It was a lovely,Almost a perfectApple tree. For fifty yearsOr maybe a hundredIt stood. From grace of slender youthBright-with-blossomGreen wood Pruned by hand of manTo shapely vigorReceiving the sun. Fifty or a hundred springtimesKissed by virgin beesTo fructify: In sweet-smelling scarlet curtainsRedolent of every treein Eden; In golden ooze from the combIts sweetness bringing to… Continue reading The Apple Tree
Tag: apple trees
Pruning 2026: Part 1
It is that time of year again. Spring is intermittently springing. It is February. Time to prune our trees for Summer. We started with Raspberries. Those should have been pruned in the fall, before the leaves dropped, when we could still have figured out which canes had fruited and which had not. We did the… Continue reading Pruning 2026: Part 1
More Pruning
We finally got to the second major pruning task. It was on the list for Saturday, and then again Monday and Tuesday, but we just never got to it for one reason and another. By that I mean the kids. But here we are, pruning the mini-orchard at the house. These are trees and bushes… Continue reading More Pruning
Winter Pruning, day 1
With the weather turning cold for the next week or so, we are taking advantage of it to get our winter pruning done. We started with the orchard trees we planted in 2023. Last year we pruned them in February, But did not get around to summer pruning them, which, as it turned out, was… Continue reading Winter Pruning, day 1
Orchard work
Monday and Tuesday of this week we only got about an hour each day to do any farm work, between weather and school, inside chores and runny noses. We used that brief time to get caught up on some tasks that needed doing in the orchard. The orchard, by the way, is not a separate… Continue reading Orchard work
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… Continue reading Pruning time
