Pruning time

It is February, time to get the fruit trees pruned. This is a time consuming job every year, but it is also a fun job, once you get the hang of it (and when I say “get the hang of it” I mean, develop a hermeneutic of pruning that allows you to move through each tree efficiently without agonizing over every cut.)

When you consider the amount of fruit we get per tree, and the total work hours put into every tree per month, they are far and away the most efficient crops we grow.

Evie is old enough to help this year, which is greatly appreciated, on days when she finishes her school in time to help. Here she is pruning our hollywood plum.

Our 8-year-old Japanese plum. It was supposed to be a combination plum tree, but once, while Ryan was deployed, we hired a tree company to prune it for us, and they trimmed the grafts back so far that they died, so now it has only one variety. That variety is yellow, tart at first, but sweetening to a delicious translucent honey-like flesh, right before it falls to the ground and rots or gets eaten by the squirrels. It is also, like all plums I have seen around here, incredibly vigorous at suckering.

After pruning, you can see the skeleton of the tree. It will be just as overgrown and need another haircut in July, mark my words.

We also put together our new cold frame. We now have two, twice as much space to start plants in, and, God willing, a season extender for lettuces and other greens next fall.

After a hard morning’s work, Winnie revived with some bread and butter, and her favorite show (watching cows mooing on youtube).

She’s basically a little Mini-Mommy.