selective about what we cultivate. If it’s too fussy after all our accommodations we let it go.

Well, the light is beginning to fill the sky… the day starts.