Gulp

This week we turned up at one of my clients and I got stuck into the vegie garden. Neevil arrived about a half hour later and we discussed a dead Tahitian lime that had slowly been dying for a couple of months. Then suddenly I noticed the pear tree lying over the roof of my clients house.

Yes I had been there for about an hour before realising that it was no longer standing. My observation powers were not turned on. Sadly this is one of my clients favourite trees so she was sad to hear about  it (she is on holiday so heard from her daughter). This particular pear had large white flowers that were followed by fruit that never developed fully but in the last few years it has been dying back a little at a time.

The pear has been in for at least 35 years (the time my client has lived here). There hasn't really been big wind or even a lot of rain this week but I expect root rot. The wood was a little mushy but I don't expect Phytophthora which has taken a number of trees in this garden as the top of the tree hadn't died off like the others. It is almost like a giant has broken it away from the roots.

Thankfully the damage was quite small 5 tiles were broken and a slightly dented gutter but it missed the windows and there was no great damage to any of the plants under the tree.

I guess it will take us a while to get used to the space that the tree consumed. I guess these are the things we have to accept when gardening that things change sometimes when we really don't want them to.