For the second day in a row, the morning temperature was +16F on the back porch. The ground was covered with a frozen, crusty inch of snow until the sun grew warm enough to melt. things. April is turning out to be a pretty decent month. We’re already a quarter of the way through, and still the air is good. It’s cold and crisp. (Like a good Cosmic Crisp?) I miss March, but being outside at 45F has its attraction.
I was able to spend several hours in the BRC. That’s our multi-factorial orchard with several dozen other species growing in and around the apples. Pruning in the BRC is really about getting to know the many other plants that grow in the orchard. Some we introduced and many just introduced themselves. We want to know which ones are helpful to the apples. If the apple trees thrive, we assume we’re on the right track. If they die, that tells us something else. Listen to the trees and what they say or, if you’re tree-deaf, use your eyes. Like that old sign by the railroad tracks, “Stop, Look, Listen.”
Today was mostly about pruning blackberries. We have hundreds of canes throughout the BRC. They are the native species--not a cultivar selection--and once they found the BRC, they moved in big time. The old fruiting-canes are dead and long to be cut. The young canes are pushing six feet tall and begging to be trimmed back to a more reasonable height - like four or five feet. I move through the canes, snip, and drop the pieces to the ground. I don’t remove any of the prunings. I just cut them up and let them fall in place. They mulch the trees and act as fertilizer. (Though they aren’t too easy on our barefooted apprentices)
I also pruned back an assortment of small maples, yellow birch, white birch, sumac, and willows that inhabit the BRC. Cammy joined me towards the end of the afternoon, and we actually sawed a few large branches off the apple trees themselves. Don’t forget those apple trees. They want to be pruned too.
I read this morning that Terry Goodhue died a few weeks ago. Terry was the son of Earland Goodhue, one of my most important apple mentors. Terry was also an exceptional plant person. He lived out on North Haven Island. I would bump into him every so often. We have one of his apple discoveries growing here on the farm. That tree succumbed to borers last summer, but I saved some scionwood so I’ll topwork it next month and keep it going. Safe travels, Terry.
