Peaches, Lemons, and Neighbors

This morning while I was watering in the backyard, I noticed buyers who are looking at our neighbor's house which has been in the market for at least two months now.  I know that because when we came back from our trip to the Philippines last June, we were surprised at how many signs for sale have sprung up in our neighborhood.  Anyway, as normal buyers do, they evaluate and make comments about the house loudly as if none of the neighbors are listening to what they are saying.  I did not hear about what they said about the interior of the house but I heard everything they said about the backyard.  They commented about the pool and the surrounding area - how nice it is.  They though the greenery above the spa was ridiculous - not sure what they were referring to.  They liked the mature Queen palms around the yard.  And get this, they like it that the neighbors (which is us) are growing the peaches and lemons. 

We planted our trees along the fence line and although we regularly prune off the branches that hang into their yard, we also asked Steve and Melissa (Miller) to feel free to cut of any branch that they don't like from the trees.  For a good reason, they decided to let one tiny lemon branch which was loaded with fruits to remain hanging into their side of the fence.  Now that branch is at least two inches in diameter and continues to bear a lot of lemons every year.  This made me happy because they are taking advantage of our overly prolific tree - either for practical use or aesthetics as lemons can be very pretty when the fruits are yellow. 

Because we are not good at pruning, our peach tree is doing the same thing.  However, Steve prunes it on their side from time to time but only after the fruits are gone.  As of today, the tree is still loaded with fruits even after I harvested a big bag of peaches yesterday.  The branch that hangs onto their side of the fence is still fruitful. 

I hope that whoever will buy Steve and Melissa's house, that we will be good neighbors to them regardless of the trees between us.  😊