How to Grow Avocado by Martin Porter

“I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do” O Pioneers – Willa Cather Choose your sapling carefully. If planting bare rooted, Ensure the roots can spread In an elegant fan, else Dig a pit just deep enough, But not too deep, To take the root ball, Gently guide The root tips downward to ensure A good, firm anchor. They say it takes Seven summers For this tender tree To mature. That’s not Too long to wait. Rich, oily fleshed and puckered Dark skinned fruit Worth waiting for Weigh down its broad leaved Reaching branches, So vigorous I have to prune it To perhaps three Or four times my own height, Or reduce it by the Careful grafting of its leg Onto another foot. And at its centre The polished nut, Seems almost systole, pumping Future sap in woody veins to Wrinkled skin on sunburnt lips, or Palms of a gardener’s hands. I lean on one leg on my spade And wonder “Should I Dig this pit through The midpoint of the Earth And out the other side? But here, the air Is much too warm, The soil too rich, To lose, by just one Careless footfall Slipping gently To cold winter, Rotting windfalls.

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