Last winter after the chooks attacked the garden for the umpteenth time I made a decision to segment the garden in two – the chooks would be allowed the free range in one section while I would grow most of my veg in the other.
This has worked reasonably well in the main, the chooks occasionally escape but mostly keep to their side. The downside though is because they now have a smaller area they have done a lot more damage to it – as you can see there is very little grass left:
The solution I decided was fruit trees – hopefully the chooks would fertilise them but most of their foliage would be too high up to be eaten. I was going to buy trees plural but they are really quite expensive so I bought tree singular.
And I didn’t even get to choose it – that pleasure belonged to by my eight year old daughter who was so excited by the idea of a nectarine plum cross that I couldn’t bear to disappoint her and buy an apple instead.
So this is a ‘Spicezee’ – awful name isn’t it?
But a beautiful plant. I love the purply red colour of the young leaves. They turn greener as they age but they are still beautiful.
I also love that the chooks haven’t destroyed it. It doesn’t seem to mind them scratching around beneath it and I’m sure their poo is doing it good.
But best of all are the beautiful fruit.
We got about 10 this year which I know isn’t many but its young and hopefully has years of abundance to come.
I’m not sure where exactly the plum comes in because the fruit are pretty nectarine like, from the colour, to the shape, flavour and stone.
The fruit also grow close to the branch like nectarines. It doesn’t matter though because I love nectarines and these taste particularly good. Especially straight from the tree…
It’s a beautiful looking tree. How tall does it grow? I’m planning to tear up a bit of lawn and plant some fruit trees this year.
Embarrassingly I’m not sure, I reckon about 3-4 metres though. You could prune it to any size I would have thought.
Sounds like an excellent choice,
It looks like an excellent choice if not a wonderful name. Maybe someone else’s child named it.
Entirely possible – It is the sort of name my kids would come up with.
I suppose you have weighed-up the pros and cons of keeping the chickens…? Do you get many eggs from them? They certainly seem to destroy everything round about them! I think your daughter made a good choice with the fruit tree (if you disregard the name). The fruit looks really nice, and the foliage is lovely.
We do get a reasonable number of eggs from them but no we just got them without really thinking it through. I definitely underestimated the level of destruction….. Still I love them and they are fun, if a little naughty.
Nice looking plant and delicious fruit.
I looked it up and it is described as a three way interspecific hybrid where separate crosses have combined plum, nectarine and peach characteristics. (Actually a nectarine is a smooth skinned peach anyway, so I might be wrong about the crosses being separate)
I have recently been boring my own readers with the contribution of hybridity to gardening. It has been received with the enthusiasm of a lead balloon!
Had to giggle reading your comment. I’m intrigued now so will have a read. I’m wondering what the plum characteristics are, perhaps time to do some research.
It sounds like your daughter made a good choice. They look delicious.