Today in the orchard
Giant Lichen Orbweaver (Araneus bicentenarius) (We Think) joined the orchard crew today.
Today Laura, Skylar and I scythed, weeded and painted neem on about 70 young trees in our next-door-neighbor’s orchard. It’s a very old and very new orchard. It was originally planted by the Jones family in the early 1900’s. (Actually, the original planting may be much older, but the remaining old trees likely date from about 1900.) The old trees are primarily Baldwin, Ben Davis and Stark. Beginning about 10 years ago, we’ve been filling in the spaces where the trees died with the old historic cultivars of central Maine. As a result, the orchard has become a mini-heritage orchard. The day was hot and dry, but the apple team sprinted into action, and by 5 PM we were done and ready to go home.
