The following photo of almonds on a tree is shown on the Gardeners Path website.

While in the last week of July the buds on my one year old dwarf almond tree threatened to burst open, they waited until the first week of August to flower. This was my first fruit tree to blossom this year, and before Spring had officially sprung!

Two weeks later the flowers were full blown, had attracted local bees and some petals were beginning to fall.

I look forward to future crops of home grown almonds for their health benefits. Almonds are a normal almost every day permanent food source for me. Therefore it will be particularly satisfying to have my own and to know how they have been grown.

My understanding is that almonds are not self-fertile and that therefore I should be growing two trees for cross pollination. I do not have two almond trees and now hope that somewhere in the neighbourhood another almond tree grows so that the same bees can buzz in both trees.

Regardless and meanwhile, I need to follow the advice of Yates and ‘Water regularly and deeply during the growing, flowering and fruiting season – usually from spring to autumn. While they’re drought tolerant, trees produce more almonds when they are well-watered.’ However gardeningknowhow alerts me to the fact that ‘…it’s helpful to know that the trees don’t tolerate overly wet soil…’ Thankfully my tree is located on a slight slope and therefore should be well drained naturally.

Hopefully this will be a successful season with at least a few almonds forming. I will keep you posted.