Spring seems to be "that time of year" for lots of things - planting, cleaning, fixing....and the past few days have revolved around fruit tree pruning.
I was extraordinarily pregnant at this time last year and so springtime pruning of our apple and pear trees fell by the wayside. As such, our trees really need a good trim this year. It's amazing what a difference missing a year can make - there was so much to cut back!
 |
| Our pile of sticks from pruning. Too bad there's a burn ban on! |
While we are hardly expert pruners, we focus mostly on removing damaged or dead branches, beheading the very tall branches and cleaning out any small branches that are growing into the middle of the tree or crisscrossing with others. Our cardinal rule for pruning is that a bird should be able to fly through the middle of the tree. There needs to be room to allow good air circulation and for the sunshine to get in to fruit at the centre of the tree.
 |
| See? A bird could fly straight through! |
I must admit; however, that farm chores like tree pruning take
much longer when you have a baby than they ever did before. Three days to trim our orchard?! Thank goodness Liam is a reliable napper or nothing would get done at all. I'm not sure how we will ever get through our spring To Do List at this rate. I have not even begun to prune the grape vines - sadly, that is a job for another day.
 |
| Coop Apple Tree: Before |
 |
| Coop Apple Tree: After |
No comments:
Post a Comment