Olive Tree
Beartricks
Posts: 23
in Plants
Hello,
I've recently been gifted a 2ft tall olive tree. I recently got back from Spain, where there were olive trees all over the place, and I'd assumed they were native to warmer climates.
Will it look after itself, or am I going to need to give it special treatment? I was doing well with my first year of gardening, but I suddenly had a disaster and lost some of my more successful crops so I'm wary of losing everything.
0
Posts
It will need some protection over winter. You do not say where you are, but here in the Midlands I would put it in a greenhouse over winter and keep it on the dry side. The larger the plant, the more it will withstand cold weather. They can be kept outside in London in winter , up against a house wall, but there is a much warmer microclimate there. What crops did you lose this year. ? I have lost a couple of rows of radishes. I know they germinated , but I think the wood pigeons have had the lot.
I live in Sheffield, quite high up
my olive tree is now 4 years old and is left outside all year. It now produces tiny little olivettes !
It's only small so I think I'll probably leave it indoors.
I only have a walk in, plastic greenhouse which somehow blew over in the wind while I was on holiday. All my tomatoes were subsequently eaten down to stumps by slugs and birds and half my chili plants spilled out all over the place and got washed away by the rain. Some might be salvageable because they landed upright under the plastic sheet so they're on the kitchen windowsill now. Some strawberry plants also seem to have survived.
I planted some radishes out before I went away, the last batch got 100% germination but this lot didn't have my dog to chase the birds off all day for the first week, so I suspect that we've lost this batch to the pigeons too. I might be wrong and maybe they haven't popped up yet. Same thing with my second lot of rainbow chard. The ones I planted a couple of months ago grew amazingly well.
My onions seem to be small. Carrots are doing okay. Coriander didn't do too well, so I just got a sprinkle for one meal I cooked. Sage and thyme are a bit laughable, but I got a huge plant with this olive tree along with all the other herbs I could hope for so I might grow something else in their pots instead.