The Sweet And The Sour

Sometimes, when hard work fails to bear fruit, you just have to look at things differently, says Wicus Pretorius.

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This is the advice a reader’s uncle gave him when he complained that his lemon tree wasn’t budding.

“And guess what?” the reader continued. “A month later, that tree was covered in blossoms; later still it was full of lemons.”

Who would have thought?

Years ago, I experienced something similar with a fussy lemon tree that I gifted my parents when they moved into their new home after retirement. My father planted the tree against a fence bordering on a green belt. But, like Boet, he had to watch the tree barely survive, year after year, with no prospect of improvement. Compost, Epsom salts – every piece of advice literally bearing no fruit.

When I visited them one day, I noticed the tree had been transplanted, barely 1m away but on the other side of the fence in the green belt.

“Now it’s not on my property anymore, so it’s no longer my problem,” grumbled my dad.