Women Over Fifty

We’ve had a week of Santa Ana weather.  In this area of the country that means hot dry air blowing in from the desert.  This hot wind is following some very cold days and nights and some rain, so everything is green and growing.  (Weather is sometimes strange in southern California.  You could say we’re in good tourist weather.)

I have had a coffee tree in a pot in my garden window for about a year.  It’s an Arabica tree.  (Doesn’t that sound wonderful?)  It was in a 2″ pot when I bought it and is now too tall to grow in the window.

A day or so ago I dug a nice hole and filled it with all sorts of good things for my plant.   I watered it heavily and went to wait until the water soaked in and I could do the actual planting.  While I was resting from my labors, I told my husband that I was liberating my coffee tree from its pot.  I know he could sense a project coming - one of my projects that requires some brute labor on his part.  “The gophers will eat the roots.” he stated.

Oh yes gophers.  Those vile rodents who like to dig up the front lawn and leave neat little piles of dirt all over it until it’s an obstacle course for people.  They love the tender roots of new plants.

We also have those cute little above-ground rodents called rabbits.  They eat what the gophers don’t want.  With all the greenery (weeds) in my yard, the rabbits have been looking forward to a good eating season. 

My project now rested on the good graces of my husband.  Would he build a gopher cage for me that would be tall enough to also keep the rabbits off the tree for a while?  The dear man just went and got a bit of wire netting and the wire cutters.  When he was done making and installing the cage, he also planted my coffee tree for me.

To show it was still my project, I took a plastic bag and tied it to the cage to provide a little shade.

My coffee tree sits bravely in its cage, probably wondering what happened to its cozy world in my kitchen.  I’m hoping it will grow tall.  I certainly imagine it as a thriving green tree, but one never knows in the hazardous world of amateur gardening.

 Marilynne 

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