WILLIS said:
Picture of gardens, groves, or grounds? Sounds spectacular.
The olives are not pretty. Right now my oil comes from about 50-60 random trees scattered around the property, most on these steep hillsides. They're a beast to harvest, but it's still kind of fun. There are also some almond trees.
I'm trying to get serious about it though. I have about 160 more olive trees that were planted last year and won't produce for a couple of more years. They're in two different fields. Not pretty, but way better than the field of weeds it was before. Right now I import olive oil to Texas produced by my cousins in Sicily, but my goal is to import my own in about 5 years. It was an abandoned vineyard before we bought it, abandoned so long that the owner forgot it was there. After we cleared the land, we found the vines. We cleared them all away, but now they are back, so the second field is currently a vineyard in a field of olive trees. We're going to have to figure out how to deal with the vines. The new trees are doing well and easily visible in the field in the first photo. The ones in the field in the second photo are doing ok but are not as far along for some reason.
The grounds are why we have the place. Below is the herb garden, a view of the grounds to the west, and a view over the pool. Normally the ocean is an amazing blue color and the mountains to the west are gorgeous, but the scirocco winds came from the Sahara (100 miles away) day before yesterday. It was 94 on Sunday and 87 on Tuesday, but the scirocco on Monday,brought 109 with with terrible dust. The dust still hasn't cleared away, so the water is a dusty color here because of the haze.