Caring for your olive tree

Olive trees, like most trees that do well here in the desert, require very little water and very little maintenance. They are not deciduous, that is, they don't lose their leaves in the fall, but they tend to shed all year. I use the leaves as mulch, as you can see in the photo. Olive trees are unaffected by the hottest and coldest weather we get here, and just look great all of the time. In fact, they are so dependable that many times people don't even see them. But I see them, and to me everything about them is wonderful, including their blue-green leaves and their wonderful sculptural trunks and branches.

There are two things that you need to do to keep olive trees looking their best - spray a fruit stop in the spring (when the flowers appear) and trim the suckers regularly. Suckers are the leaves and branches that start growing up from the base of the tree. I've seen people try to deal with it by trimming a little "apron" of leaves at the base, and to me, that look ridiculous. These trees have a majestic dignity in their trunks, and having a little "pom pom" there is terrible.

The easiest way to deal with the suckers is to clip them off as you see them form. The correct tool for this is a small, inexpensive wood chisel. I just bought three today at Lowe's in a set that cost about ten bucks. I will leave one on a table in the back yard so I can just grab it and easily trim the suckers off.