A pistachio tree planted in the same hole with an olive tree.

A Tale OF Two Trees.

It was not meant to be that way. As some of you who read my previous post I planted a big farm with trees, mainly Pistachios(Pistacia vera) and olive(Olea europaea) trees. I planed 5 lots with pistachios and 2 lots with olive trees.

Another view of the unintentional “twins”.

Every winter in the early years of the farm we would roam the fields to check if there were any dead trees to replace them. This lot was at the far end of the farm and it happened that we run out of grafted pistachio seedlings so I decided to fill the gaps with olive seedlings of which we had a surplus.

The trees begging me to keep them together.

So far so good. Apparently one of the farm workers thought that this hole had a dead pistachio tree so he planted an olive tree in it. As time went by I discovered that there are 2 trees in the same hole from 2 separate geneses.

After a moment of thought, I decided to keep them together.

Ideally you would have to remove one of them to give the other one enough space and limit competition if they were from the same genus, but here I have 2 different ones which means that one of them had to go. what a dilemma!

Both of them look alive and vibrant. They were so much intertwined that to separate them would result in failure like trying to separate a Siamese twins outside the operation room.

Almost 2 hearts inside each other.

Pruning one at a time.

The first step was to prune one at a time so I got my saw and pruning gears and started working. Maybe I can decide better after I finish the primary cleaning, I thought.

United we stand, maybe that what they will chant.

As I reached the end of my mission, my soft humane nature started to push me. Leave them alone. They have been together for several years without any harm plus you have all the other trees. It won` t bother you.

Holding each other in harmony.

But my evil nature would argue: they are of different geneses and they will kill each other. So what to keep and what to leave.

A thank you gesture.

After a thoughtful moment I said to myself: forget the science for now and let them alive.

My soft heart agreed and that is what happened. I kept them together.

Maybe they said: you deserve a hug.

As I walked away I ask my self: what do thing they are saying now.

Maybe the olive would say I would prove to you I am a good neighbor. I did no harm to her, besides wait until I bear my olive drupes that will give healing oil to treat bruises on your hands because of us. I won`t forget your favor.

I pruned them to make them aerated and capable of sharing the space.

A happy twin.

The pistachio would say she is right. We are getting alone well. I hope you people would learn from us how to share whatever scarce resource with each other and live in peace. There is enough space for all. Just be wise.

That made my day.