01/05/2024 before dark

Before it got dark yesterday we did the winter (structural/shape) pruning on the fruit trees. The buds were fuzzy. (Summer pruning is supposed to be about reducing tree size for those of us who want the trees smaller.)
Everybody who’s a fruit tree in this picture got a haircut!
The dwarf peach tree mostly needed a few crossing branches in the middle removed. Otherwise it looked good.

04/03/2023 fruit trees before we left

Williams pride apple is blooming.
Seckel pear has started to leaf out and the Liberty apple behind it too.
I think this one is the bud on the Arkansas Black Apple. Or maybe McIntosh. I forget already. Update: Paula checked and it’s McIntosh.
Butterfly milkweed coming up in the rainbow garden!

03/19/2023 after hard overnight freeze of 20 F

Kieffer pear leaves look fine.
A lot (or all?) peach flowers look wilted. This is okay, because it is such a young tree I want it to concentrate on growing, not fruiting. it looks like the leaves are coming out okay without wilting.
The agastaches in backyard planter are fine. These just-transplanted ones are less fine, but something has been nibbling on them too (we’ll assume earwigs…). I think the front one made it but it’s hard to tell on the back one because it was mostly chewed up.

12/10/2022 finally turning

The greens are doing well.
Seedlings are in the raised bed but I’m not sure what they are. Hoping for field violets?
The apple trees still are mostly green but one pear tree is turning. The three pictures below of leaves turning yellow and orange are from the one pear tree in front.
Later we walked the dog at Saxon park. Lots of rabbit’s tobacco sprouting.

Dwarf fruit grove additions

Quality assurance inspector
Paula found a loofah deep underground while digging one hole. How?? Why????
Four new trees all dwarf or semi dwarf: Liberty apple, Seckel pear, Kieffer Pear, and McIntosh Apple. We’re supposed to be on the edge of conditions for those apple varieties but with three other well adapted types already planted last year, I figured why not try. I really love McIntosh and they’re so rare around here.