Olives

High allergy season here in Vegas, with all of the flowers and local vegetation blooming. Our yard is a major contributor, with the variety of things we have. The biggest producer of pollen around here are the mulberry trees, which are not native but used to be planted everywhere because of the great shade they provide. But now standard mulberries are banned and only fruitless (non blooming) varieties can be sold in the valley.

The same is true of olive trees, which we do have. Out front are two big olives that were probably planted back when the house is built. We don't eat the fruit, but there is a little old couple that comes around in the late fall and asks if they can pick from the trees. We don't keep the trees cut to a nice picking size but just let them grow, which has resulted in some rather large plants. We do hose them down now, to knock off some of the blossoms and reduce the number of olives produced because they are a mess just falling off of the tree. I was surprised at how fragrant the flowers are.

Here is B hosing down one of them - something she does every other day for the two weeks the blooms are opening.