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<pre>> Mike, I had already anticipated your response to my "low care" claim. I
> said in the article that Australian growers would treat this remark with
> a "hollow laugh" but I still think it is justified in the long term
> based on Mediterranean experience. There is light at the end of the
> tunnel. Here olives are considered low care - admittedly some of the
> alternatives are much more care than in Oz which makes comparison
> difficult. For example sheep in North Africa and West Asia are taken out
> to graze every day not left in the poddock to fend for themselves but
> even then compared to other tree or vine crops olives are much less
> work. Even the pruning can be postponed for a year.
>
> Cheers Brian Chatterton.

Brian,

I also should have noted that there is no established tradition of Olive
growing in our area (expect for a dozen or so trees owned by Don Francois)
and that with hindsight as to the suitability of planting in what is
regarded as a "high disease pressure" area for grapes, perhaps we should
have been expecting a few problems with the olives. However, as somebody
once said, "Life wasn't meant to be easy."

Regards.

Mike.
</pre>
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