The Olive Tree Exposed

This strange looking object is an uprooted olive tree whose roots have been exposed and cleaned of soil.  The tree expired, along with nearly every other olive tree in the country, in the hard winter of 2010-2011.  It had only been in my garden for three years and had seemed to be in decent health until it died.  Olive trees can be subject to quite severe cold in the mountainous regions of their native countries, so they should have been able to survive here.  ​

One reason why they didn’t can be seen from an examination of the roots in this picture. It’s evident that some very substantial roots have been cut clean through.  The trees must have been severely weakened before they were brought here, which is probably why so many of them have died. I think we’ve been taken for suckers by the Spanish and Italian exporters.

But we’ve got some rather exciting plans for this tree and the others that came with it, dead though they may be.  About this, more later…