We were a long way from the olives of coastal Dalmatia!

It has been about twelve months since we started work on the village property. Last year, the forgotten time between Christmas and New Year was spent clearing the jungle and removing as many wild pears, and koštela, feral vines and vicious brambles as possible. This year’s holiday has been a different story as the weather has been seriously inclement; if it wasn’t pouring with rain, it was bitterly cold.

Although this has been frustrating for the man (and terrifying for the stock of glue which is sitting in the dampest room of the house), the now thrice-ploughed land means we are finally ready to think about trees. Being ridiculously impractical, in my mind, orchards and olive groves spring up from the magical land. Of course they do.

That will teach me to read Virgil’s Georgics.

Firstly Nature has various ways of propagating trees.
Some, unforced by Man, appear far and wide, on their own,
and colonise the plains and the winding rivers:
such as the pliant osier and the slow-growing broom...

With others a dense thicket sprouts from the roots,
as in cherries and elms: even the laurel of Parnassus
springs as a tiny shoot, in its mother’s extensive shade.
These are the methods Nature first ordered: by these means
every kind of forest tree, shrub, and sacred grove flourishes.

Digging deep (pun intended), I have been exploring the realities of creating something as practical and sustainable as an orchard. Companion planting has also been on my mind. A wise woman once told me that to know what grows, simply look around you; and watch what your neighbour does and copy them (thank you Megan)!

We know that we are safe with traditional fruit trees, which flourish in fields all around us. Apples, cherries - both sweet and sour - and plums will be great additions to the upper terrace. Anything Mediterranean and disliking the cold is off the table. No citrus, or delicate soft fruits such as peaches, apricots or kiwis would survive in that environment.

I was constantly asking questions, which usually resulted in us diving for Google

“Would almond trees survive? Pomegranate? Loquats? And how do we source jujube?”
“Ooo šipak. Baba Jandra had a wonderful tree up behind her house”

I added it to the list.

Being the sensible one, he was focusing on olive types. Initially delighted at the thought of our own olive grove, I wondered how the usual varieties would cope with the extreme temperatures. He had already thought of that and was trying out the Italian language with Coratina, Casaliva, Čempresino, Taggiasca, Leccino - Mama mia! This led to olive Germaine and discussions about Corsica and Napoleon. 

We were a long way from the olives of coastal Dalmatia!

I was still dithering about the tree layout on the terrace. I wanted to include a metre of space from the stone wall bordering the neighbour’s vineyard. It will be a raised bed of lavender, rosemary and other floral herbs, which will help with the pollination. I keep being distracted by those spiral herb gardens. 

Gaps are crucial for light and air circulation. We had tried three metres in between at first, but on further research one early morning, we decided to give our trees more room. Which is why one muddy morning I was pacing backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards with a pen and multiple pieces of paper and my measuring app.

“Do you know Professor Balthazar?”, he laughed when we were having lunch back in the warm kitchen.
“No…some Croatian cartoon?”

Apparently, when presented with a problem, Professor Balthazar would pace up and down until a solution occurred. I asked ChatGPT, and it obliged with a version of me as the professor!

After the too-densely-packed first attempt at a plan, my second version was far too spacious. The third one allowed four and a half metres between each tree, with eight olives and eight fruit trees over the 550 square metre terrace. We finally had a diagram that even Professor Balthazar would be proud of. Now it was time to go see the tree expert at Botanički Vrt in Žrnovnica.

Result:

2 plum (Stanley)

10 olives

2 pomegranate

1 cherry (Lapins)

And a free local Žrnovnica jabuka! This apple has been grown there for over a century, but it almost disappeared when modern, prettier supermarket apples took over. Only a small number of trees survived, which is why people are now working to protect it. Happy to oblige.

We are excited about the 1st March when our trees can be picked up and planted!