PRUNING THE ORCHARD

Pruning Polly white peach

Contrary to appearances, we haven't stopped gardening.  I just lost control of time and stopped blogging.  I will still try to catch up, at least with photos for the past growing season and the recent crazy weather.  Today the stars aligned so that we both had a little bit of time off at home, and it wasn't crazy weather.  So we tackled the orchard.  We got most of it pruned.  We probably could do a bit more on some trees and we went a bit crazy on others.  It is taking a while for us to learn what we are looking for in tree shape, and needless to say, we are still learning.  We finished pruning and fertilizing the trees and got the deer fencing back up just before the herd moved through the neighborhood.

Pruning the yellow peach tree

As we were pruning our last tree, the Arkansas black apple, we noticed what looks suspiciously like powdery mildew on the tips of the branches.  This reminded us that we are due, or overdue for spraying the orchard.  We totally forgot about that winter task.  Jim has a bit of time this weekend to get after that if we get some dry weather.

More?

We have been having a crazy winter with over two feet of snow down here at one point.  Fortunately, this was gone in a couple of weeks.  We have had wind and lots of rain as well and still more rain and snow forecast for the next 10 days.  Despite this, spring is definitely on it's way.  The bulbs are all popping up,  we have daffodils and tulips and anemones all sprouting. The days are getting noticeably longer and it's time to begin planning this year's veggie garden.  Life is good!