My Climate Change Garden

Olive trees are now a common site in UK gardens, even olive groves can be seen if you travel around the south of the country.

Probably the first commercial olive growers in England are Sarah and Stephen Nunn. Their olive grove in Sussex is flourishing and from half an acre last year they produced 200 kilograms of olives.They planted 180 trees just over two years ago in under half an acre of grass. Apart from the high-value olive crop (their delicious olives in olive oil sell at four times the price of foreign ones), they also crop early vegetables below the trees.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1246420/British-couple-growers-sell-English-olives-Italians-like-them.html

Some gardeners worry about planting olives here, wondering whether they will survive our harsh winters.Bunny Guinness, a well known garden designer reports “I have planted them in Oxfordshire, Nottinghamshire and other places which had bouts of 10.4F (-12C) and below – and even after the rigours of last winter, they still managed to hold up.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/7709990/Get-into-ol ive-groves.html

Olives are very low maintenance, lovely to look at, come in a variety of shapes and sizes and, most especially for me, bring a touch of the sunny Mediterranean to any cloudy UK summers day.

Visit these nurseries for a selection:

http://www.eastofedenplants.co.uk/olives.htm

http://www.seagravenurseries.co.uk/products/olive-trees

http://www.bigplantnursery.co.uk/olives.html